I just bottled my first batch of brew!

[DarkTirade]

So I used some of my birthday money to buy bottles and a corker because it was about time for me to bottle my first fully aged gallon of mead. And I got photographic evidence! Unfortunately my regular camera crapped out on me, so it's just cel phone pics. This was my primary test batch for my hearty Winter Mead. I used the thickest, darkest non-buckwheat honey I could find. And to add a bit of extra kick, and seasonal variety, I added six ounces of black molasses to the mix and added in some gingerbread/pumpkin pie type spices. Mostly cinnamon and ginger, but a hint of cloves, nutmeg, orange peel, ect.


This is after I bottled and corked it, but before I sealed the bottles.


This is them after I sealed them. I sealed them in wax, to go for a more medieval/renaissance style than using modern shrink-wrap PVC.


This is a close-up of the seal. It's hard to see with the cheap little cel phone pic, but I bought a seal with my initial on it, so I can personally put my seal of approval on every bottle I produce. :) What kind of wax is it? Well, that's none of your damn beeswax!

I didn't use a filter when transferring from the carboy I brewed it in (partially because I'm too cheap to deal with it at the moment, and partly because I was going for an old-fashioned minimalist approach), so the lees (solid bits of whatnot, yeast, spices, ect.) sunk to the bottom. You can see the difference between the first and last bottle.


First bottle. Dark brown brew, but with a bright red highlight. Light passes through fairly easily.


Last bottle. Dark brown brew, no highlights, light doesn't pass through easily.

I think I will find some way to filter it next time, nothing fancy, just enough to get rid of most of the lees. That's a pretty dramatic difference right there. And that isn't like the tiny cloudy apple bits you see floating around in English ciders, it's just tasteless sediment. It's bound to detract from the last two bottles that it got into.

Now I just need to design (or get someone with artistic talent to design) a label for 'em!


*edit* I just realized I didn't even mention how it turned out. I was going for something heavy and semi-dry, it turned out to be a little bit thinner than I expected, and very dry. So next time I think I'm going to use a little more honey. Now my only problem is that I don't know where I can get ahold of the honey I used. I've never seen anything else like it. If I have to I s'pose I can order it online, but I'm sure shipping costs will make it really expensive. :(

But this is definitely NOT like the sweet, light meads that one usually finds in the stores. :)

[Kali]

1. meads in stores?

I have never seen any in a store. Tried some a few years ago and have been wanting to try brewing it myself but I have a mental block about paying for honey. All when I was a kid we got 5 gallons a year from the bee guy that kept bees on the place. (Mesquite, catclaw acacia, and other desert flowers)

One of these days.

[DarkTirade]

2. It's not easy to find

but most of the stuff you do find is either A) really really cheap white wine with honey mixed in. *blech* or B) Real mead, but it's semi-sweet or sweeter. Hence my decision to go for dry.

[Kali]

4. and it sounds good too

how long did you ferment? I understand it takes a while. What kind of yeast? I read a recipe for a gingered and carbonated mead that sounded so good (I do love bubbles) but that dark and dry sounds good.

[DarkTirade]

5. I let it go for about 2 months, it's hard to tell exactly when the brewing stops though

Because at a certain point it slows down enough that you can't tell if the bubbles you see are just bubbles on the side of the container, or if they're carbon dioxide from the yeast. :P I'm pretty sure it was actively brewing for at least a month, maybe a month and a half.

After the two months, I let it age for another year. Unfortunately since I started it before I moved up here and found a decent brewing store, the brewing time and a few months of the aging time was in a plastic container, not glass. Although the aging in glass for several months helped get rid of any aftertastes that may have given it.

As for the yeast, I went with Lalvin EC-1118. gotmead.com recommended it for dry meads. It doesn't do much to the flavor, but it can survive with low sugar levels and it can tolerate a lot of alcohol, which is why it's good for restarting stuck fermentation or making a dry drink.

[Droopy]

3. Interesting post, DarkTirade

I don't really have anything to add except that I hope you decide to post more about your brewing exploits. I enjoyed reading your post. And I'll give you a kick. :dem:

[DarkTirade]

6. Thanky.

I've got four gallons in the house total. I've been working on seasonal varieties, so right now I have two gallons each of winter and fall. The fall batch that's aged enough to be bottled, however, didn't turn out quite how I wanted. I'll have to play with a bit before I can bottle it. It's a little too thin so I'll need to find some way to get rid of some of the water. I'm thinking about doing what's called 'ice distilling', where you let it semi-freeze. The water freezes first, so any chunks of ice you take out are going to be almost pure water.

