Search results

It's a weird phenomenon where in the primary bucket, the honey mixture looked very dark, but a small sample in a glass was much lighter. Right now, a glass of the mead has a very attractive golden color, while the carboy looks more brownish. You can see in the image I attached in that previous...

I had some loose leaf chai tea so I made a strong cup and added it to the mead on first racking along with the juice of an orange. I drew a sample and added a drop of honey to sweeten and it was actually really good! Definitely warmed the belly and the soul haha I'm still working on how best to...

Wow, congrats on the award! That's so cool! I wish we had those kind of competitions in my area. I'm probably just gonna continue on the route I started with the Chai/orange and orange/chocolate and give the bochet another attempt later. I have a tendency to overdo changes so I'm taking my time...

Unfortunately my bochet didn't bochet. Even ~4weeks later, there's no trace or caramel or any other flavors outside the standard honey and some orange/apricot marmalade. I guess I didn't caramelize the honey nearly enough. So I'm splitting my 2 gallon batch into 2 one gallon batches. The first...

There's also glycerin that can be added to give juice-only wines more body. You have to figure out the amount by taste, but I added some to a merlot and cabsauv and it really helped the mouthfeel and brought out the flavor more. But yeah, bottle aging imho is superior to bulk aging because the...

So I made the bochet today. I only did 2 batches of honey boils due to time restrictions. The first one was almost black after adding the water, while the second was like a chestnut color. I did dots every 5min after it started boiling, so the first batch was 30min total and the second was about...

@BernardSmith good point, I just defaulted to time since that's what every recipe and tutorial I could find used. But just as a counterpoint, time would also be a factor with temperature. Like smoking meats: cook a brisket to 198F in a 400F oven and you get a brick, cook it at 225F for hours up...

Did you rack off the superkleer sediment after it all settled? I've read a few posts where prolonged exposure to chitosan can produce a haze, so I always rack after 3-4 days when everything is super clear.

Only major difference is that you need to add nutrients (FermaidO is my choice) to mead since honey doesn't have enough to support healthy yeast. Check out TOSNA2 for how much and when to add. Otherwise, mead and wine are virtually the same.

That's an interesting point about the different quantities caramelizing at different rates, I hadn't thought of that. I guess I'll just have to go based on smell/color/taste vs time then. Do you remember what color your 20min boil was at the end? I'll probably go amber, dark amber, and black for...

I wanted to run an idea by the mead experts on here for what I'm calling a "staggered bochet." Full disclosure, I'm ripping the base recipe from https://www.winemakingtalk.com/threads/orange-bochet-recipe-please-comment.68692/ with credit to @Mazaruni. I've also read about a few people trying...

Pineapple mead sounds yummy! I would also add a bit of honey to backsweeten along with the pineapple juice to make sure you keep the honey characteristics in the final product.

My next endeavor will be a bochet, but after that, I think I may try this experiment one a plain traditional mead with generic spring water and some fancy artisan water to see if there really is a difference. Will update if/when I do. But thanks for the input everyone!

That's what makes meadmaking fun! So many options to play with

If you have to use a half packet for whatever reason, I would make a starter with warm water, GoFerm, and sugar/honey and let that sit overnight to make sure it gets going well before you pitch it. You also may want to look into D47 or 71B yeasts that are more suited to meads. Still, can't go...

Honestly, it's what my LHBS guy told me to use when I first started out. Haven't really used much of it as I'm typically lowering the pH of the wine/mead I make, so I never really looked into it.

Bottled this in September 2018 and cracked open a bottle over the weekend, and wow was I surprised! It tasted nothing like elderflower, but rather an almost jolly rancher-like green apple with bosc pear and citrus notes. Was really tasty and well-balanced and, like I said, an unexpected.

I also would suggest the second approach. I haven't done too much blending, but whatever blend ratio you decide on, I would make a single bottle of that and let it sit for a few weeks before tasting again. Blending wines, especially young wines, the flavors can change drastically as they settle...

My view is that if you need drastic changes in pH/TA, do it before fermentation. After fermentation and bulk aging (and backsweetening), I make minor adjustments to taste. But at that point it should be to enhance or balance the flavor profile and not change it if that makes sense. I use calcium...

@Mazaruni thanks for the update! So next time you would go 30min? Or longer? Also, how did the addition of the orange blossom honey in primary come through? Can you taste it or did it get covered up by the cinnamon/caramel flavors?