zhrodague

I racked this into a carboy a couple of weeks ago, and just put it into 1.5 liter bottles this weekend. It tasts pretty icky, but not like vinegar. Not sure what that taste is, or whether I should chuck it. It'll sit in the basement for months, and I'll deal with it then.

This was my first batch. When I needed the carboy to put the cranberry mead into, I racked this into three 1.5 liter bottles, and left 'the three sister' to rot in the basement with the others. They're still there, and getting clearer. I'm hoping if I ignore them, they'll turn out... some day...

I bottled this mead -- the first mead I started -- just a few minutes ago. I ended up with 6x12oz bottles, and 4x11.2oz bottles (Leffe Blonde is a good beer, and pretty bottles to boot). I'll use these as gifts, as I'll be heading to Boston, and will be couch-surfing. I wrote on them 'Get Nekkid' in silver sharpie, which is how I've been labeling my brews.
The icky taste is gone!
What remains still needs to sit for a while, but it finally tastes like honey! I couldn't believe it, and I was sure I had screwed up the batch somehow. I got pretty drunk after a few tastes, so I have to watch how much I drink -- and start making my next batch.

I shared one of the 11.2oz bottles with my folks -- the clearest of those I brought with me. I got some good comments, and this was probably the best tasting mead I've made yet. I am psyched!

I just got back from a 2 week trip to Philly, and then Boston. I bought with me a six-pack of this 'get nekkid' mead, and gave them out to friends. Those that shared it on the spot -- loved it. Those that didn't are certainly in for a supprise, it is quite tasty! I gave the recommendation to drink it the first day they can go outside comfortably nekkid.

When I bought my first carboy, I also bought a fermenting bucket. I won't do that again either -- it is much nicer to use the glass carboy, as you can see what it is doing. The bucket was white plastic, and I had only the gurgling of the airlock to tell me it was okay. The glass costs 3 times as much, though, and unless you're only doing a one-off, I'd say go with glass. Then again, I don't know what I'm going to do with so many glass carboys when I move!

The almost overflowing carboy made 31 bottles, enough for us to sample a few, and still have a 'sealed' case.

They still tasted kinda icky, but the flavor really comes out. There needs to be some other taste in there, and I think green or black tea might do the trick.

I used a silver sharpie to improperly label these in my own handwriting, down the side of the bottle as being 'cranberry mead'.

Yeah, this stuff was pretty good. It was nice to taste the stuff over the last few months. It got better and better. I think six months is a good period, and not the 3.5 months that have elapsed. The Nutried Mead will have a longer period of time mellowing, and it will also be decanted a few extra times. Big point -- rack the mead at least twice, and make sure it tastes good before you bottle it.

This mead is ready for bottling, and has been moved to the second kitchen table. This tastes pretty good, but it is still fermenting. Even though it is almost clear, it has a definate fizzy taste to it, and it does give off gases through the airlock. This has been going since November sometime.

Instead of bottling this mead, I racked it into a sanitized 3 gallon carboy, and filled in the rest with boiled (then cooled) water. It started giving off gasses again, even though the lees are left behind, and the fluid is completely clear. I should take a picture and post it here.

I tossed this into the basement too. Gave it a little dusting of yeast -- just to make sure. The pellets sank to the bottom, and now they are the only things in there it appears. The fluid is very clear -- damn clear, and still gives of gasses. I find this to be the exciting phase.

This sat in the basement for a month, and then sat on the kitchen island for almost a month. It is extremely clear, with an reddish orange tint.

Tasting this, it has the foul smell and taste of the unmellowed mead. It will need like 4-6 months to settle down. I will have to wait until then to bottle it. It will make a nice gift perhaps towards the end of the year. It isn't sweet at all, and will probably have a spectacular white-wine kindof flavor.

Still smells fab, but has that icky taste. The icky taste has seriously gone mostly away, but it is still there, and not a fluid I would want to drink if I hadn't made it myself. These went into 12-oz beer bottles with caps, and I think we got 32 bottles total -- enough for a case and a few extras.

Obviously after bottling the whole case, we took the last one and shared it as a test of the product. The lime is great, but it will need a black tea or a green tea for next time.

Yes, this stuff is crappy. I am drinking it with my SO and a friend right now. I'll just say it packs a whallop, and must be about 12% or better. It isn't sweet, it's mean! It doesn't taste all that good, and probably because it needs multiple rackings before bottling.

In the wake of my last trip to Philly, and then Boston, I figured should make another batch of mead, and figured I'd just throw one together. I used stuff around the house, and didn't really put any thought into it. Maybe that ads to the mystery of the beverage, and it is kinda fun to wonder what it would taste like when it is done. After my last couple of batches, I realized that I need to do the multiple rackings, just to get rid of the excess yeasties, which I think obscure what I want out of the bizarre fluid.

