Alexis update
I've just returned from a few days abroad and noticed that Alexis has slowed down almost completely - bubbles happening once every 5 minutes at most. I guess that means it's done, or near as - I will consult the book tomorrow to see if it's clearing and bottling time or if I should give it some more time. It is quite exciting to finally get to this stage!
More racking
Yesterday it looked like the B, C and D batches were about due a racking. Drake dropped an enormous amount of sediment sludge in the few days it was in a demi, and seemed to be fermenting robustly enough that I figured it'd be okay racking it so soon.
They've since all started bubbling again. And.. Drake has dropped more sediment, almost looks like I didn't take anything out at all.
They've since all started bubbling again. And.. Drake has dropped more sediment, almost looks like I didn't take anything out at all.
Moving Notice
Last time I had the bucket fermenter (home of Drake) open the strawberries were looking pretty pale (and, to be honest, disgusting). I figured it was about time to re-home Drake to a nice glass demi.
My auto-siphon is a godsent (not regretting that expense at ALL) because it went without a drop (of sticky smelly protomead) spilled. I made a little more than 5 litre so I just discarded the last bit with the strawberries and dead yeast and still have a nice demi full.
I wasn't sure if the strawberries had coloured it at all until I saw it in the demi - lovely reddish blush in there. It's already bubbling away like there's no tomorrow.
Bored now
I knew this was coming! I have four batches bubbling away, so now... I wait. Not my strongest point! I have capacity for a 10 l batch but right now I want to see how the first batches turn out before I go anywhere near a large batch.
The next batch is going to be called Ehle and I think that will be a summer honey (the good stuff, no more supermarket honey) with mint leaves. But I'm not allowing myself to start it before Alexis is bottled. Impatience, I has it.
The next batch is going to be called Ehle and I think that will be a summer honey (the good stuff, no more supermarket honey) with mint leaves. But I'm not allowing myself to start it before Alexis is bottled. Impatience, I has it.
Drake
I drove down to the orchard outside town and bought 1.5 kg gorgeous strawberries. They made the car smell soooo good. (Oh, also half a kilo cherries for boozemaking, see other post)
The D batch is called Drake *. It's a strawberry melomel that's currently sitting in a plastic fermenter. Made it with supermarket honey and aforementioned really nice strawberries. First time I used yeast activator, which is supposed to kick it off, but so far hasn't. Only been a few hours though. Will see how it's doing tomorrow.
Using the plastic bucket fermenter for ease of getting the fruit out later, but damn it's annoying to not be able to see into it! I like the glass demi's much better, it's fascinating to watch what's happening in there.
*) a naming reference that only works if you're Dutch/English bilingual. And me.
The D batch is called Drake *. It's a strawberry melomel that's currently sitting in a plastic fermenter. Made it with supermarket honey and aforementioned really nice strawberries. First time I used yeast activator, which is supposed to kick it off, but so far hasn't. Only been a few hours though. Will see how it's doing tomorrow.
Using the plastic bucket fermenter for ease of getting the fruit out later, but damn it's annoying to not be able to see into it! I like the glass demi's much better, it's fascinating to watch what's happening in there.
*) a naming reference that only works if you're Dutch/English bilingual. And me.
Boozemaking - Euphoria
Something non fermenting today. In the book about meadmaking is also this recipe, and when I had extra fruit I figured it'd be a nice surprise for myself in the autumn.
Plus, I've picked up these nice litre bottles in Ikea yesterday :-)
It's fruit (one cherry, one strawberry), sugar and vodka - should be nice in about 4 months. I've given it labels which say "Do not open before graduation" as I hope to graduate uni in October and it'd be a nice treat!
Caelan de-berried
A few more supplies arrived; new siphon* , a straining cloth and some more cleaning agent (love the active oxigen stuff but it does go pretty fast)
Now I had the straining cloth I could take Caelan off the berries. Since I didn't see a way to siphon it off without getting the siphon horribly clogged with berry pulp, I settled for gently pouring it into the cloth-wrapped funnel. Don't know if the aereation has done it harm, but it's already bubbling again a few hours later.
Sadly the new siphon does mean that one of the 5l demi's isn't useable because the neck is too narrow to fit the siphon into. I only intend to have 4 small batches going at one time (and 1 10l batch) so I'll always have a free demi to rack to, but it would have been handy to have an extra so I can use a demi to let stuff age. Ah well.
