Mead Journal: Mead from the Darkside, Peach Vanilla Nutmeg
A little late post from Sunday's work.
Mead from the Darkside: Blackberry Black Tea
So I racked this one on to the fruit. First I took the berries out of the freezer the night before and thawed them. Then they went into the blender. Blended them up with some pectic enzyme to help break down the cell walls and render more juice. THe resulting puree was put through a screen to get out the seeds. The seeds of the blackberry are actually bigger than the red raspberry and more pointy. They tended to stick into the screen. It was hard work but my aprentice and I blended and worked and then ran through the screen. It will have a lot of pulp in it but the puree was a nice dark purple color. Prior to racking I noticed that the tea color in the mead was lessened but still there from when I put the batch together. The Blackberry puree will darken it. I also put about a cup of blueberry pulp in a hops bag and tossed it in to help darken it. I don't expect much flavor out of the pulp but it may provide some darker colors and if I do get some flavor then great, blackberries and blueberries go well together. I am not sure how much I want to backsweeten this. I am tempted to put a bit of vanilla in and dark toasted oak but that may make for a bit to smokey of a flavor. I don't know, we shall see after the first racking after I rack off from the fruit. I do expect to need to water this up a bit more but we shall see if the yeast left in the must makes it go dry like the red raspberry did. All in all, I have great hopes for this one. Should be a very complex flavor.
Peach Vanilla Nutmeg
This one I took off of the peaches. Had about 1/2 the volume I put in it. I did not put in the nutmeg yet because I didn't have any more hops bags. I need to take a trip to the brew shop for more yeast, and hops bags. The smell was nice but I didn't taste this one. I can tell that I may loose a lot of volume due to fluffy pulp sucking it up. Hmm, I may hit this up with more pectin enzyme. Not sure yet. I have good hopes on this one. The nutmeg will also break up the peach.
Mead at the mile hi con was a success but I think that If I am going to bring as much I need to get more people that are coming for the mead, rather than just a party involved. Part of the point is to share and get some good feedback. Didn't get much, although I was called a wizard a couple of times. Ah, you gotta love drunken people that can barely taste what they are drinkng due to being drunk and out of it.
Holding off until next session with the apprentice to make 2 more batches. I plan on starting the primaries for the Raspberry Thyme Cinnamon and Ameretto Cream Bochett. The advantage of the amaretto is that I will only need a little cherry, may go with concentrate and it doesn't take a brew bucket for the fruit. We shall see.
Making 2 more start batches and backsweetening 2 batches is going to take the rest of my honey. I hope to have some money back in the mead pot by then.
First observations on the Tale of Three Toasts test.
1. It didn't go completely as planned as the Dark and the Medium Toast carbonated.
2. Light toast is just simple and nice.
3. Medium toast has a nice medium almost carmel aftertaste with all the smoothness. Not bad.
4. Dark Toast, suprisingly this has a nice little smoke taste to it and the sweetness level is lower making it ideal for those drinkers that don't like very sweet drinks like I do. This is about a medim sweet mead too. I think that overall this one will be the favorite of the 3 but for a contious Rockbitter batch, I plan on sticking with Medium Toast. With maybe a touch of vanilla as a boost to the flaovr. and as far as flavors go, I am narrowing in on my own unique Rockbitter flavor. Next up on this test is to do a Step feeding test vs nutrients on the front end. I plan on oaking this one with medium toasted oak AND doing a few bamboo leaves. I want to taste what it does. So the Rockbitter formula seems to be shaping up with a normal honey mead (Alfalfa honey is best), Oaked with meadium toasted oak, Bamboo Leaves (oaked), and a touch of honey. With or without step feeding. But we shall see. Also, After the Toast Test, Feeding Test, Not sure what else I am doing.
Matrix
Mead from the Darkside: Blackberry Black Tea
So I racked this one on to the fruit. First I took the berries out of the freezer the night before and thawed them. Then they went into the blender. Blended them up with some pectic enzyme to help break down the cell walls and render more juice. THe resulting puree was put through a screen to get out the seeds. The seeds of the blackberry are actually bigger than the red raspberry and more pointy. They tended to stick into the screen. It was hard work but my aprentice and I blended and worked and then ran through the screen. It will have a lot of pulp in it but the puree was a nice dark purple color. Prior to racking I noticed that the tea color in the mead was lessened but still there from when I put the batch together. The Blackberry puree will darken it. I also put about a cup of blueberry pulp in a hops bag and tossed it in to help darken it. I don't expect much flavor out of the pulp but it may provide some darker colors and if I do get some flavor then great, blackberries and blueberries go well together. I am not sure how much I want to backsweeten this. I am tempted to put a bit of vanilla in and dark toasted oak but that may make for a bit to smokey of a flavor. I don't know, we shall see after the first racking after I rack off from the fruit. I do expect to need to water this up a bit more but we shall see if the yeast left in the must makes it go dry like the red raspberry did. All in all, I have great hopes for this one. Should be a very complex flavor.
Peach Vanilla Nutmeg
This one I took off of the peaches. Had about 1/2 the volume I put in it. I did not put in the nutmeg yet because I didn't have any more hops bags. I need to take a trip to the brew shop for more yeast, and hops bags. The smell was nice but I didn't taste this one. I can tell that I may loose a lot of volume due to fluffy pulp sucking it up. Hmm, I may hit this up with more pectin enzyme. Not sure yet. I have good hopes on this one. The nutmeg will also break up the peach.
Mead at the mile hi con was a success but I think that If I am going to bring as much I need to get more people that are coming for the mead, rather than just a party involved. Part of the point is to share and get some good feedback. Didn't get much, although I was called a wizard a couple of times. Ah, you gotta love drunken people that can barely taste what they are drinkng due to being drunk and out of it.
Holding off until next session with the apprentice to make 2 more batches. I plan on starting the primaries for the Raspberry Thyme Cinnamon and Ameretto Cream Bochett. The advantage of the amaretto is that I will only need a little cherry, may go with concentrate and it doesn't take a brew bucket for the fruit. We shall see.
Making 2 more start batches and backsweetening 2 batches is going to take the rest of my honey. I hope to have some money back in the mead pot by then.
First observations on the Tale of Three Toasts test.
1. It didn't go completely as planned as the Dark and the Medium Toast carbonated.
2. Light toast is just simple and nice.
3. Medium toast has a nice medium almost carmel aftertaste with all the smoothness. Not bad.
4. Dark Toast, suprisingly this has a nice little smoke taste to it and the sweetness level is lower making it ideal for those drinkers that don't like very sweet drinks like I do. This is about a medim sweet mead too. I think that overall this one will be the favorite of the 3 but for a contious Rockbitter batch, I plan on sticking with Medium Toast. With maybe a touch of vanilla as a boost to the flaovr. and as far as flavors go, I am narrowing in on my own unique Rockbitter flavor. Next up on this test is to do a Step feeding test vs nutrients on the front end. I plan on oaking this one with medium toasted oak AND doing a few bamboo leaves. I want to taste what it does. So the Rockbitter formula seems to be shaping up with a normal honey mead (Alfalfa honey is best), Oaked with meadium toasted oak, Bamboo Leaves (oaked), and a touch of honey. With or without step feeding. But we shall see. Also, After the Toast Test, Feeding Test, Not sure what else I am doing.
Matrix