Dry Meadowfoam/Carrotblossom Traditional

[seth8530]

11/9/12 Sg 1.020.

Fermentation is slowing on down but is still moving at a moderate clip. Hopefully by the end of next week it will be ready for secondary.

 

[seth8530]

OK! Major developments!! Today the mead was racked into two separate 6 gallon carboys. Each received half of the original oak However, I was not able to completely fill up both carboys. In fact one of them was 1 and half gallons shy....

Thus this has developed into 2 sister meads. A tale of two meads.....

The first carboy has a current gravity of 1.005 and is as the original recipie entails. Current ABV 13.5%

The second carboy got topped off with a gallon and half of 100% pure cranberry juice ( the stuff is expensive) plus 16 oz's water.

It too originaly fermented down to 1.005. However the cranberry juice raised the sg up to 1.008. The current ABV is obtained from

13.5% X (6 gallons-1.5-.125) This gives us the total alcohol in the mead. This ends up being .59 gallons of pure alcohol.

(.59gallons/6 gallons)*100 gives us an abv of 9.84%
If this is to ferment dry down to .996 we get
.09 gallons of alcohol going from 1.008 to .996
add .09 to .59 divide by 6 gallons we get abv of 11.33%

Obviously I am hoping that the sg drops below .996

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[seth8530]

Took a small sip from each carboy last night.

The cranberry melomel is going to turn out quite nicely I believe. The front end is of cranberry (not as strong as it used to be thankfully....) and follows up with a nice almost creaminess on the finish with a noticeable tartness. I intend on back sweetening this one up just enough to balance that out.

The bastard meadowfoam is doing quite well also. It is dry like the cranberry is at this point but its flavour profile is pretty much kind of a smokey creamy taste much like the cranberry has underneath its cranberry flavours. I still intend on letting this one stay dry.

 

[seth8530]

Hopefully, I will be able to give these guys another taste relatively soon.

 

[Downwards]

Taste it yet?

 

[seth8530]

It will prob be around a week before i have a chance to taste it: /

 

[seth8530]

Did not taste yet but oh my these two guys smell amazing. They both have very strong smells that would remind you sticking your nose in a warm bee hive.. so not just a honey smell but a smell that kind of smells like what i imagine a hive would smell like
. Ie honey and honey by products..

 

[seth8530]

Managed to rack both the cranberry and non cranberry versions of this mead tonight. I had to top off each with aprox 2 bottlea of peach wine at 12 abv and 1.008 sg. The sg of the ceamberry melomel was at 1.001 the other at. 998. The cranberry is most like the most amazingly floral mead i havr ever smelt. It smells amazing. I will post pics wheni get the chance... flavour wise... neither is ready but they both have a very floral taste as well. Imagine tasting what flowers smell like.. so i am very excited to see what these guys will be lie 6.months from now.

 

[FABulousWines]

It sounds like you got a couple of good brews going there. Is it wine-thirty yet? Seth is making me thirsty.

 

[Downwards]

I've always wondered about that "flower" taste. It seems reasonable that honey being concentrated flower juice, if it had it's sugars removed you should be left with concentrated floral aromas. Different of course for the processes, but still recognizable I'd think.

 

[seth8530]

Yeah, well this is so floral you would think its eccence of purfume or soap smell good stuff minus the chemicals. I hope it will remain in the mead as it ages.

 

[seth8530]

OK! Major developments!! Today the mead was racked into two separate 6 gallon carboys. Each received half of the original oak However, I was not able to completely fill up both carboys. In fact one of them was 1 and half gallons shy....

Thus this has developed into 2 sister meads. A tale of two meads.....

The first carboy has a current gravity of 1.005 and is as the original recipie entails. Current ABV 13.5%

The second carboy got topped off with a gallon and half of 100% pure cranberry juice ( the stuff is expensive) plus 16 oz's water.

It too originaly fermented down to 1.005. However the cranberry juice raised the sg up to 1.008. The current ABV is obtained from

13.5% X (6 gallons-1.5-.125) This gives us the total alcohol in the mead. This ends up being .59 gallons of pure alcohol.

(.59gallons/6 gallons)*100 gives us an abv of 9.84%
If this is to ferment dry down to .996 we get
.09 gallons of alcohol going from 1.008 to .996
add .09 to .59 divide by 6 gallons we get abv of 11.33%

Obviously I am hoping that the sg drops below .996

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Updating this calculation for my cranberry mead only reaching 1.001 I have came up with my current ABV to be around 10.75% It is likely to be a little higher since I used some 12% ish peach wine to top off with. .But this is the general ball park ABV of this guy. Also, this fella turned 7 months old not way too long ago.. I look forward to putting this guy in the bottle around December.