[] 1/5 gallon Sunflower honey
[] .6 lbs refined sugar
[] 1/4 bag of loose Irish tea
[] 10x1g vitamin C tablets - crushed and disolved
[] D-47 yeast
[] 1.5 gallons filtered water
[] 1.5 pots of black tea

I started out with the tea. I made a pot of tea, and just dumped it into this 4 gallon pot I got from Target. I filtered about 1.5 gallons of charcoal-filtered water into the pot, and started it boiling. Took me a while to remember that it gets hotter if I put the lid on the pot.

The honey had congealed into a solid at the bottom of the jug, so I cut the bottom part off, and started scooping the icky mess into the boiling tea and water. It was easier to lower the blobs into the pot, and shake the spoon sideways to get the sticky honey off the spoon. I swirled the must around a few times also, so as not to burn the honey.

I've read about the boiling part. Some people like to boil the must, others do a 'flash pasteurizing', and some don't do any of those things. You have to remember that people have been doing this for quite some time, and sanitary conditions haven't always been quite what they are now. I chose to boil the crap out of the must, just to see what happens.

It was then that I added the dissolved ascorbic acid tablets into the must. I didn't have any limes, so I had to improvise. And while I'm improvising, I figured I would also add more tea. Just a spoonfull at first, but then I figured what the hell, and emptied the rest of the bag into the must. At least there will be plenty of lees to leave behind, and something to look at when it clears.

Then I boiled the crap out of everything, which collected on the top of the boiling must. This I scooped out, and put onto a plate, until there was no more crap forming on the top. I understand that this is bacteria, plant material, dirt, insect parts, wax, and other icky things that probably taste really good when they aren't taken out. I avoided the urge to tast this delightful tan-colored foam.

I measured it at 220^o F, if I remember correctly. I let it sit with the lid on overnight.

The next morning -- okay, the next day, I siphoned the fluid into a sanitized carboy, pitched the yeast culture, and started spooning-in the tea. This defecatingly brown fluid will sit on the table in the kitchen for a couple of weeks, and then go into the basement -- right about the time I start my next batch.

The tea mead looks great. It is kinda foamy like iced tea, and the evil expanded tea leaves at the bottom of the carboy sometimes go for it's-a-gas rides up and down in the murky fluid. It's still pretty opaque, but it has only been a couple of weeks.

I gave this a good swirl, and hauled it down into the basement. The swirling made it mad, but it will get over it. I don't know whether or not this is a good practice, just makes me feel good about it.

So the fermenting mead would fill the pieces of the Facist Tea, and cause it to sit on top of the fluid. This went on rather repeatedly, causing a cake-like layer on top of the fluid, of pretty-much plant material and raisins. The raisins made it look like some sort of alien breeding vessel.

Anyway, the plant material on top of the waterline, compounded with the shape of the inside of the top of the carboy, caused the airlock to clog. So, I had to take some fluid out.

I siphoned as much fluiud out of this carboy as possible, at least until the racking cane became too clogged. I've replied to this with both of the descriptions of the mead.

This is the fluid part of the leftover tea mead mashup. This has totally stopped fermenting, because I am sure there are no more sugars in there. I tried adding water, adding yeast, and adding more water. I figured it may have been too sugary, and just stopped. Now I know that it probably either wants half a bag of sugar, several bottles of molasses, or probably 1/3rd gallon of honey from whatever I do next time.

This stuff is dark, which I attribute to a combination of the buckwheat honey, and the 12oz bottle of molasses. It just sits here on the kitchen island. I am affraid to taste it.

Ugh, this is gonna need to sit for a while. It probably needs a third gallon of honey too. It has the icky needs-to-sit taste that young mead has. I added about 4 liters of filtered and boiled and then cooled water, enough to fill the 3-gallon carboy to the top of the highest ridge.

This has a very pungent taste, and should be good for the fall. It might be its own mulled cider type beverage. It definately has that icky young-mead taste, and will need to be let to sit for a long time, and then racked a few times. Otherwise, it is going to taste quite good, and mead is not something you can easily screw-up.

These 4 batches that are going on, will be racked after they're clear. Then they'll be racked once or twice more, and then bottled. My experience with other meads has shown me that this is the way to a tasty mead. I haven't read about this on other Internet forums before, so it is all kinda new to me.

Anyway, there continues to be a head of mostly raisins, with a little bit of plant material. On the bottom, is most of the plant material, and some sedimnentary stuff. It hasn't cleared, nor do I expect it to. I'll give it a good strong shake tonite on my way to bed, and prepare it for transportation to its sitting space.