#no.061023

[boissonsaumiel]

Rhodomel: Day 37

I jostled the carboy and got this lovely effect.

This is my rose petal mead, made with Sainfoin and Tian Shan wildflower honey.

I'm surprised how clear it has gotten in just over 5 weeks. I haven't used any clearing agents, unless you count the ⅛tsp pectinase additive. I have a batch that's 2 weeks older and still much cloudier. The airlock is only letting out one bubble per minute, so I think it'll be ready to rack soon.

[music]

[boissonsaumiel]

Look at my beauties! I blurred myself out of the reflection. I put in some Super-Kleer this morning (fining agent derived from shellfish) and it's already made a huge difference in clarity.

My second time using that fining agent. This time I actually measured it out properly with a beaker and a pipette (it comes in a blister pack sized for a 5-6gal batch).

In the larger jug is the mead where I left the mulling spices in way too long. The smaller jug is my root beer mead that I brewed with coconut water. It's actually the first mead I've made that tastes good at room temperature. The root beer spices infused perfectly. It's just the right level of sweet and has a nice kick. The other ones I've made tasted significantly better chilled.

I'm going to make it again to give to friends and family as holiday gifts, since it tastes pretty great even without aging. I got a bottle capper and some cool embossed vintage bottles on ebay (Sioux City Sarsparilla) to bottle it in.

[boissonsaumiel]

My honey order arrives on Friday, and I've decided I'm going to make a small test batch of mead (⅓gal) that uses coconut water instead of regular water as a base.

I am not trying to make coconut-flavored mead.

What I like about coconut water is not the flavor, so much as the mouthfeel. Besides which all the r/mead posts I've read contend that relatively little coconut flavor comes through when you use coconut water in a brew, so if I did want to make a coconut flavored mead (which I don't) it would make more sense to add coconut syrup or coconut chips than use coconut water.

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Flavor-wise, I'm going in pretty much the opposite direction people would expect -> root beer. I found a root beer spice blend with good reviews online.

I'm not much of a fan of carbonated beverages in general, but there are two that I find myself craving every so often: A&W root beer and Boylan cream soda.

I'd probably like them better if they weren't carbonated.

Or quite so sweet.

Or quite so non-alcoholic.

You see where I'm going with this.

My goal is to make a subtly sweet mead that has the flavor of a root beer and the mouthfeel of a cream soda.

[boissonsaumiel]

I'm getting drunk on the root beer flavored mead I was going to gift to my sister before I lost my passport and had to cancel my trip to visit her.

Don't know if she would have liked it anyway. Root beer was my favorite soda as a kid. I don't remember what hers was and now all she drinks is La Croix. I have other batches in progress that she'd probably like better, and I'm sure they'll be fit to drink by the time I see her again.

[boissonsaumiel]

Almost there!

[boissonsaumiel]

The coconut water mead stopped bubbling. Not sure if it actually hit its ABV tolerance or stalled because I put in so much extra honey. It tasted like honey mixed with brandy or whiskey. Really strong. Pretty good, actually, but sweeter than I like.

I racked it off the lees (siphoned it into a different container, leaving behind most of the dead yeast that settled at the bottom), then diluted it with some water and added some yeast to hopefully re-start fermentation and get it a little less sweet.

I also went ahead and added in the root beer spice blend. I'll taste it tomorrow to make sure I don't leave the spices in too long.

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Speaking of leaving in spices too long,

I'm probably going to have to toss my mulled mead. It tastes really...medicinal. I'm going to try egg white fining to see if I can remove some of the bitterness from the oversteeping before I completely give up on it.

I actually made some plain batches mid last month in case a batch I flavored ended up tasting too strong, but those batches aren't really large enough for the amount of dilution this batch would need to taste decent.

[boissonsaumiel]

My two brews that smell the sweetest also seem to be the most active in terms of fermentation rate.

The one gallon batch of avocado blossom honey mead especially has a ton of yeast settling at the bottom. I think I only put in a ¼tsp when I started the batch 2 weeks ago, so the colony must have been multiplying at an incredible rate.

The airlock is still bubbling every 2 seconds. I didn't even add yeast nutrient or anything. The sweet honey smell is much fainter than it was in the beginning, presumably because most of the sugar has been converted to alcohol at this point.

As for the other sweet smelling brew, I think it's mostly the nutrients in the coconut water that have the yeast so excited. Other people who brewed mead with coconut water instead of regular water have remarked on the supercharged yeast activity.

[boissonsaumiel]

I am officially at capacity. The honey I ordered came in and now all of my brewing vessels (2 1gal carboys, 2 ½gal carboys, 2 ⅓gal bottles) have a batch going. The airlocks on the latest 3 aren't bubbling quite yet. I started them last night. I'm seeing some minor activity. I'll take pics later.

I'm using the same honey and yeast for the ½gallon batch that I used for the ½gallon rose infused batch I started earlier, but it's taking quite a bit longer to really get going. Fresh rose petals must be a pretty effective yeast energizer.