Tomorrow I think I shall go on an expedition for fresh strawberries. The farms are selling them in stalls along the road at the moment.
*) I know just a bit of hose will do, but I am not the most well coordinated person in the world and one mouth full of yeasty honey water was enough for a lifetime. This one is more practically sized and also has a much nicer pump-start system that does not aereate the proto-mead.
Now I had the straining cloth I could take Caelan off the berries. Since I didn't see a way to siphon it off without getting the siphon horribly clogged with berry pulp, I settled for gently pouring it into the cloth-wrapped funnel. Don't know if the aereation has done it harm, but it's already bubbling again a few hours later.
Sadly the new siphon does mean that one of the 5l demi's isn't useable because the neck is too narrow to fit the siphon into. I only intend to have 4 small batches going at one time (and 1 10l batch) so I'll always have a free demi to rack to, but it would have been handy to have an extra so I can use a demi to let stuff age. Ah well.
Tomorrow I think I shall go on an expedition for fresh strawberries. The farms are selling them in stalls along the road at the moment.
*) I know just a bit of hose will do, but I am not the most well coordinated person in the world and one mouth full of yeasty honey water was enough for a lifetime. This one is more practically sized and also has a much nicer pump-start system that does not aereate the proto-mead.
Bubblings!
- Alexis has picked up since the transfer - about 20 seconds interval now. So not dead, but slowed down a bit. Hopefully it'll pick up further.
- Brynn about 3 seconds, fizzing away like crazy
- Caelan about 4 seconds - and the berries have become a foaming mass that's sitting a lot higher than they did before the yeast beasties started doing their thing. Kind of fascinating to see.
Siphoning
The last stuff from the supply shop finally arrived; including the siphon.
Alexis had almost a cm of sediment on the bottom so after some practising the whole business with water a few times I transferred the batch to a new demi.
Not sure if I did good or if I should have waited longer - it was still bubbling fairly heavily (once about every 6 sec) and now in the new vessel it's slowed down almost to a halt. Is the yeast now going "Whoa, WTF?" and will it have bounced back by morning? Or have I killed it... fuckup or impatience - time will tell.
Alexis had almost a cm of sediment on the bottom so after some practising the whole business with water a few times I transferred the batch to a new demi.
Not sure if I did good or if I should have waited longer - it was still bubbling fairly heavily (once about every 6 sec) and now in the new vessel it's slowed down almost to a halt. Is the yeast now going "Whoa, WTF?" and will it have bounced back by morning? Or have I killed it... fuckup or impatience - time will tell.
Introducing..
Brynn:
This is the nice Springbalsemien honey I still had. Should be a sweet sackmead, and in theory not much different from Alexis. The honey is different, but apart from that the only difference is that I made an overnight yeast starter for this one. Oh wait, and I didn't heat it. The book I'm reading (The Compleat Meadmaker by Ken Schramm) suggests that there is not usually a problem with that, and that unheated meads also taste better earlier. We'll see.
This honey was a little thicker than the one I used for Alexis, and seems to sink to the bottom a little. I have mixed and shaken well, but it's still seeming darker in the bottom half. Hope that doesn't affect things too much. Ah well.
Caelan:
Supermarket honey and 400 gr of frozen blueberries. I wanted fresh but they were prohibitly expensive, and I'm still way too much in the experimental stage to want to spend that amount of money on ingredients.
(remind me that I said that when I start talking about buying cool things like Eucalyptus and Heath honey..)
It got darker than I expected (I don't know, of course it did. must have had a brainfart) and I'm not sure if I like that it'll probably look more like normal wine - or grape juice - than mead. Will have to wait until I can taste it to judge if it's worth it. Raspberry and strawberry are apparently popular because they'll give a more subtle colour and taste effect. Since it's strawberry time I may start up one more batch - then I'll sit on my hands for a while and wait until I've got Alexis bottled before I start any more :-)
Now the eager staring at the waterlocks to detect any bubbling has started...
Moar!
Bit of an update... I am still waiting for the other plugs to close off a demijohn with a fermentation lock in it. The shop only sent me one and has been dragging its feet over sending me the rest. I'd been waiting for that to set up the next two batches.
