Zero to mead in... probably about two years at this point.
Finally bottled the orange vanilla mead tonight.
I got 19 bottles in all and gave two to lease as tribute.
It's still way too hot to sit down and drink, but the freaky soy sauce character is gone and there's a promising tangy (almost sharp) orange zest flavor with a really nice vanilla roundness to it. Once you get past that initial punch in the face of alcohol heat it's actually shockingly smooth. It was originally brewed on 5-26-06. I figure it will be truly drinkable by next Pennsic (August 08).
It has been out of fermentation for a long time, so I figure the last set of readings will be a pretty good gage of how much alcohol it ended up with (*checks* that being about 18% all told, what can I say, it was champagne yeast and about 15 gallons of honey, no wonder it's hot). I'm really happy with the appearance. It's not show clear but it's definitely pretty damn clear (which I didn't expect at ALL given that it looked like a vodka screwdriver when I first made it) and it's a really lovely dark orange colour in the bottle.
I will be going back downstairs shortly to rack my Prickleypear mead which has magically gone back into active fermentation. Whee! Just what I wanted to move, a full carboy of mead. Based on a lot of soothing words to the effect of the enduring strength of a glass carboy I think we will just leave it in the carboy and strap it in really well behind my passenger seat.
Now if I could only find my mead journal. Thank god/s for LJ memories or I wouldn't have any of the previous info on my brewing available.
Edit: The prickly pear melomel is now racked: This is also still a bit hot, though nearly drinkable at this point. There's a really nice clear fruit flavor which mellows out to the honey at first but in the long run the aftertaste is most definitely sweet prickly pear. This looks like it's going to turn out pretty much exactly as I'd hoped. The color is a really lovely straw/champagne color and it's definitely still fermenting as it is currently still sparkling, the current readings are specific gravity of 1.024, pot alc of 3%, and percent sugar of 6%.
After some digging I found a comment on the Got Mead forums stating that "Final gravity for meads is usually 1.005 to 0.090.". Considering this started at about 1.38 and it's a high alcohol tolerance yeast it would seem to me that it's well on its way, but not quite there yet.
I think.
Found out that my brew pot has a fair sized dent in the side. This wouldn't be a big deal if my pot were not enameled, so now there's a fair sized spot where the enamel is all cracked off hence rendering the pot useless for brewing.
Got to try a different racking cane system though. I picked up a Fermtech Auto Siphon as I didn't like the idea of having to prime with either my mouth or water every time. It took a bottle or two to figure out the best way to stop the flow to switch bottles, but we figured out that a ratcheting tube clamp right above the exit end of the hose worked out the best. This actually worked out really well, but I think the next time I order from Northern Brewer I will get an in line valve. Now if I only had a sink big enough to effectively clean two foot long racking tubes.
Previous posts pertaining to these carboys
1-7-07 Racked both carboys
10-9-06 Prickly Pear brew post
6-22-06 Orange Vanilla first racking
5-28-06 Orange Vanilla brew post
I got 19 bottles in all and gave two to lease as tribute.
It's still way too hot to sit down and drink, but the freaky soy sauce character is gone and there's a promising tangy (almost sharp) orange zest flavor with a really nice vanilla roundness to it. Once you get past that initial punch in the face of alcohol heat it's actually shockingly smooth. It was originally brewed on 5-26-06. I figure it will be truly drinkable by next Pennsic (August 08).
It has been out of fermentation for a long time, so I figure the last set of readings will be a pretty good gage of how much alcohol it ended up with (*checks* that being about 18% all told, what can I say, it was champagne yeast and about 15 gallons of honey, no wonder it's hot). I'm really happy with the appearance. It's not show clear but it's definitely pretty damn clear (which I didn't expect at ALL given that it looked like a vodka screwdriver when I first made it) and it's a really lovely dark orange colour in the bottle.
I will be going back downstairs shortly to rack my Prickleypear mead which has magically gone back into active fermentation. Whee! Just what I wanted to move, a full carboy of mead. Based on a lot of soothing words to the effect of the enduring strength of a glass carboy I think we will just leave it in the carboy and strap it in really well behind my passenger seat.
Now if I could only find my mead journal. Thank god/s for LJ memories or I wouldn't have any of the previous info on my brewing available.
Edit: The prickly pear melomel is now racked: This is also still a bit hot, though nearly drinkable at this point. There's a really nice clear fruit flavor which mellows out to the honey at first but in the long run the aftertaste is most definitely sweet prickly pear. This looks like it's going to turn out pretty much exactly as I'd hoped. The color is a really lovely straw/champagne color and it's definitely still fermenting as it is currently still sparkling, the current readings are specific gravity of 1.024, pot alc of 3%, and percent sugar of 6%.
After some digging I found a comment on the Got Mead forums stating that "Final gravity for meads is usually 1.005 to 0.090.". Considering this started at about 1.38 and it's a high alcohol tolerance yeast it would seem to me that it's well on its way, but not quite there yet.
I think.
Found out that my brew pot has a fair sized dent in the side. This wouldn't be a big deal if my pot were not enameled, so now there's a fair sized spot where the enamel is all cracked off hence rendering the pot useless for brewing.
Got to try a different racking cane system though. I picked up a Fermtech Auto Siphon as I didn't like the idea of having to prime with either my mouth or water every time. It took a bottle or two to figure out the best way to stop the flow to switch bottles, but we figured out that a ratcheting tube clamp right above the exit end of the hose worked out the best. This actually worked out really well, but I think the next time I order from Northern Brewer I will get an in line valve. Now if I only had a sink big enough to effectively clean two foot long racking tubes.
Previous posts pertaining to these carboys
1-7-07 Racked both carboys
10-9-06 Prickly Pear brew post
6-22-06 Orange Vanilla first racking
5-28-06 Orange Vanilla brew post