But I don't wanna distill it too much. Don't wanna end up with moonshine instead of mead. :P

[DarkTirade]

7. And just to be ironical...

I decided to finish off the last bit of scotch I had left before I go to bed tonight. Those bottles are so beatifully sealed that I just can't bring myself to pull out the corkscrew right now. :)

[Lucian]

8. Mmmm....I love mead.

[DarkTirade]

9. I'm pretty sure this one ain't like any you'll find elsewhere. :)

[Lucian]

10. The stuff I get from the liquor store...

Bunratty Mead is good, but it tastes like, what you said, white wine with a taste of honey and cloves. I'd love to taste real, authentic mead. :)

[DarkTirade]

11. Bunratty is interesting.

I personally don't like it, mostly because I bought it expecting mead and it wasn't. :P And it's too sweet and sticky for my taste. But, in its favor, Bunratty is the one white wine with honey added that I've found that wasn't made with REALLY CHEAP white wine. It's actually made with decent ingredients. And the spices make it interesting. Not my thing, but if only they wouldn't try to call it mead, I'd be willing to accept it for what it is. :)

[Lucian]

13. I still enjoy drinking it...

even though it isn't real mead. It's nice heating it up in the winter and making a hot toddy. :)

[DarkTirade]

15. I prefer mulled mead myself. :)

If you can find real mead, heat it up and add a cinnamon stick or two and a couple of cloves. If you have empty teabags or a tea strainer you can add a few other spices like nutmeg, allspice and/or orange peel. Works great for cider (hard or non-alcoholic) too.

Chaucer's mead is a fairly cheap and simple one that's one of the more common ones here in the US, but the nice thing about it is A) it's not overly sweet, and B) it comes with its own mulling spices in a teabag. Also I discovered that it mixes well with cider if you want to mull the two together.

[jeff30997]

12. "Now I just need to design ... a label for 'em"

Idea for label + a Slogan:

My brew is so dark that even light can't escape from it!



:)

[DarkTirade]

14. Yeah, I'm still working on slogans and whatnot too. :)

I'm thinking maybe not for a slogan, but for an ad campaign, go for a viking reference: "Pillage responsibly." :P

[BarenakedLady]

16. So when's the party?

Hmmmmmmmmm?

:toast:

I volunteer to be a local taste tester. :D

[DarkTirade]

18. All right, but if you're expecting a sweet honey drink, you're gonna be surprised. :P

[harmonicon]

17. looks fantastic

I'm sure that it will taste different after being in the bottles for awhile as well. I'm jealous.

[DarkTirade]

19. It's actually a lot easier to do than I expected it would be. :)

It helps if you have a brewing store and a couple of bucks to spare though. My first couple batches were brewed in plastic water jugs with homemade airlocks and really cheap ingredients. Blech. :P

[harmonicon]

20. where did you find space to do it?

That's a lot of what's held me back from making my own beer. I just have no idea where I'd get it done. Hell, I don't even have a proper kitchen with tiled floors or anything. And how did you regulate temperature?

[DarkTirade]

27. Beer is a lot more finicky than mead.

With my mead I either let it brew upstairs at room temperature or in the room of the basement that has the water heater in it, then when its ready to age I put it in the other room of the basement, which stays a pretty steady temperature year-round. The room in the basement with the water heater stays about 65ish, and the rest of the basement stays about 50-60ish. (Which I couldn't do at first, because I lived in FL and I didn't have a basement. :P) If I get more than one gallon batches going, I'll probably let them age in the two seperate areas to see how the temperature affects it. :)

[badgerpup]

21. How does the molasses affect the flavor?

I makes mead meself, so I'm curious...:hi:

Quick and dirty calculation for how dry or sweet you want your finished product is figure 3 lbs of honey per gallon of finished product for a dry mead, and 5 lbs per gallon for a really sweet one. Then you sort of adjust between for your own preference. ;)

Costco honey made a pretty good mead...and Lalvin EC-1118 is a KICK-ASS yeast for this sort of thing. I've gotten results as high as 22% alcohol for the finished product...
but that's unusual.
The normal level is between 16% and 18%.

Viniclear...it's a really good product- precipitates all the yeast and other lees out of the wine. Also I've found that cold helps the clearing process.

I've flavored my mead with 'pumpkin pie' spices...and found that one MUST go very gently with the clove...it's a dragon among spices and a little dab'll do ya. Otherwise it tends to overpower the rest of the flavors and takes several years aging to smooth the flavors out. :blush:

Got a batch going now with cinnamon, clove, allspice, mace, ginger, peppercorns (just a few) and orange and lemon for the citrus. It bodes well...

Flavored one batch with about 2 quarts of dried rose petals once.
Five-gallon batch...tossed in a couple of Campden tablets 24 hours before pitching (Lalvin EC-1118)it... who knows what evil wild yeasts lurk on the dried petals of the rose?
Turned out nice...:beer:

[DarkTirade]

24. It's got a pretty strong odor and flavor of molasses.

Which is another reason I'm gonna use a little more honey next time, to help balance that out. :) It's interesting though, because it's so dry a wine, but yet the molasses flavor is in there.

