Mead Journal: Bottling and Peach and Limes

So Sunday I did some bottling.  It went much quicker with my aprentice.

Strawberry, Orange Blossom Honey
I bottled the Strawberry with Orange Blossum honey.  The Strawberry character didn't really come through strong but the nose of it was enough to watter your mouth from across the room.  It did taste of strawberries and had a higher citris character that I can only assume was from the honey choice.  This one will age out very good.  I ended up getting 2 cases plus 14 bottles, which is great.

Blueberry Vanilla, Buckwheat honey
I bottled the Blueberry Vanilla and this one was very sweet.  Already it was drinkable and both the vanilla character and honey character came through very strongly.  The Buckwheat honey is supposed to impart some brown sugar notes.  I think that it does but it could just be the vanilla taste.  When this ages properly It may just be too sweet.  But good. I ended up getting 2 cases plus 9 bottles so great news there.

After bottling, I was able to clean some carboys and then rack onto the fruit on a couple
Peach Vanilla Nutmet
This worked out well, pureed 10-12 pounds of peaches that I had in the freezer for over a year.  I also put in 1/2 cup of vanilla extract.  This will be a 6 gal batch I think, going to get lots of volume loss in the pulp of the peaches.  I will be putting in the nutmeg after I take out the fruit.  One flavor at a time, mostly.

Mojito- Lime Vanilla Mint
I put this one in my 6 gal glass carboy.  I put in 5 cups of lime juice and 2 tablespoons of zest, 1/2 cup of vanilla.  The lime was strong in this one but it should mellow out.  I only used 1/8 teaspoon of my home made mint extract.  I may add another 1/8 later but I didn't want to overpower it.  The mint though should come through and against the strong lime more should be balancing it.  We shall see.  I also may thin this out to make it a 6 gal batch and more drinkable.

Next up, in about 2 weeks I shall be bottling the Mango Mead, Pumpkin Hazelnut, and the Bamboo Jasmin.  I will need to de-lable more bottles.  But as of now I have 2 free carboys.  The other thing that may happen next time is to put the Mead from the Darkside onto the blackberries.  Currently I have 2 batches that will need buckets after primary: Mead from the Darkside, and a Raspberry Thyme Cinnamon (light on the Cinnamon).  The Mead from the Darkside is the only one in primary.  When I bottle I shall have 2 free buckets.  So I think that I can get the raspberry Thyme Cinnamon could go in to the primary as well. 

Future projects that People are interested in:
Rasberry Thyme Cinamon, "Sina-Razz Time?"  Hmm, need to work on the name. 
Ammeretto Cream Mead.
Strawberry Rhubarb
Rasberry Chocolate- "Choco-Razz"

When I bottle next I will have 2 free buckets.
1. Mead from the Darkside
2. Rasberry Thyme Cinamon  (So I possibly can start the primary.

Then I will need to wait on them freeing up to do the Strawberry and that's possibly spring.

The Amerretto Cream, I can do in a glass carboy as it mostly will be using extract.

So I guess that on the docet to use the glass carboys in about 4 weeks will be to make:
Primary: Ameretto Cream
Primary: Raspberry Thyme

The Choco-Razz will need to wait til fall. I want to see how the chocolate meads worked out.

Prep work on the Ameretto Cream is to make the Apricott Kernal Extract and Almond Extracts.  Oo, I forgot that I needed 2 pounds of Cherries so this one will also need to wait.  So this will need to wait for spring or I can see if I can fit 2 pounds of cherries in,  I may go with a cherry concentrate that I saw in Sprouts the other month.  Yeah, that sounds cleaner.  So I can do this.  But I want to give the extract longer.  Til December.  But if I start the primary in late october, I shouldn't need the extract until December.  

So I will more than likely have some free batches, as long as they don't take my bucket, I am good.

Well that's all for now.

Dave