Mead Journal: Current Ferments
Ok, So I went and racked all but the newest two brews.
Rockbitter: Tale of 3 Toasts: Ok, So this was decicivly cloudy so I racked it onto some sparkloid. Hopefully that will clear it up. The three smelled nice but I didn't taste it. This one I used Wildflower honey rather that Alphalfa honey. It is my last time using Madahava's honey as they have increased their prices and wont let me take the wholesale discount with out getting a wholesaler liscense and that's not going to happen. There is only a little visual difference between the light toast, medium toast, and heavy toast.
Pumpkin Hazlenut: Racked this one onto some sparkloid to clear it but I probably should have just racked it due to the fact that I plan on backsweetening it a bit. It tasted good but in that antiseptic way of not yet complete meads. It has a thicker than normal mouth feel that was pleasing. So this one should be good. I doubt that I am going to get much pumpkin or hazlenut flavor out of it but it definiely stands out beyond a Rockbitter.
Strawberry and Mango: I "Punched the Fruit Cap" on this. Basically what I did was swirl around the floating fruit and pushed it down at the end. When non puree is used it is recomended to Punch the cap, that is push down the floating fruit so that is is re-imersed in the mead and doesn't get a chance to grow mold and dry on the top. This also allows more distrabution of the fruit so that the flavors can get more disolved into it. Not sure that this works much. Strawberry was a pleasent smell and the pulp has nearly disolved, leaving about 1/4 of the previous volume in the mesh bag. Mango: I have about 1/2 the volume of pulp than the starting puree in the bag. This is encoraging but I just know that it is going to produce a lot of sediment to clear out. I may just hit it up with pectic enzyme again to try to get it to render more juice and help it to clear. But that may be after I take out and strain the mesh bags.
New Projects: As mentioned, I plan on starting a Blueberry Vanilla and the Shanai Club mix which is the bamboo jasmin. My honey is trying to crystalize so I plan on starting this on this coming sunday, so I don't have to chip hardend honey out of the bucket. I also plan on backsweetening the Pumpkin Hazlenut. For the Blueberry vanilla I plan on using the buckwheat honey as it should provide a more stout base for the blueberry vanilla with it's brown sugar like notes. For the Bamboo Jasmin, I plan on using 1/2 orange blossem and 1/2 buckwheat for a more complex flavor and trying to keep it lighter than the other brews. I may make the Bamboo Jasmin a low ABV% mead for quicker ferment, ease of drinkability and as a second experiment at lowering the ABV% from 14+% to a more drinkable 10% or even 8%. It may also turn out that way due to a honey shortage. I don't know if I can buy more honey come fall.
Distant projects: Fall: Another pumpkin one, Peach Vanilla with left over peach, get more Lime and do a Lime one again, maybe lime vanilla. Also, I have been wanting to do a Cranberry Mead. Possibly a Cranberry polmagranite or a Cranberry with a spice.
For a Lime, I would need to get the limes. I only have about 2 cups lime juice frozen. And like 1-2 cups lime juice as well.
That's all for now. Plan is to start 2 primaries here next sunday, anybody know where I can get eddible bamboo leaves from the store or something?
Dave