Update on my meads..

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AdeDunn

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Easy to forget I got into brewing making mead. :lol:

So, a quick update.

The vanilla metheglin mead has now really come into it's own! It's lost that dry roughness it once had, and developed a hint of sweetness. Still kind of thin mouth feel, but I discovered using glycerine AFTER I made this. Lalvin 71b-1122 yeast was used in this one. 11.29% ABV approx. Crystal clear, pale straw colour.

Ginger mead, no idea not had a taste in a long time now.

Raspberry mead. I didn't overly like this to begin with. To be honest, that's because it wasn't near ready, but I got pressured into taking it to a party practically right after racking it... Got told it wasn't sweet enough. :lol: Yeah, it is now... Has a delightful fruity flavour, with strong honey overtones and a lovely thick mouth feel. Not one I can drink a lot of though as it's a big mead so to speak. Crystal clear, sort of a rose colour. No idea what the ABV was on it, as never too the SG the whole time... :lol: I was rushed when making it as had been given a shed load of raspberries with the expectation that I'd turn them into mead, so needed to get it done before they went nasty on me.. Yeast was the Lalvin 71b-1122 once more.

Show mead - this is still sat batch conditioning. Never been tasted, and FG not yet been measured. Crystal clear though, and a nice amber colour. Used CML mead yeast.

Blackberry mead - I finally racked this recently. Had a taste, total beast... Tasted too much like strong red wine for my liking. Hard to say the ABV as the honey got topped up half way through, guesstimate would be around 16% mark... I used the Lalvin 71b-1122 again, as this seems to work well for melomels. Very dark black/purple colour, can't really see any haze.

Hydromel - Turned out really delicious! Light honey flavour, medium dry and nicely sparkling. Very very refreshing. A really quick and easy beverage to produce with just a couple of jars of honey for 1 gallon, some water and a packet of CML Real Ale yeast. ;) Oh and a bit more honey to prime with. We plan to do a full 23 litre brew of this at some point for the summer next year.
 
I'm really interested in your Vanilla mead in particular, as I made a gallon of Vanilla metheglin using pod extract with seed an all, not flavouring. I added it before fermentation, and the flavour didn't survive. I'm curious as to what you used / did, and how it turned out.

I did a batch of show mead yesterday. Just waiting 24 hours after adding crushed campden before pitching yeast. I'm also trying Gervin GV4 as my yeast to see if I can get it to ferment out without sticking.
 
I used a Madagascan vanilla pod from Lidl, cut open and dumped into the demijohn. I left it in there for the entire primary, only removing it when I racked and stabilised. The vanilla wasn't that noticeable initially, but is much more noticeable now. I used a fairly neutral (read cheap) honey though, a strong flavoured honey would probably drown it out.
 
Yeah, that's one of the methods I have seen described for metheglin and melomel. I was in a crazy rush when I did ours, as it was supposed to be a quick mead, the vanilla was there to cover flaws, as we had promised a friend some at a she'd invited us to. There was only a very faint hint of the vanilla back then, but this has developed with conditioning.

Same with the raspberry, it just tasted of sour raspberry back then as it was too fresh. Now the sourness has gone, revealing a lovely and smooth honey/raspberry flavour, again they went in during primary (there were a LOT of them though, fresh from my parent's garden. :lol:).

Anyway, just got around to testing the "show" meads (as in just mead, not melomel or metheglin).

The one batch tested at 1.004, 12.1 % ABV, and is a little bit sweet and quite tasty with a nice hint of honey. Very easy to drink.

The other batch tested at 0.992, 13.7%, a touch too dry tasting with a hint of lemon in there rather than honey flavour. Not as easy to drink. Nothing that won't be fixed with a bit of back sweetening before it's bottled though.

Both need more time to condition, but this was expected as they have nothing in there to hide any flaws.
 
Yeah, that's one of the methods I have seen described for metheglin and melomel. I was in a crazy rush when I did ours, as it was supposed to be a quick mead, the vanilla was there to cover flaws, as we had promised a friend some at a she'd invited us to. There was only a very faint hint of the vanilla back then, but this has developed with conditioning.

Same with the raspberry, it just tasted of sour raspberry back then as it was too fresh. Now the sourness has gone, revealing a lovely and smooth honey/raspberry flavour, again they went in during primary (there were a LOT of them though, fresh from my parent's garden. :lol:).

Anyway, just got around to testing the "show" meads (as in just mead, not melomel or metheglin).

The one batch tested at 1.004, 12.1 % ABV, and is a little bit sweet and quite tasty with a nice hint of honey. Very easy to drink.

The other batch tested at 0.992, 13.7%, a touch too dry tasting with a hint of lemon in there rather than honey flavour. Not as easy to drink. Nothing that won't be fixed with a bit of back sweetening before it's bottled though.

Both need more time to condition, but this was expected as they have nothing in there to hide any flaws.

1.004, 12.1% and still sweet? Also 1122 as yeast?
 
1.004, 12.1% and still sweet? Also 1122 as yeast?
No, I used CML Mead yeast for these. Regards the sweetness, I do taste sweet more than some, I'm diabetic so have to be careful with sugar so my tastebuds have adjusted to this.

Sent from my NEM-L51 using Tapatalk
 
Thanks for the updates, glad the meads are going well. For comparison, my hydromel was stabilied at 1.007 (I think, might have been a touch lower and I can never remember without my notes to hand) but it's also kinda sweet. It's not a sugary, syrupy sweetness but quite delicate along with the orange blossom, definitely not dry and at the sg there's not really much sugar in the actual drink. If you're not used to sweet thing I could see it being quite noticeable.
 
Thanks for the updates, glad the meads are going well. For comparison, my hydromel was stabilied at 1.007 (I think, might have been a touch lower and I can never remember without my notes to hand) but it's also kinda sweet. It's not a sugary, syrupy sweetness but quite delicate along with the orange blossom, definitely not dry and at the sg there's not really much sugar in the actual drink. If you're not used to sweet thing I could see it being quite noticeable.
Perfect description! Like when you get a hint of sweet malt in a good beer.

Sent from my NEM-L51 using Tapatalk
 

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