 

[seth8530]

Well, they are 275 days old now 9 months..2 days... Happily sitting in the basement 350 miles away from me /: I hope to pay them a visit in a week or two. I might go ahead and bottle them to free up some room for my upcoming grape fermentations.

 

[seth8530]

Ok,

Cranberry,

This guy is easily the best smelling wine I have ever smelt. It smells strongly of a flowery lilac jasmanish awesome smell. The taste is much like the nose but with a very notable tartness from the cranberry on the back-end. Gravity is around 1.000 I am debating whether if or how much to sweeten this guy. Very hard decision.

Non-Cranberry,

It has aromas much like like the cranberry, but the abv higher and thus it is still a little harsh. This guy needs some time before I can determine if it needs to be sweetened. Still very promising.

I am very excited about these meads and I look forward to submitting them to the mazers cup this spring. As of right now the cranberry mead has my highest hopes.

 

[seth8530]

Today, checked the meads out and was frightened to find that both of them have taken on a yellowish hue. I immediately took samples from both versions. The cranberry is no longer red but much more of an orange colour. The non cranberry infused batch smells quite floral still and slightly sweet for sitting at around 1.000. I was relieved to find out from tasting that these guys are not oxidized as I originally feared. It looks like they are still progressing on along as they march towards the one year mark.

Topped both batches up with sulfited marbles.

 

[seth8530]

Tried out the meads today.

The cranberry is pretty much done. I just need to order some meadow foam or carrot blossom for it to back sweetin it just a hare with.. ( I tried adding sugar to my glass and just the slightest amount helped it out.. but the slightest bit more took away from it)

The normal mead is tasting pretty good, relatively complex with a wine like body. One of the more interesting flavours that was hinted out from it was a nugent marshmellow ish like flavour which I associate with certain Irish whiskies and scotches.

It has a lot of floral and then has a wine like acidity with it.

Normal mead gravity is around .998

Cranberry mead is sitting at 1.000

I added sorbate to both batches to make sure renewed fermentation will not come around eventually in the bottle since neither of these went 100% dry.
I plan on aging the non cranberry mead for another 6 months before touching it again.

 

[seth8530]

Backsweetened the cranberry mead with around 90 grams of carrot blossom honey ( it did not need much... Ie I only added enough to help assist with the cranberry bite a bit). Tasting it, I realized that it felt like it was missing a bit of something so I racked it, and added a medium+ french oak stave in to keep it company and 4 grams of booster rouge, I am hoping that this will help lend it a bit of structure. I will check on this guy again in a month or two and hopefully bottle then.

 

[seth8530]

It seems the cranberry mead is getting very close to getting ready. I think the oak addition really helped bring it to where I wanted it to be. I will taste again in a couple of weeks to see if it is ready to be bottled. It seems the oak adds a nice kind of campfire taste and mouthfeel to it which comes after the cranberry and melds with the honey a bit.

The non oaked mead is doing quite well too. I think the flavours are coming around again. I added a medium toast american oak spriral to it, so I will taste it when I taste the cranberry mead.

 

[seth8530]

Cranberry mead has been bottled! Detailed pictures and tasting notes are forthcoming.. Adding the additional oak was a winner of an idea!

 

[seth8530]

So lessons learned! Anything with a decent amount of acid in it should be cold stabilized. When I put the cranberry mead in the fridge it clouded up on me. However, it seems to have not affected the taste.

Taste is slightly honey like, but mostly cranberry tartness. Backed up by a campfire oakyness that is better expressed at warmer temperatures.

The final gravity of this guy was around 1.001 putting the final abv at around 10.5%. I plan on entering this mead into the mazers cup for some good critical feed back. If one member of the community would like to to have a 750 ml bottle please send me a PM or post in this thread and I will see what I can do. Please make sure you are in the US though that way I do not have to send across federal lines.

I feel like I hit the balance on this mead just about right for my taste, often times it is easy to make a mead that taste good for a few sips, but after awhile gets a little bit sweet. However, this one is more on the tart side of balance, so I feel like this might be a little bit easier to keep sipping on compared to a really honey forward mead.