Ok first with the old and then with the new.

I racked all of the current meads in carboys so that I could asertain where they are.  I let my apprentice organize the day as a part of her training.  I just let her know all we had to do and said what order do you want to do it in to get it all done.  She did ok.

Mohito- Lime Vanilla Mint- Racked, ( Read more... )

So another fun day of working with mead and my apprentice.  Did some typical maitanence stuff.

The Mojito- Lime Vanilla MintRemoved the oak, now just need to let it settle.  All the flavors are wonderfully balanced,  This will be a crowd pleaser.  The vanilla is there as is the lime and the mint just blending the two wonderfully.  It was a bit ( Read more... )

Ok, On sunday I had my aprentice over and we worked a bit.  Bit of a light day.

Raspberry Cinnamon Thyme:  This I just took out the mesh bag of raspberry.  It was cloudy and fluffy with more pulp and yeast so we didn't taste it or do anyting else.  Going to let it settle before I put in the spices and oak it.  Not to mention backsweetening.

Lime ( Read more... )

So, back again.  Lots of work with my apprentice this last sunday, after a bit of a break because I got sick and she did and many of my friends did.

We started off the day with rackings.
Mead from the DarksideRacked this one and boy did it keep it's dark color.  It is a deep purple.  I bet if I put in the dark with a flashlight through it as it ( Read more... )

Peach Vanilla Nutmeg
Ok, so we will start of the day with racking the Peach Vanilla Nutmeg, a bit of sediment, tasted good.  Put in the nutmeg finally.  Crushed up 1/2 a whole nutmeg and put in hops bag.

Vanilla Lime Mint
Racked this one too, a bit of pulp and sediment.  Some more floating pulp that will go out.  Very strong citrus flavor, mint not ( Read more... )

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 ( Read more... )

Well it had to happen some time.

Pumpkin Hazelnut
My aprentice and I filled the bottles of the first case and she picked up the case by the handle, more of cardboard insets and the bottom drops out of the box.  Lost about a six pack of glass as it shattered on the floor and lost all but about 4 bottles worth of the case.  I ended up with only 1 case ( Read more... )

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 ( Read more... )

Ok so a busy sundy ( Read more... )

So this is not precisely a comission batch.  A friend wanted me to experiment with Blackberries and gave me some money to experiment.  I decided that I never really worked with Tea so I decided to do a Black Tea and Blackberry mead.  The Black Tea that was chosen was a tea recomended by a friend as a really good black tea.  It is called Monks Blend ( Read more... )