Mead Journal: Pumpkin Hazelnut
Nov. 28th, 2011 12:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrix4bOk, so I finally racked this to the pumpkin. Still not sure if I need to back sweeten this. The primary went well. Took about 3 weeks. I broke down and bought another brew bucket so now I have 8 brewing vessels.
Found 1 of the pumpkins that I bought went bad. But the 4 were good. Split the pumpkin pie pumpkins along the middle, scooped out the seeds then put face down in a little water and cooked at 350 for 1/2 hr. Then when they were out of the oven and cooled down, I scooped the meat out of the skins. and put it all in a mesh bag. Oh, I heard that yams help enhance the pumpkin flavor, odd but true, so I put 2 yams in there as well, cooked and sliced into about 1/2 inch thick slices. All in the mesh. Put in a hops bag 1/2 a nutmeg, freshly crushed, 1 cinnamon stick and a sprinkle of pumpkin spice for a little bit of extra. Spices go a long way. So now we have the pumpkin hazelnut in the secondary.
Blueberry Lemon: I have this one oaked now with lightly toasted oak chips for about 3-4 weeks. Maybe a month. Interesting thing I did: I been having trouble taking out oak chips in the glass carboys. They get stuck in the neck. One of my autosyphons developed cracks along the sides making it unsuitable to do it's job. So I loped off the end and drilled holls into it. Then stuffed it with lightly toasted oak chips, putting a hops bag on the end of it. dropped that in and what do you know, it worked. The tube is almost like a home made spiral of oak. I did have a little trouble getting the chips out of the tube because the oak swelled up a bit but, a few taps with a knife and some coaxing and they came out. So that just needs a bit more settling and then to the bottling process, prob 2 weeks from bottling.
Tale of 3 Toasts: These 3 carboys were so ready for racking it wasn't funny. They were not fully clear but you could see the clearing process going. I racked this over and stuffed in hops bags about 1 oz of each oak toast level. 3 weeks and I will take it out and rack. Then it is all up to settling. Tasted each one, the backsweetening worked and it is sweet and should age out wonderfully.
Choclolates: Didn't touch but it should be oaked and racked. Final stage here. High hopes for this one but as they said, long aging process.
When I bottle the Blueberry Lemon, I should be able to do 2 primaries with the orange blossom honey so that I can get both the Mango and the Strawberry going. When the Tale of 3 Toasts get's bottled, then I should be able to do the Bamboo Jasmin and the second blueberry and maybe another lemon something.
So that's 4-5 planed. 2 very soon.
That's all for now.
Dave
Found 1 of the pumpkins that I bought went bad. But the 4 were good. Split the pumpkin pie pumpkins along the middle, scooped out the seeds then put face down in a little water and cooked at 350 for 1/2 hr. Then when they were out of the oven and cooled down, I scooped the meat out of the skins. and put it all in a mesh bag. Oh, I heard that yams help enhance the pumpkin flavor, odd but true, so I put 2 yams in there as well, cooked and sliced into about 1/2 inch thick slices. All in the mesh. Put in a hops bag 1/2 a nutmeg, freshly crushed, 1 cinnamon stick and a sprinkle of pumpkin spice for a little bit of extra. Spices go a long way. So now we have the pumpkin hazelnut in the secondary.
Blueberry Lemon: I have this one oaked now with lightly toasted oak chips for about 3-4 weeks. Maybe a month. Interesting thing I did: I been having trouble taking out oak chips in the glass carboys. They get stuck in the neck. One of my autosyphons developed cracks along the sides making it unsuitable to do it's job. So I loped off the end and drilled holls into it. Then stuffed it with lightly toasted oak chips, putting a hops bag on the end of it. dropped that in and what do you know, it worked. The tube is almost like a home made spiral of oak. I did have a little trouble getting the chips out of the tube because the oak swelled up a bit but, a few taps with a knife and some coaxing and they came out. So that just needs a bit more settling and then to the bottling process, prob 2 weeks from bottling.
Tale of 3 Toasts: These 3 carboys were so ready for racking it wasn't funny. They were not fully clear but you could see the clearing process going. I racked this over and stuffed in hops bags about 1 oz of each oak toast level. 3 weeks and I will take it out and rack. Then it is all up to settling. Tasted each one, the backsweetening worked and it is sweet and should age out wonderfully.
Choclolates: Didn't touch but it should be oaked and racked. Final stage here. High hopes for this one but as they said, long aging process.
When I bottle the Blueberry Lemon, I should be able to do 2 primaries with the orange blossom honey so that I can get both the Mango and the Strawberry going. When the Tale of 3 Toasts get's bottled, then I should be able to do the Bamboo Jasmin and the second blueberry and maybe another lemon something.
So that's 4-5 planed. 2 very soon.
That's all for now.
Dave