The Bottling

Sess came to help me and we bottled 40 liters of mead. Go us! My basement storage is suddenly full again.

Hild - 5L - bochet

SG 1040
Alc 15%

Very dark and beautiful colour. Good sweetness with enough complexity. Fruity caramel aftertaste.

bottles:
4 x 0.75
1  x 0.5
3 x 0.33
1 x 0.25

June - 10L - Cacao/Maple

SG 1034
Alc ~19? I think that's probably not right.

Beautiful dark red-brown colour. Currently not tasting the maple.  Right now it has that 90% cacao chocolate aftertaste - the acidity needs to mellow out and then I think this will be wonderful. I might try a little bottle by Christmas, but I think this needs at least a year. It tastes of potential, so I have hope and will make patience.

Bottles:
1 x 1L
8 x 0.75
2 x 0.5
5 x 0.33

Edain - 5L - Lemon Vanille

SG 1052
Alc 17%

Surprisingly not acidic at all - the tannin must have done its job slowly. I wish I had waited to backsweeten until I'd given the tannin some time because I would have liked this better a touch less sweet. It's a little on the over-sweet for me now, the vanilla comes out more and surprisingly the lemon mellowed way down. It's unexpectedly flowery with lemon aftertaste. Very summery.

Dale - 5L - pomegranate and vanille

 SG 1052
Alc ~20%? I don't think that's right

Same thing as with Edain - the tannin must have done more than expected, because the acidity is way down and it's lost that typical sour-dry-bitter mouthfeel.  Very sweet (a bit too much, again) fruity, very drinkable.

Idria (Gaia + Idris) - 13 liter - apple bochet

SG 1030
Alc 13%

Beautiful deep dark colour. And oh, this is GOOD. There's a bit of appelstroop to it, caramellisation is noticeable but not overpowering. Sweetness is just right. Very very drinkable and I'm excited to have 13 liter of it. 

Bottles:
4 x 1L
8 x 0.75
1 x 0.5
8 x 0.33

Change of plans

Dale: pomegranate
SG: 1038.
Alcohol: 19%
Honestly,  this one has to be among my most frustrating batches. It's sweet enough, but also very, very tart, and it has the kind of wry-bitter aftertaste that reminds me of sweetened cranberry juice. It is beautifully clear and ready to bottle, but it is Not Good and I am out of ideas. Unless somebody on r/mead has a clever suggestion I am considering offering this one up to the still.


 Edain: lemon & vanille mead
 SG 1030
Alchol 15%
This tastes of potential, but just a bit too tart for pleasant drinking. Also still a big pectin haze.
Mixed in the ~500 ml very dry mead I had made (though was planned for Gaia). Added 250 gr honey and yeast stop.
Theory is that the dry addition would dilute both the acidity and the sugar level to a good acidity level, and I could then sweeten it again to drinkablility. Let's see how that turns out.

June: bochet with cacao nibs + maple syrup
Should have added that yeast stop. Fermented to 1022 and 17% - the nibs give a type of acidity that I know ages out eventually. I  sweetened it with 400 gr maple syrup, added yeast stop, and once it's clear enough it goes to bottle for a long rest.

Hild: bochet + maple syrup
SG 1042, Alcohol 13%

The plan was to add maple syrup to Hild, but the sweetness is perfect and the taste honestly pretty damn good, so I added yeast stop and bentonite and it'll be ready to bottle with some more de-gassing.

Instead I added the maple syrup to June, which needed the sugar

Hild, Idris

Hild
5 liter bochet, maple syrup to be added later
2 kg honey caramellised to fairly dark brown
Port yeast [note: added sherry yeast the next day because it wasn't starting up and I was concerned about it going bad]

Idris
10 liter bochet with homemade apple juice
2.5 kilo honey caramellised to fairly dark brown
8 liter apple juice
~1.5 liter water
Mead yeast

Little concerned I made this one too sugar-heavy for the yeast to kick off, just like with Gaia, but the yeast was also really old, so probably the first step if it won't start should be ordering fresh yeast

An online tip to remember - if the caramel taste isn't sufficient by the time it's finished secondary, apparently toasted raisins or dates can help a lot.