five-spice orange blossom mead
Two weeks ago (Oct 29th, for the record) I started another batch of mead. This is my second batch since I've lived in Austin.
I used the same ingredients and procedure as the first batch, with a few variations. For starters, we had warmed up the yeast for use on Friday night rather than Sunday night, so I made a starter with two cups water and half a cup of honey to keep the yeast happy. Also I've been using coreblue's equipment, and we now have a large kettle and propane burner so I pasteurized the honey in about four gallons of water. The other major difference was I steeped a large tea ball full of spices between the pasteurizing and the chilling. Oh, and I used an orange blossom honey :)
Spices:
7 sticks cinnamon
1 handful corriander
3 handfuls cardamom
7 whole cloves
1 pinch ground nutmeg
For these measurements, a "handful" was a comfortable amount in the palm of my hand, not as much as I could possibly hold in my whole hand. Maybe a little more than a tablespoon. I ran all the spices in a food processor to coarsely grind them, but it didn't really work that well.
I pasteurized at around 186F (the recipe calls for 180F, but I had the heat too high) for 15 minutes and then let the spices steep (with heat off) for 13 more minutes. I'm thinking next time I could just put the spices in at the beginning of the heating and combine both steps into one. The hot honey gave off beautiful aromas, but I'm thinking of ways to keep more of that flavor in the final product next time.
After chilling I topped off the water to five gallons and then measured an initial gravity of 1.117 at 75F.
I used the same ingredients and procedure as the first batch, with a few variations. For starters, we had warmed up the yeast for use on Friday night rather than Sunday night, so I made a starter with two cups water and half a cup of honey to keep the yeast happy. Also I've been using coreblue's equipment, and we now have a large kettle and propane burner so I pasteurized the honey in about four gallons of water. The other major difference was I steeped a large tea ball full of spices between the pasteurizing and the chilling. Oh, and I used an orange blossom honey :)
Spices:
7 sticks cinnamon
1 handful corriander
3 handfuls cardamom
7 whole cloves
1 pinch ground nutmeg
For these measurements, a "handful" was a comfortable amount in the palm of my hand, not as much as I could possibly hold in my whole hand. Maybe a little more than a tablespoon. I ran all the spices in a food processor to coarsely grind them, but it didn't really work that well.
I pasteurized at around 186F (the recipe calls for 180F, but I had the heat too high) for 15 minutes and then let the spices steep (with heat off) for 13 more minutes. I'm thinking next time I could just put the spices in at the beginning of the heating and combine both steps into one. The hot honey gave off beautiful aromas, but I'm thinking of ways to keep more of that flavor in the final product next time.
After chilling I topped off the water to five gallons and then measured an initial gravity of 1.117 at 75F.