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More mead ...
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More mead ...
Over the past couple of weeks, a steady stream of buckets containing a sticky mess of cappings and honey have been arriving here from FIL. Now., I know I have subscribed to the view that you need to use the best honey to make the best mead, but having strained off most of the honey it seemed worth a go with the washings from the sticky mass that remained.
I got two gallons of must. Surprisingly different colour from honey from different parts of the hive. The first, lighter, cleaner jar I set fermenting by pitching in a rehydtated sachet of sweet wine yeast I had to hand. The second jar was a bit murkier, but I had heated it to 75C, and added a Campden tablet so that it could wait until I could order more yeast.
Today, both batches are fermenting ! The seond batch, despite being doubly sterilised by heat and Campden tablet. The equipment and demijon were all all washed out with a sterilising solution made with Campden tablets too. I wonder how the yeast survived that, what yeast it is and where it came from. I'll just have to hope it does a decent job, too late to go back now !
Yet another bucket of sticky slops arrived today ...
I got two gallons of must. Surprisingly different colour from honey from different parts of the hive. The first, lighter, cleaner jar I set fermenting by pitching in a rehydtated sachet of sweet wine yeast I had to hand. The second jar was a bit murkier, but I had heated it to 75C, and added a Campden tablet so that it could wait until I could order more yeast.
Today, both batches are fermenting ! The seond batch, despite being doubly sterilised by heat and Campden tablet. The equipment and demijon were all all washed out with a sterilising solution made with Campden tablets too. I wonder how the yeast survived that, what yeast it is and where it came from. I'll just have to hope it does a decent job, too late to go back now !
Yet another bucket of sticky slops arrived today ...
Chilli-head- Admin and Boss man
- Posts : 3306
Join date : 2010-02-23
Location : Bedfordshire
Re: More mead ...
I racked off these two gallons of mead last night. The colour difference is still quite marked. Both have fermented fully, leaving quite a dry result. So, whatever yeast got into the second gallon must have been quite potent - I thought it might die before reaching wine levels of alcohol.
Tastes a bit rough ... still needs a goodly while to mature I think.
Tastes a bit rough ... still needs a goodly while to mature I think.
Chilli-head- Admin and Boss man
- Posts : 3306
Join date : 2010-02-23
Location : Bedfordshire
Re: More mead ...
The world is sticky! The bucket sent to me by FIL had been left hanging around for a while by him, then by me. The honey crystallised into one mass with the remains of the cappings and who knows what. A jar of decent honey ran out after hanging it up in a straining bag in the warm kitchen whilst the Christmas cake baked. The rest I've dissolved out into a gallon of rather too sweet stickiness in a demijohn. Now I need to find a really strong yeast - according to the hydrometer, there's enough sugar to ferment out to 18%, which should hopefully mean I can get it to 15% with plenty of residual sweetness.
Chilli-head- Admin and Boss man
- Posts : 3306
Join date : 2010-02-23
Location : Bedfordshire
Re: More mead ...
That rather sweet batch has stopped fermenting now; I racked it off at the weekend and it was still pretty sweet - I'll need to take the hydrometer to it to find out how much alcohol I have.
One of the earlier batches got sampled last month at the bodger's ball - with a few enthusiastic helpers it was gone in no time, and very tiddly we were for it
One of the earlier batches got sampled last month at the bodger's ball - with a few enthusiastic helpers it was gone in no time, and very tiddly we were for it
Chilli-head- Admin and Boss man
- Posts : 3306
Join date : 2010-02-23
Location : Bedfordshire
Re: More mead ...
After being semi-forgotten in a demijohn for years, I bottled the sweet mead a couple of weekends ago. It is dangerously easy to drink and very alcoholic. I found myself wearing a silly grin after just one glass
Chilli-head- Admin and Boss man
- Posts : 3306
Join date : 2010-02-23
Location : Bedfordshire
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