Today however I drove down to Schaijk and bought the best part of an old hobbyist's brewing gear. He'd made wine about 25-20 years ago but never had much success (self identified as 'Fermentation kept stopping and I kept adding more yeast to make it go' !)
I got two 5 liter and 2 10 liter demi's, which brings me to a very nice capacity - I will probably only set up one 10l at a time and keep the other one for racking into. He had two very beautiful larger demi's - he thought 25 liter, but he thought the 10s were 15, so they were probably 15 or 20s. I was tempted but there's just no way I can physically handle that sort of weight.
Also got a bunch of old waterlocks (trying to get them clean now, which is a pain!) and corks and a corker. And we chatted a while. He gave me a good deal on the stuff and I offered that if he's ever near my hometown, he drop by and I'll give him a bottle.
Have made a yeast starter ("Brain in a bottle") to start off a new batch tomorrow. This'll be another normal mead, because I still have the very nice Springbalsemien honey.
I also bought some reasonable supermarket honey that wouldn't be dramatic if I ruined it, so with that I think I'll try one with fruit. Blueberries? Strawberries? There are just so many options. Maybe I'll do one with fresh mint leaves, that sounds like it could be interesting.
Today however I drove down to Schaijk and bought the best part of an old hobbyist's brewing gear. He'd made wine about 25-20 years ago but never had much success (self identified as 'Fermentation kept stopping and I kept adding more yeast to make it go' !)
I got two 5 liter and 2 10 liter demi's, which brings me to a very nice capacity - I will probably only set up one 10l at a time and keep the other one for racking into. He had two very beautiful larger demi's - he thought 25 liter, but he thought the 10s were 15, so they were probably 15 or 20s. I was tempted but there's just no way I can physically handle that sort of weight.
Also got a bunch of old waterlocks (trying to get them clean now, which is a pain!) and corks and a corker. And we chatted a while. He gave me a good deal on the stuff and I offered that if he's ever near my hometown, he drop by and I'll give him a bottle.
Have made a yeast starter ("Brain in a bottle") to start off a new batch tomorrow. This'll be another normal mead, because I still have the very nice Springbalsemien honey.
I also bought some reasonable supermarket honey that wouldn't be dramatic if I ruined it, so with that I think I'll try one with fruit. Blueberries? Strawberries? There are just so many options. Maybe I'll do one with fresh mint leaves, that sounds like it could be interesting.
Patience, Padawan
Alexis did indeed start bubbling overnight, and has been happily glupping away ever since at about 5 seconds per bubble. It simply took until the morning for the yeast to recover from the shock, groggily ask "Where am I? What happened?" and start feasting on the sugar.
Patience is not my strongest point. I think it'll be the hardest part of mead brewing for me. It'll take around 2 months (give or take) until fermentation is finished and I can taste it for the first time; and more likely than not, it'll not be very nice then and will need further aging in the bottle to become tasty.
My usual style with doing anything new is to do a test, see how it turns out, then base further attempts on what I learned. But mead takes so long that that isn't really practical. So I am going to start a few more batches with different honeys, and just have to hope it doesn't come out as battery acid!
Patience is not my strongest point. I think it'll be the hardest part of mead brewing for me. It'll take around 2 months (give or take) until fermentation is finished and I can taste it for the first time; and more likely than not, it'll not be very nice then and will need further aging in the bottle to become tasty.
My usual style with doing anything new is to do a test, see how it turns out, then base further attempts on what I learned. But mead takes so long that that isn't really practical. So I am going to start a few more batches with different honeys, and just have to hope it doesn't come out as battery acid!
Alexis
I started my first batch of mead today, and it's called Alexis. *
I had real trouble getting the yeast starter to get going and it never did so convincingly. Consequently after I've added it to the protomead and put it in a demijohn, it's unenthusiastic to say the least. As I write this I've had it standing for at least 5 hours (warm side of room temp and dark) and it's not bubbled once. There's not even a head on it apart from some leftover foam from funnelling it in. I hope it'll start overnight.
*) Why Alexis and not 1 or A?
1) "Yeast is a beast". So as far as I'm concerned, a batch is a living creature.
2) I need a way to refer to individual batches
3) I think numbers are boring
4) I just felt like it
5) there is no 5
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
