Wasteland Mead Contest!

Bottles I brought with me this year were Lane (Ginger-apple-hibiscus) and Chai (Bengal Spice).  Both very popular with the judges and the crowd. I won the judges choice award for.. I think it was Chai.

The categories this year were Traditional, Melomel and Unique / other. The latter being by far the busiest, and there were almost no traditional entries. I might try for that next year? One of the judges encouraged me. It kind of depends on if they're looking for typical meads ('the meadiest mead' like in the first year) or if they're open to 'that's a cool thing you did with just water, honey and yeast'.

If the second, I should really make another with thyme or sage honey - both those turned out great before. Or give rosemary honey a try. I can't quite remember why I didn't try that initially. 

For ref: Undine - thyme / Veritas - Sage / Wuluwaid - Eucalyptus

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.

Lane

Lane - the 2.8 demijohn
1 kilo honey (lidl)
Steeped tea of 8 bags of ginger-hibiscus-apple tea
The new brand mead yeast (Mangrove Jack's) - then standard brand sherry/mead yeast.
Yeast activator
little bit of pecto-enzyme 1

I'm beginning to think that Mangrove Jack's yeast just isn't much good, that was the stuff I couldn't get the Kearney batch started on either and it wasn't doing anything in the starter I made to prep for this batch. Added the sherry yeast and they can battle it out in there.
Was curious what that tea would do and this demijohn was standing empty in my kitchen. Hibiscus should give a nice colour.


I put Edain (lemon) and Dale (pomegranate) in the fridge to cold crash. Dale has been clearing slowly but Edain is still hazy as hell, so I hope this will help.