Mead Journal: Blueberry and Strawberry
Jul. 4th, 2008 12:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrix4bOk, On July Second, I raked both the blueberry mead and strawberry mead. My wife was wonderful enough to get me some more honey as both of the meads had dried out like crazy. So I thought that I would sweeten them up a bit with more honey to make them drinkable.
So I went about my plan, put 1 gallon of water in with 8 pounds of honey and warmed up to kill off the stray yeast so it wouldn't start fermenting again. So I also thought it was a good idea to put a bit more strawberry into the strawberry mead. I used a blender to puree the strawberries about 2 pounds, bit of a mistake in retrospect, should have just diced them and bagged them. But I had advise for the next time I made the strawberry mead to cook it like you do preserves to get a better even flavor. Though I would try it. Tossed the puree strawberries, once through a screen to get some of the pulp out. It didn't work. But I put it all in before I seperated out the honeywater out into two batches to rack onto the two seperate meads seperately. But I forgot. So the blubery mead is going to have 1 pound of strawberries to flavor it's six gallon batch.
Both batches racked onto the honeywater/strawberry mix. The mead prior tasted a bit like vinegar. I hope that this salvages the flavor.
Ah, well.
The Watermellon mead isn't due to be racked until mid July and the same for the lime mead. Both batches look to be good. I could get away with racking the Lime now. But I will wait. Not sure about the watermellon because it is not in a clear container. The watermellon may prove to be a subtle flavor. It might need sweetning. First racking of the watermellon still had a lot of bits in the mix and didn't seem sweet or dry. Both he Lime and the watermellon may turn out better than the Strawberry and Blueberry/strawberry.
Oh, mental note. When I do peach mead, Peach season here seems to be near the 4th of july. I am seeing a LOT of peaches in the store receintly. I will have to remember. I think that I have resolved to do flavoring in the secondary now due to the possiblity of the mead drying way the hell out when I add fruit. Not sure what to do on the pumpkin one in the fall.
So I went about my plan, put 1 gallon of water in with 8 pounds of honey and warmed up to kill off the stray yeast so it wouldn't start fermenting again. So I also thought it was a good idea to put a bit more strawberry into the strawberry mead. I used a blender to puree the strawberries about 2 pounds, bit of a mistake in retrospect, should have just diced them and bagged them. But I had advise for the next time I made the strawberry mead to cook it like you do preserves to get a better even flavor. Though I would try it. Tossed the puree strawberries, once through a screen to get some of the pulp out. It didn't work. But I put it all in before I seperated out the honeywater out into two batches to rack onto the two seperate meads seperately. But I forgot. So the blubery mead is going to have 1 pound of strawberries to flavor it's six gallon batch.
Both batches racked onto the honeywater/strawberry mix. The mead prior tasted a bit like vinegar. I hope that this salvages the flavor.
Ah, well.
The Watermellon mead isn't due to be racked until mid July and the same for the lime mead. Both batches look to be good. I could get away with racking the Lime now. But I will wait. Not sure about the watermellon because it is not in a clear container. The watermellon may prove to be a subtle flavor. It might need sweetning. First racking of the watermellon still had a lot of bits in the mix and didn't seem sweet or dry. Both he Lime and the watermellon may turn out better than the Strawberry and Blueberry/strawberry.
Oh, mental note. When I do peach mead, Peach season here seems to be near the 4th of july. I am seeing a LOT of peaches in the store receintly. I will have to remember. I think that I have resolved to do flavoring in the secondary now due to the possiblity of the mead drying way the hell out when I add fruit. Not sure what to do on the pumpkin one in the fall.