Bottlings - Noon & Kearney

Noon - fig mead

Bottled at SG 1020 and ~16% vol
On the dry side of sweet, fruity, nice balance

5 big bottles and 3 small ones

Kearney - Bengal Spice & Cacao

SG 1032 and ~16% vol
The spice is there, the cacao is distant. It might age more forward, but it's pretty nice already.

4 big bottles and 2 small ones

Rackings

Seraph (date syrup)
1010 / 17%
Sharp. I don't know what to think. Let's age it and see what happens

Tai
1000 / 17%
Added 500gr honey

Ruby
1000 / 16%
Added 650 gr honey
Not very nice, but orangey, so we'll see what that ages into

Noon - fig
1022 / 18%
Tastes 'winey'. Nice. Yeast-stopped

Paloma - raspberry
1000 / 17%
Obviously dry/acicidic
This might be a good one to make carbonated wine with?

Kearney
1030
Spicy, the cacao is still acidic. This is gonna need time.
Bentonite to clear it

Racking

Lane - ginger/apple/hibiscus tea

SG 1032
18%

Smells amazing - appley! Tasting both the apple and ginger, not sure if I get the hibiscus. good sweetness. Aftertaste is a bit hot. Currently in the fridge to cold crash.

Wait, did I put yeast stop in this? I've been thinking about doing a carbonated batch and this would work for it. Shit, my notes don't say. Though even if I didn't, I think this is too fermented out to get going again. Might try it a second time with this tea though, I like the result.

Moragh - coffee

SG 1012
19% ?
Was a bit scared to try this but it's not bad. Mostly dry. Smells of coffee for sure. Taste is a bit acidic from the coffee and maybe I just don't like black coffee... but meh. Added yeast stop + 125 gr honey, cold crashing it. IDK if I'll ever want to drink this. Maybe if I age it?

Noon - fig

SG 0.999
17%
+350 gr honey to SG 1022
No taste notes. Kinda too early to tell anyway.

Kearney - cacao + bengal spice 

SG 1030
17%
Oh this smells SO GOOD. Taste is more mellow than the peppery hit of Chai, but very nice. Wish there was a more pronounced cacao flavour but I think it's there. More nibs for the big batch I plan to make (10L). Or make cacao nib tea?

Added yeast stop & bentonite

Ode - strawberry & apple

SG 0.999
14/15% alc

+ 275 gr honey & yeast stop
No taste notes. Kinda too early and too dry to tell anyway.

Lane, Kearney, moragh

The three that are still in fermentation stages!

Lane (Hibiscus/apple/ginger tea)
Very dry - 1004. Sweetened up to ~1030
Alcohol ~17% (disclaimer: I've recently been informed that The Math says my alcohol meter is wrong and the level can't be that high, but it's all I have as indication, so eh)
I feel like this could be more tea-ish but I'm hesitant to add teabags into a carboy for fear of never getting them out again. So not sure what to do with that


Kearney (Bengal tea & cacao nibs)
Bone dry - 1002. Sweetened up to ~1032
Alcohol ~17%
This is on course for Bengal tea mead, though less peppery than the previous version. Sadly I'm not getting the cacao. Not entirely surprising as I recycled these nibs from making cacao vodka, so they'd probably lost their potency. Will need to retry with that.

Moragh (coffee mead)
Thought about racking but it is weirdly enough STILL bubbling so I left it alone.

Kearney

I made the two Kearney batches into one, since I had a 5l carboy free. Measured it while I was at it.

SG: 1032 (bang on where I like it for sweetness)
Alc: ~12%

It didn't taste half bad, the spice tea is distinct, but it's still very yeasty and 'working'. I added 250 gr honey because it's going to ferment a little further than it is now so I'd have to backsweeten anyway.

Kearney

Note to self: the size of this brown-glass carboy is, for reasons I do not understand, approx 2.8 liters

Kearney (~2.7 liters)

8 bags of Bengal tea (a known success) steeped to the max
1 kilo honey
mead yeast

to be put on cacao nibs in secondary