Well folks, it looks like the meadery is open again.
Wait, it was closed?
The past 2 batches of mead that I've made did not turn out very well... mead is very sensitive to exposure to oxygen, and the type I was doing took a year to make, and both batches had to be moved to a new house so they were exposed to a ton of jostling and aeration.
They acquired an off flavor... something kinda vinegarish as a smell and aftertaste. Nothing harmful, and nothing you can taste or smell after you're already buzzed, but hey, I'm a perfectionist and it's disheartening to have one's secret wedding recipe taste sub-par.
As a result I haven't exactly been motivated these past few years to put a lot of effort into making booze. There was too much going on, and too little success to spur me into action. The type of mead I was making was not the cheapest either, and I hate throwing money down the drain.
Current inspiration: A new recipe and a special event.
But now we're settled for a while, and if things go to plan, a new mead won't be subjected to any more moves!
I wanted to do a mead again this month, since we usually go up to Apple Hill at this time and get all the honey and apple cider. That traditional plan is totally not going to work out though, considering that I need to stay close to my birth center. Plus, there's a special event in 7.5 months that calls for a meady celebration, and the usual year of fermenting is just not going to cut it.
Instead I found a recipe for a "very crowd-pleasing" hibiscus mead that is supposedly ready to drink in 5.5 months. This is FAST for a mead! It is also brilliantly red. Here's a test I did where I added the same percentage of hibiscus to boiling water to make a tea, to see how dark the resulting mead might become:
Whoa! Much more red than I was expecting.
This year I ordered hibiscus online, visited Costco for honey, and am using spring water instead of the usual mulling spices/local honey/cider mix. I estimate that this will take the cost down to $3.50 per bottle ($1.10 is just for the empty bottle, normally we'd be reusing old wine bottles but this gorgeous color calls for clear glass)... not bad for a fancy mead.
Baby's coming very soon, so it's time to get started.
Today was Day 1: I created the must (the concentrated hibiscus tea plus honey) and pitched the yeast today. This is the most time-consuming task, and I'm due in less than a week, so it's a relief to get it done before we're too busy with our new spawnling.
10 gallons of Stormy-approved beverage.
Haha, yes, I have them on a gardening cart inside the house. My excuse is that my back and hips can't handle lugging 5-gallon carboys around at the moment, and I want to be able to work with them without bugging Ryan, so I had to get a little creative.
I also made a third carboy with a slightly altered recipe, so that leaves us with 15 gallons total.
There'll be more to do... I'll keep you updated on the progress!
- Day 1.5ish: Add a nutrient - done! This took less than 7 hours from pitching yeast, but I was asleep and did not time it exactly.
- Day 6: Add first half of a nutrient mix
- Day 10ish: Add last of nutrient mix
- Day 20: Rack mead
- Day 36: Rack mead and stabilize
- Day 49: Add spices and back-sweeten
- Day 53: Check that stabilization was effective
- Day 57: Rack off spices
- Day 155: Bottle... expecting to get 48 wine bottles for the event
- Day 162: Taste-test any time after this date
Let's cross our fingers that this new recipe works! It already smells divine.
