#no.061123

[boissonsaumiel]

So I added some gall nut tannin to the Saffron mead about three weeks ago. There was cardamom in there too at one point, but the saffron flavor came through stronger when I tasted it today. I don't know if it was the tannin or the extra three weeks, but the flavor has vastly improved over the last time I tasted it, and now that the off flavors are gone, I think it will be good blended with some of the Rhodomel, which was my original plan for this batch.

They're both a nice rich amber hue, more orange tinted than some of my other batches because of the pigments from the (pink red and yellow) roses and the saffron respectively.

Note: the lighting is weird because I used flash while the room's bright overhead light was on.

Speaking of the Rhodomel, I went to grab it and the stopper had popped out sometime between today and last night without my realizing. I tasted it and it still tastes the same, so I didn't ruin it, thankfully. I think it was just a change in air pressure that forced the stopper out. The room I'm storing it in doesn't have good temperature control, and gets pretty hot in the afternoon. Anyway, I sprayed some argon gas into the bottle (look for wine-saver air cans if you're shopping for argon; it's heavier than oxygen so it creates a layer of inert gas on top of your brew that protects against oxidation) and sealed with a polyseal screw cap.

That'll have to do for now until I start doing some proper bottling.

[boissonsaumiel]

I added a fining agent to 3 half gallon batches of mead today, the rhodomel, a batch that's lightly flavored with cardamom, and an unflavored batch.

I'm racking at the end of the month. I'm going to add lavender and rosemary to the unflavored batch.

I'm going to add saffron to the cardamom flavored batch. Once it's infused, I want to blend it with the rhodomel, which is too intensely rose-flavored to drink on its own, but we'll see. I'll have to do a lot of taste testing to decide if I actually like those flavors together, and if so, what ratios I should use to blend them.

[boissonsaumiel]

I put some (maybe 2 or 3 tbsp) of the really sweet smelling Nature Nate's organic mystery honey in the half gallon carboy with the off smell, and it seems to have successfully neutralized the off smell.

I am noticing something of a correlation between how dark the honey is and how sweet the brew smells and how active the fermentation is. I suppose the darker honeys may contain more yeast-friendly vitamins and minerals.

I purposely used a lighter honey for this half gallon because it had a very mild flavor, and I didn't want a strong, complex honey whose flavor profile would compete with the spice infusion I plan to add to the batch later on.

[boissonsaumiel]

LMAO we will under NO circumstances be doing, looking at, or even thinking about ANYTHING illegal.

...on our channel.

I quite like City Steading Brews. Their videos are better than other mead channels in terms of providing answers to specific questions. The titles are easily searchable, and they usually tell you everything they're going to do and why at the beginning of each video, so you don't usually have to watch the entire video to get the information you need.

I also appreciate that they're not constantly brewing Potion of Shit Yourself. Doin' the Most, for example, is always backsweetening with sweeteners like lactose and erithritol that are indigestible to yeast and, consequently, also indigestible to many, many humans.

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Progress update:

My little bag of pectin arrived in the mail today. I eyeballed about ⅛tsp and dropped it in the rose petal infused mead. It seemed to have a pretty immediate effect. Fewer petals floating on top, more settling. I think it already looks a little clearer even though it's only been an hour or so.

The new half gallon batch I started on the 11th smells ... weird. Not like it's gone bad, but rather like the small amount of parsley I added (I was trying an experimental method of adding vitamins & minerals to the brew) was too much and it has altered the flavor in an undesirable way.

I was originally planning to use that for a saffron infused mead, but now I might use it for a lavender infused mead instead, since lavender should easily overpower any odd flavor left by the parsley.

I will use the batch I had intended for the lavender infused mead for my saffron mead. That batch was smaller than a half gallon though, so...

...I started 1 more backup batch.

I lied, slightly, when I said I was at capacity earlier. I still had 1 unused airlock and one drilled rubber stopper small enough to fit in one of the empty 750ml wine/bourbon bottles I never got around to recycling.

So now I'm really, truly at capacity.

[boissonsaumiel]

2 of my new batches are being unusually sluggish, so today I decided to give them a bit of a boost.

One is going to be a saffron mead, and the other is going to be a rosemary lavender mead. I'll be infusing the flavors once primary fermentation is over.

I added some extra yeast and some unofficial yeast nutrient (I killed some bread yeast in the microwave) and added it in (Fermaid-O is mostly made of dead yeast, after all).

I'm seeing a bit more activity since I did that.

I tried adding some to the batch that was already going strong and then had to clean up a minor mess when it frothed right up out of the bottle so ... it seems to work???

[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.