Mead Journal: Vanilla Almond, Pear Nutmeg, Hagrid's secret stash

Ok, I just finished racking these.  I rack off the primary for the 2 rockbitters tommarow.

Pear Nutmeg was first:  Did not rack on or top off with more pear juice, I will do this at next racking.  It is still cloudy and not much sediment, Hopefully this will clear up before the next racking or I will need to get a fining agent.  Thinking seriously about one anyway.  The taste is rather good, Still a bit hot but that will soften in the aging process.  But OH it tastes good.  I might not get as clear of a mead as I want out of this but it is much worth it for the taste.  This one is going to be good.

Hagrid's Secret stash was next.  I was very supprised to see this one be almost completly what you would expect of mead.  Just a thin layer of dark sediment at the bottom.  I was nearly black.  And more of a coating on the bottom.  It does have a bit of cloudyness to it but that will change.  I tasted it before I racked it and found that it was semi-sweet with an awful off flavor that I think that I am coming to recognize as not good.  Possibly too much sugar was eaten up.  I don't know.  So I decided to rack it onto 2 cups of brown sugar mixed in water, about 32 oz of water to disolve it into, the volume of this apears to be less than what I wanted so this should be just fine.  I used brown sugar because I remember that you do put it in pumpkin pie and I hope that this will bring out the flavors better.  Still not thinking that this one will work well given the taste.  It may just need a LOT of aging.  When I bottle it, I am thinking on not opening the first bottle until holloween or samhain, depending on your belief.  I think that in the future that I may just avoid mellons and gourds for mead making.  Hmm, don't know.

Vanilla Almond was last.   This one is still very cloudy and the sediment was a bit too spread out so it was hard to judge on racking.  This one may need a fining agent too.  But Oh, god the taste of it was nummy.  I may have used too much vanilla or not enough but it is very good tasting.  This one is going to be the jewel of this batch of 3. 

All in all, probably 2 rackings left on these.  I may just backsweeten them all with 1-2 pounds of honey.  Hmm, don't know.

Now tomarrow to do the first racking of the rockbiter brew.  I will need to check on how long to put the oak chips in for the test.  We shall see.  On this one I am taking gravity readings to I may have an idea how potent the brew is.  The 2 rockbiters have slowed down but still have that opaque carmel color I have come to associate with the primary fermentation.

In many ways I can't wait to start the next batch but I don't think that I would have the room for 4-5 more carboys.  I don't think that I could get away with the cost or the room.  I am going to have to aquire a pump and a 10-15 gallon container to make a really big batch to see if I can.  Then when I am ready to do something really special and big I can.  Oh, I realize some non-brewers read this so Here are some terms that may help out what I am babbling about:

Racking:  This is simply transfering from one container to another to let the dregs or "Lees" be left behind so that the yeast still floating in the mead can still do it's job but the primary reason is to settle out the mixture and getting it clear.

Racking Onto..:  this is simply transfering the fluid into a new vessel and doing so onto some fruit or juice or spices.  Such as Racking onto strawberrys.  This would mean transfering the mead into the new container where you have strawberries in the container already.

Must:  This is what mead is called prior to it's fermentation.  It is most commonly used when you first pitch the yeas into it after putting it together.

Lees:  This is the dregs of dead yeast, sediment from fruit, and any other items that should be left over and not transfered when you rack the mead.

Primary Fermentation:  This is the stage in the mead making process where you toss in the yeast first and it does it's thing.  This causes the must to bubble and sometimes foam up and release a lot of CO2 in a fever pitch speed.

Yeast Tolorance:  Alcohol is actually deadly or kills yeast in a certian consentration.  So an alcohol tolorance of 15% would mean that the yeast would continue to ferment and convert sugar into alcohol and CO2 to the limit of its capacity which would be 15% alcohol by volume.  More or less.  Most wines have an alcohol tolerance of around 8-10%  Sometimes 12%.  My mead seems to be going to around 15-18 which is high but not unheard of.  There are yeasts that make the content of possibly up to 20% alcohol tolerance.  It does vary and I seem to be getting a higher than normal potency.

Secondary Fermentation:  This is the stage that is right after you rack it for the first time.  The majority of the yeast has done it's job and you rack it off of the lees and onto flavor, such as fruit, if that wasn't put in when it started.  Secondary Fermentation doesn't truely stop but it is slowed down to a crawl and with a chemical or two can be virtually stopped.  If it were stopped completly then aging it would make no diffrence.

Aging:  In bulk this is leaving it on the lees and not drinking it.  This is also where the flavor mellows out and most fruit flavors re-surface and become stronger.   Th antiseptic taste is what you get when it is new but that mellows out.  Most aging is not done in bulk, at least for me, an that means that the aging, or waiting process before drinkable, happens in the bottle.

Hot::  This is a term meaning that the mead needs to mellow out and that is currently has too much alcohol taste.

Dry:  This is where most of the sugars are turned into alcohol and it resembles more like wine.  Having a Dry taste means that it is not sweet.

Stablizing mead:  This is the use of a chemical to stop the fermentation process in order to back sweeten it.  If not done the extra honey you add to the must will get eaten up again.  The stablization effect stops most if not all of the fermentation tempairily.

Fining agent:  Most mead when it starts is rather cloudy due to protine chains and other factors.  The fining agent grabs a hold of the unwanted bits that make it cloudy or opaque and settles it in the bottom.  Sparkloid, Egg Whites, and certain clays can be fining agents.

Pasturization:  this is the process of killing off the wild yeasts found in honey and being a bit more controled by using one strain of yeast as opposed where you just let the wild yeast run rampent.

I think that this is good for now.