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Mead Journal: Pumpkin Hazlenut
Nov. 7th, 2011 09:14 amOk, So I put together the Primary of the Pumpkin Hazelnut on Sunday.
12 pounds of Buckwheat honey
4 gal of water
2 packets of Lavin 71B yeast
1 tablespoon of Yeast Energizer (DAP)
1 tablespoon of Yeast Nutrient
3 tablespoons of comercial vanilla extract (So I don't need to put vanilla beans.
That is the primary that is currently bubbling away. Smells nice but noticablly more earthy than when I use the Wildflower or Alfalfa honey. I put the vanilla in the primary knowing full well that most of the flavor will be taken out in the primary fermentation but it's ok, that's why I put in 3 and I am only using it to soften the flavors and round out the other flavors. The Buckwheat Honey has a brown sugar-ish quality. It tastes good by itself and noticablly so. Wonder how much of the character will bleed over.
When the primary is down to it's low end I plan on racking it on to the pumpkin in my big fermentation bucket, which currently has chocolate mead in it, reminds me it's going on 3 weeks or so on the oaking with medium oak. Need to take that out and back sweeten the chocolate as I have some of the wildflower honey left in liquid form as I diluted it out for backsweetening. 1/2 gal of volume should be about 3-4 pounds of honey's worth.
Plan for the Pumpkin in Secondary:
Ingredients:
In hops bag for spices:
2 cinnamon sticks about 1 1/2 inch long
1/4 of a whole nutmeg, freashly crushed
1 whole clove
(vanilla already in)
In big bag
5 pumpkin pie pumpkins (cooked in oven at 350 for 1/2 hr and scraped into nylon mesh bag)
about 15 pounds I'm guessing it is
In liquid form:
1 cup of hazelnut extract homemade from 1 1/2 cups of rum and 1 cup of chopped and roasted hazelnut
Put all in, for about 1 1/2 months, rack to tetriary
Hit up with potasium sulfate, to stop the yeast.
Backsweeten with about 5 pounds of more buckwheat honey and oak with 1 oz of medium toasted oak.
Remove oak about 3-4 week point and rack again onto some sparkloid to clear, wait for clearing and bottle.
That's the plan anyway.
3 of the 5 gal glass caroby
On another note for those that are paying attention, I have all my 7 carboys full.
5 gal glass: Pumpkin Hazlenut primary
6 gal glass: Bluebery Lemon (being oaked)
2 buckets of 6+ gal: Chocolate Mead duo
So in order to rack onto the pumpkin I will need to bottle the Blueberry Lemon and put the cocolate in the larger of the two buckets into the 6 gal glass, I may have some overlflow into a glass gallon jug. Then once the Blueberry lemon is bottled I will have a free 5 gal glass to start the Mango mead. It may be at the begining of the year when I do that and break out the Orange Blossom honey.
I don't expect the Rockbitters to be bottled until spring, summer, then I will have 3 openings. Plan there is to do the strawberry, maybe a blueberry, and also get the Bamboo's Primary going so that it can be aged about 1 1/2 years to 2 years by our 10th anv of my Shinai club. By then the chocolates may be ready to bottle so I can then use up the lime juice I have. Hmm, I am currently making some almond extract, maybe use that for an almond, something batch.
The goal here is to keep the carboys that I have cycling and not really have an empty caroboy. That should make it 3-4 batches a year and with a delay of about 1 1/2 years in batches it may be by late 2012 when I have about 3 new meads a year. I like that idea. When Spring comes around, I so need to do some major delabling of the bottles that I currently have and in another year or so, I may need more bottles. Hmm, we shall see.
Well that's all for now.
Dave
12 pounds of Buckwheat honey
4 gal of water
2 packets of Lavin 71B yeast
1 tablespoon of Yeast Energizer (DAP)
1 tablespoon of Yeast Nutrient
3 tablespoons of comercial vanilla extract (So I don't need to put vanilla beans.
That is the primary that is currently bubbling away. Smells nice but noticablly more earthy than when I use the Wildflower or Alfalfa honey. I put the vanilla in the primary knowing full well that most of the flavor will be taken out in the primary fermentation but it's ok, that's why I put in 3 and I am only using it to soften the flavors and round out the other flavors. The Buckwheat Honey has a brown sugar-ish quality. It tastes good by itself and noticablly so. Wonder how much of the character will bleed over.
When the primary is down to it's low end I plan on racking it on to the pumpkin in my big fermentation bucket, which currently has chocolate mead in it, reminds me it's going on 3 weeks or so on the oaking with medium oak. Need to take that out and back sweeten the chocolate as I have some of the wildflower honey left in liquid form as I diluted it out for backsweetening. 1/2 gal of volume should be about 3-4 pounds of honey's worth.
Plan for the Pumpkin in Secondary:
Ingredients:
In hops bag for spices:
2 cinnamon sticks about 1 1/2 inch long
1/4 of a whole nutmeg, freashly crushed
1 whole clove
(vanilla already in)
In big bag
5 pumpkin pie pumpkins (cooked in oven at 350 for 1/2 hr and scraped into nylon mesh bag)
about 15 pounds I'm guessing it is
In liquid form:
1 cup of hazelnut extract homemade from 1 1/2 cups of rum and 1 cup of chopped and roasted hazelnut
Put all in, for about 1 1/2 months, rack to tetriary
Hit up with potasium sulfate, to stop the yeast.
Backsweeten with about 5 pounds of more buckwheat honey and oak with 1 oz of medium toasted oak.
Remove oak about 3-4 week point and rack again onto some sparkloid to clear, wait for clearing and bottle.
That's the plan anyway.
3 of the 5 gal glass caroby
On another note for those that are paying attention, I have all my 7 carboys full.
5 gal glass: Pumpkin Hazlenut primary
6 gal glass: Bluebery Lemon (being oaked)
2 buckets of 6+ gal: Chocolate Mead duo
So in order to rack onto the pumpkin I will need to bottle the Blueberry Lemon and put the cocolate in the larger of the two buckets into the 6 gal glass, I may have some overlflow into a glass gallon jug. Then once the Blueberry lemon is bottled I will have a free 5 gal glass to start the Mango mead. It may be at the begining of the year when I do that and break out the Orange Blossom honey.
I don't expect the Rockbitters to be bottled until spring, summer, then I will have 3 openings. Plan there is to do the strawberry, maybe a blueberry, and also get the Bamboo's Primary going so that it can be aged about 1 1/2 years to 2 years by our 10th anv of my Shinai club. By then the chocolates may be ready to bottle so I can then use up the lime juice I have. Hmm, I am currently making some almond extract, maybe use that for an almond, something batch.
The goal here is to keep the carboys that I have cycling and not really have an empty caroboy. That should make it 3-4 batches a year and with a delay of about 1 1/2 years in batches it may be by late 2012 when I have about 3 new meads a year. I like that idea. When Spring comes around, I so need to do some major delabling of the bottles that I currently have and in another year or so, I may need more bottles. Hmm, we shall see.
Well that's all for now.
Dave