I didn't use much clove in this one, however, my fall will have a LOT of cinnamon and clove. I want my fall cyser to be downright spicy. :) There isn't as much of a variety of spices in that one as there is in the winter, but there's a lot more of 'em.

I like dry drinks, but I also like drinks with a little oomph, a little weight to 'em. So I want to use more honey, but still end up dry. So far I think the best way to achieve that is to use thick, heavy honey. So that's what I'm doing with my winter. I found the thickest heaviest honey I could find, basically it's like buckwheat but it doesn't have the buckwheat honey taste.

[badgerpup]

30. Hmmm...

I may try adding a bit of molasses to an experimental batch, just to see what happens. I like the rich heavy flavor of molassess, but that slightly bitter aftertaste puts some folks (not me) off.

The peppercorns (about 10, left whole) don't give a peppery flavor, but they do rachet up the spice flavors a bit and help bring them together.

I've found that ginger...raw or powdered...will add some "oomph" to your spice list...made a pineapple wine where the spices included raw ginger slices and it ROCKS. OUT. LOUD. :headbang:

This is the wine for which I was soliciting names a while back...finally went with Port Caribbe. Alcohol level titered out at 24%, but it's pretty smooth...it calls for using brown sugar* rather than white, so the molasses flavor translates to that of a rum...tempered by the oak chips and vanilla I used to adjust it. :9

My wine guru and beta taster (guy who runs the local brew store) told me of a guy who made mead using honey made from spurge, of all things...
Took several years before it was really drinkable, and went through some "ZOMG this stuff is dreadful" stages...but after about 4 years it settled down and was very good, according to him.


*cane sugar, not beet sugar.

[DarkTirade]

31. My first batch I tried brown sugar

but it wasn't nearly strong enough for what I wanted. :P I also didn't use a whole lot though, so that might be why. My second batch I used more, and I used extra dark, and it was a little better. But still not quite enough. Hence my using molasses for this batch. :)

I thought about using actual slices of ginger root, or maybe just drop an individual slice into each bottle before I sealed it to let the flavor seep in after it was brewed. I might do two gallons next and try one each way. Or, heck, I've got extra corks. I could uncork two or three of the ones I have here and try that method right now and just recork and seal 'em. :)

[Canuckistanian]

34. Peppercorns? Rose Petals? In Mead?

It's a brave, new world indeed.

Still, I think the Norsemen would have approved!

[DarkTirade]

35. You can put just about anything in mead.

Those are actually not uncommon. :)

[TimeChaser]

22. Mmm, that looks delicious!

I've tried really sweet mead before and liked it. But I LOVE my sake as dry as it comes. So I wonder what dry mead would taste like.

[DarkTirade]

25. Since this is my first very dry mead, I don't have much of a basis of comparison

but now that I know how well this particular kind of yeast works for dry brews, I can make more! :)

[puerco-bellies]

23. Cool beans DT

Meade is pretty hardcore stuff. I used to have a buddy that would show up with bottles of homemade mead and holy crap was that stuff strong. The only thing I ever tasted like it was triple bock. How long are you going to let it age?

[DarkTirade]

26. I do seasonal brews, so right now I make 'em so they'll finish brewing during that season...

then I'll let 'em age for a year so they'll be ready to drink by the time the next season comes around. :) This particular one actully aged a little longer because it was my first serious test at this particular recipe. I did two before that, just to test ingredient quantities and whatnot, but I used really cheap ingredients and didn't let them age that long.

I've got another batch aging that's pretty much the same recipe, but a little different as far as spices go and I'm letting it age with hungarian oak, to add a little bit of that flavor too. That one should be ready by christmastime.

[jpak]

28. Mead - Yum!

I have 5 gallons of cyser and 10 gallons of hard cider workig right now.

The cyser only has 4 lbs of local honey in it and I'm going to prime it when its bottled (sparking cyser).

I have 3 gallons of dandelion wine to bottle this week. My first attempt. I used 18 cups of pure yellow dandelinon petals (!) and wil prime that too.

Should be ready by May...

:beer:

[DarkTirade]

29. I'll probably start experimenting with sparkling at some point.

I was thinking about making a sparkling maple mead, I've heard maple does well with that. :)

[underpants]

32. I'm sorry but I see no Sea Monkeys

good for you

My father-in-law makes his own wine but we aren't supposed to allow it to have sunlight shine on it :scared:


Seriously there have been two incidents

[DarkTirade]

33. Yeah, you don't wanna leave 'em in the sun.

It'll do weird things to it. :P