Meadings / tastings

Whaitiri
Bit of a mystery because it's made from a New Zealand tea containing ginger, lemongrass and kawakawa, and we don't know what that tastes like. I really wish I'd thought to save a little tea to drink in comparison!
Mead has good sweetness, not much lemongrass, ginger-warmth without much ginger taste. Hint of pepper. We don't really know what kawakawa is or does but this mead turned out quite nice. Sess is a fan
Added yeast stop and bentonite. When it's clear it's ready to bottle

Xanthe
The pine tip mead!
Rejoice, rejoice, the bitterness is gone! Good sweetness. Tastes of pine forest not pine sap. Very nice and rounded. Fascinating. I might take this to wasteland purely for the interest factor.
Added yeast stop and bentonite. When it's clear it's ready to bottle

Yaffe
The Lapsang Souchon mead.
Ohhhh very smokey nose on this, maybe even a bit much. This is good lapsang, good sweetness. I think the orange zest rounded out the back end with a hint of fresh.
Was previously yeast stopped, newly added bentonite. When it's clear it's ready to bottle

Bronwyn
Coffee bochet. Clear and dark. Ohh coffee. Taste has balanced out.  No more heavy acidity. Doesn't really taste like mead though, or even particularly like wine. More like watered down Tia Maria. Or sweetened watered down cold brew. I don't hate it but it doesn't taste anything like wine.
I think I'll put some vanilla pods in there in the hope the pods leave enough tannin. Possibly more Oak extract if the pods don't do enough

Calliope
Cacao bochet. Sweetness is good now. Some chocolate but at this time the bochet flavour (with acidity) has taken over. Time time time. I am hoping to bring this to Wasteland in 2023, let's hope it's aged enough by then.
Was previously yeast stopped, added bentonite. When it's clear it's ready to bottle and be put away for a long long time.
 

I didn't really do anything with the mead I just racked

 Calliope (cacao bochet)

What with big renovation and all, this stayed in the bucket far longer than intended. Finally racked it and it's acidic as fuck, but there's more chocolate taste to it than anything made with nibs has ever given me, so there's hope. There's no headroom to add honey right now so I figure I'm letting it clear more first. 

 

Bronwyn (Coffee bochet)

Heavy sweet coffee, drinkable but kind of on the oversweet side. Not quite sure yet how to fix that. Oak extract?

Zaqar 

Previously backsweetened with ~450 gr thyme honey. Not a very distint flavour unfortunately but otherwise drinkable. I could make this one fizzy? 

Aella: 

backsweetened with 900 gr rosemary honey. Not as distinct a rosemary flavour as all-rosemary-honey attempts have been, but pretty good, and drinkable.  

Fennah II: 

Just acceptable plain mead right now. Gonna add fresh mint  

 

Whaitiri

tea with ginger, lemongrass and Kawakawa.

Xanthe (pine tips)

This one is tricky, I think the sweetness is right, there is pineyness, but man that bitter slash isn't gone. I added some pine honey, even though that is definitely not the same. I might be stuck adding honey and acidity until this loses that note. I hope the nose doesn't disappear though.

Yaffe  (lapsang souchon tea)
Smokey! Pretty nice? Good nose and front end, a bit meh on the back end. Thought a fresh note might help and added a tiny bit of orange zest

 

Vercopa

10 liter blackberry mead 

 This is surprisingly light. I think it might be nice fizzy, but I don't know if I'll get enough fermentation kicked off to get it carbonated

 

Rackings

 Some of these have been standing on my dining room table forever, hoping they would clear. A friend came to work on his own meads and that got me to get a move on all of my backlog. 

New ambition is to REALLY fine my meads beyond 'looks pretty clear' - I hate thinking I'm bottling something that's clear and then finding a bunch of sediment in the bottles half a year later.

Ode

Apple-strawberry. Fresh-sweet. nice but could use some tannin.

added ~15ml mellow oak extract  

Even with the superklar 24hr fining this is still a little hazy. Flavourwise ready to bottle.

Moragh 2

(subtle) Coffee mead 

very sweet. I do get coffee. Not bad but not moorish

Fined and ready to bottle.  

Not sure what this lacks flavourwise. Tannin or acid? I could try oak...? ....salt?

Quasi

Lemon zest and thyme honey 

champagne yeast not a success. Good scent, not a great taste imo. not very lemony or thymey

added yeast stop, 20ml yuzu juice, 200gr thyme honey

Fined and ready to bottle 

MEDEdeling

Mack's Hack42 mead. This is very light in colour. 

Fined and ready to bottle, but waiting for Mack to come and do that.  

vercopa

10 liter blackberry mead 

starting sg 1130

sg 1000

...no notes, that's helpful. I assume I backsweetened this. Maybe even stopped it, who knows.

All Rise Up Again

5 gallon quince bochet

very acidic! Applestroop Taste is coming, sweetness good? still gassy

5 gallon

1026 sg

17%

Added stopper

Fining added, clearing. I was hoping to bottle this weekend but the clarity is very hard to assess in such a big vessel.  

Whaitiri

tea with ginger, lemongrass and Kawakawa.

Interesting flavours - I'm not getting the ginger, but it was definitely kind of grassy.

1004

~17%

Added 500 gr honey

Whaitiri

 Whaitiri (the personification of thunder)

A friend sent me a cheering care package from New Zealand and included a local tea, so I could brew with it. It was this tea with ginger, lemongrass and Kawakawa. 

2 kilos honey

mead yeast