![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Ok, I have them all going, I just finised taking the vanilla beans and Almonds out of the Vanilla Almond. I did'n't loose as much volume as I thought. Which is good. It all lives in one carboy. No spare space. It is still rather opaque. Looks good, got a good color and a good feel. I have a very good feeling about this one but I sense that it is going to take a while to age. I would say at least 6 months after bottling.
Hey, Carinsmith: How long did you age that Sparkling Vanilla clove you shared with me a long time ago?
On the Pear Nutmeg, I put it all together, one cracked whole nutmeg and 24 pears worth of juice, should be about 12 pounds. After all my efforts to extract all the juice that I can out if it, I came about 1 cup shy of a full gallon. Not too bad. The pulp did taste very good pear too. I racked it onto of the juice and the nutmeg in my 6 gallon glass carboy.
The pumpkin spice looks like it will be another one to age too. There may have been more juice than I though in the 2 pumpkin pie pumpkins. After racking and straining out the bag of the meat, I think that about 40% of the pumpkin disintegrated. Making about 1 pumpkin's worth of left over. Strained the bag in my brew pot and dumped it and then strained it again. It was very quishy with it a bit harder on the top. I was very woried that I would end up with a LOT of mashed up pulp. I also had in a seperate bag the 1/2 a nutmeg nut, crushed, 2 2inch sticks of cinnomin, and 1 vanilla bean. I was torn between 1/2 a vanilla bean and a whole. I think it was a good Idea to do the whole. I think that this one will have a good mouth feel.
We shall see.
Next up is 2 batches of my strait rockbitter brew, I just need to clean the carboy's first, buy 4 packets of yeast and get some more yeast energizer. Then clean and sanitize everything and load up the honey. My wife wants me to make them but it is my inclination to just make some more flavored brew. I should have all carboys free for the spring batches, Hmm, strawberry vanilla, orange vanilla, cherry vanilla or cherry lime. Ok, I have the great vanilla and am on a vanilla kick. It just goes great with the other flavors. Need to find out what the spring fruits are again. Then later in the fall a white cranberry? Need to check my log here to see what I was origionally wanting to make, I know a Peach was one on the list. Hmm, Don't want to do a peach ginger, Peach Nutmeg? Peach Vanilla? Oh, perhapse a peach allspice. Oh, And I must see about doing a lime/pinapple/mint. So many choices, so litle carboys and honey. And not to mention Honey.
Well, at a freinds request, I figgured out how much it costs for my mead. The Rockbitter doesn't come out too bad now that I got the prices down to about $1.70 a pound for honey. And if I keep my budget for fruit down to less than $25 for what is needed for a batch then the price only goes up by about $2 a six pack. I didn't figure in lables and caps though. Hmm, not sure how much my labels cost. Just doing gummy glue paper and photoshoping it. That may increase the price. But I don't typically figure that into it because I dont need to label it all. Just one bottle a six pack at most.
Need to come up with images to put together the 3 new labels, Ok, I have until about March to do so but I am always putting things off.
That's all for now.
Dave
Hey, Carinsmith: How long did you age that Sparkling Vanilla clove you shared with me a long time ago?
On the Pear Nutmeg, I put it all together, one cracked whole nutmeg and 24 pears worth of juice, should be about 12 pounds. After all my efforts to extract all the juice that I can out if it, I came about 1 cup shy of a full gallon. Not too bad. The pulp did taste very good pear too. I racked it onto of the juice and the nutmeg in my 6 gallon glass carboy.
The pumpkin spice looks like it will be another one to age too. There may have been more juice than I though in the 2 pumpkin pie pumpkins. After racking and straining out the bag of the meat, I think that about 40% of the pumpkin disintegrated. Making about 1 pumpkin's worth of left over. Strained the bag in my brew pot and dumped it and then strained it again. It was very quishy with it a bit harder on the top. I was very woried that I would end up with a LOT of mashed up pulp. I also had in a seperate bag the 1/2 a nutmeg nut, crushed, 2 2inch sticks of cinnomin, and 1 vanilla bean. I was torn between 1/2 a vanilla bean and a whole. I think it was a good Idea to do the whole. I think that this one will have a good mouth feel.
We shall see.
Next up is 2 batches of my strait rockbitter brew, I just need to clean the carboy's first, buy 4 packets of yeast and get some more yeast energizer. Then clean and sanitize everything and load up the honey. My wife wants me to make them but it is my inclination to just make some more flavored brew. I should have all carboys free for the spring batches, Hmm, strawberry vanilla, orange vanilla, cherry vanilla or cherry lime. Ok, I have the great vanilla and am on a vanilla kick. It just goes great with the other flavors. Need to find out what the spring fruits are again. Then later in the fall a white cranberry? Need to check my log here to see what I was origionally wanting to make, I know a Peach was one on the list. Hmm, Don't want to do a peach ginger, Peach Nutmeg? Peach Vanilla? Oh, perhapse a peach allspice. Oh, And I must see about doing a lime/pinapple/mint. So many choices, so litle carboys and honey. And not to mention Honey.
Well, at a freinds request, I figgured out how much it costs for my mead. The Rockbitter doesn't come out too bad now that I got the prices down to about $1.70 a pound for honey. And if I keep my budget for fruit down to less than $25 for what is needed for a batch then the price only goes up by about $2 a six pack. I didn't figure in lables and caps though. Hmm, not sure how much my labels cost. Just doing gummy glue paper and photoshoping it. That may increase the price. But I don't typically figure that into it because I dont need to label it all. Just one bottle a six pack at most.
Need to come up with images to put together the 3 new labels, Ok, I have until about March to do so but I am always putting things off.
That's all for now.
Dave