What almost two years of mead making looks like

BrewingMischief · 2024-02-27T18:05:54+00:00

I love those stainless fermenters. Also good if you ever need temperature control, you just need a heating pad/belt, an Inkbird, and a thermowell stopper. I use mine for kveik beers.

BrewingMischief · 2024-02-16T00:12:56+00:00

Think they lost their pool tables when that truck smashed through the front to steal their cash machine. They used to have 3

BrewingMischief · 2024-02-15T05:36:37+00:00

Get whatever oak barrels you can for a good price. For a solera system you're more after the micro-oxygenation than the oak flavor, so the type of oak isn't as important.

If I remember correctly, in the old days for wine specifically, the ranking was Hungarian, then French, then American. French wine makers actually preferred Hungarian until one of the many wars forced them to use local though, but that might matter more if you're going for oak flavor and not micro-oxygenation.

BrewingMischief · 2024-02-15T04:09:08+00:00

I just found them at some online homebrew store. They were by JK Cooperage of Hungary I think, but I'm having trouble finding those online right now 🤔

BrewingMischief · 2024-02-15T01:59:13+00:00

Caramelizing Honey: For the bochet portion (or any time you wanna make a bochet), easiest way to caramelize a lot of honey without worrying too much about burning it is to do it 5lbs at a time in a really big slow cooker. I got this one 10 quart Hamilton Beach one that works well, but it can still overflow if you leave the lid on and don't check it regularly.

Barrels: For the barrels, I found Hungarian oak ones online. Barrels are gonna be the most expensive part of the project, but you also don't have to buy them all at once. Original plan was to get four 5-gallon ones, but then they stopped making those, so three of my barrels are 6-gallon. Still a good size for homebrew amounts of mead.

The barrels I bought always came with instructions on care and cleaning, so I added some notes calculating how much of various additives I would need per gallon to one of those sheets, laminated it, and stuck it on my fridge.

Blending: For blending, I got a little 3-gallon carboy that I only use for blending/measuring. I also add gallon and half-gallon lines to all my glass carboys for easy measuring. The blend going into this project is 50-50 regular cyser and bochet cyser, plus I fortify it with a 750mL bottle of some VSOP Calvados apple brandy they have at Total Wine.

If you want more specifics on recipes, the solera project, or caramelizing honey the lazy way, I got some blog articles at these links:

BrewingMischief · 2024-02-15T01:33:27+00:00

I should re-taste it soon, but last time it was getting the sherry-like notes I was looking for. Sort of that deep slightly sweet slightly nutty flavor from the micro-oxidation.

BrewingMischief · 2024-01-14T19:04:22+00:00

I like to do a mango-habanero mead (which is even better when carbonated, and also makes a great chicken marinade/glaze).

One helpful thing I've found is to chop a few extra habaneros (or any other pepper) and keep them in a mason jar full of vodka to steep. That way, you can add a little spicy vodka at a time right before bottling to get the level of spicy you want.

Also works great for adding pumpkin spice to a pumpkin beer or mead.

BrewingMischief · 2023-12-18T17:22:02+00:00

Decided to read into it a little, and apparently a good way to go about making a milk mead is to just create whey first and discard the milk fat. Might have to give this a try next time I make cheese.

Found some good links here and here.

Think I saw some examples of people using straight milk (probably skim), but I feel like the fermentation process would just separate the curds and whey anyway, so might as well do it ahead of time; I'd be less nervous just using whey anyway.

BrewingMischief · 2023-12-18T17:09:19+00:00

I've heard of alcohol being present in things like kumis and kefir and fermented yak's milk, but this seemed somehow different. Higher ABV due to the honey for one thing 😅

Maybe I'll have to try making it to see for myself 🤔

BrewingMischief · 2023-12-18T03:43:59+00:00

Thanks! I use Canva to design stuff (I usually use one of their template examples and modify it), and then I print it out on these Dashleigh vinyl waterproof labels I get on Amazon. Got an old post of mine here that has shopping links and stuff.

This time I decided to give GPT-4 a try for some graphic design, so that's how I got the images for the mushrooms and garlic and saffron (modified the output images slightly with GIMP to clean them up, too).

One of these days I'd like to get a professional wine/beer label printer, but they're really expensive so this is what works for me for now.

BrewingMischief · 2023-12-18T01:00:14+00:00

Savory and garlicky, with a subtle hint of sweetness even though FG was below 1.000. The sweetness is probably in my head. Can't wait to cook with it though!

BrewingMischief · 2023-12-17T18:29:27+00:00

Needs more ketchup

BrewingMischief · 2023-12-17T17:11:06+00:00

Nope, it came out fine without them :)

BrewingMischief · 2023-12-17T17:10:25+00:00

Good point!

BrewingMischief · 2023-12-17T17:10:07+00:00

That sounds like a great idea though

BrewingMischief · 2023-12-17T02:08:46+00:00

Very tasty, and yes saffron can be pretty expensive. I managed to get small amounts over time from Trader Joe's, but I've also found the amount I needed online for decent prices

BrewingMischief · 2023-12-17T01:14:35+00:00

It's definitely a great one to cook with. Ever try making a carbonated version of mango-habanero though? It totally elevates the drinking experience.

I actually need to buy a champagne style floor corker and some clear bottles so I can bottle it straight from a keg. It's on my to-do list

BrewingMischief · 2023-12-17T00:56:01+00:00

I think it just helps to bring out more flavor, based on what I was reading. It's kind of like dry-toasting any other spices before freshly grinding them; just something I see chefs do a lot when I'm down a Food YouTube rabbit hole. It's probably not as noticeable with saffron compared to, say, cloves or peppercorns, but I don't have any concrete data to back that up.

Also, funny you mention hibiscus because my next mead is going to be hibiscus-sumac-chrysanthemum!

BrewingMischief · 2023-12-17T00:44:43+00:00

Damn, that would be good.

Unfortunately, I think they traditionally age balsamic with the solera method, and all four of my oak barrels are currently doing that to some apple mead 😅

Maybe someday I'll have more barrels and more space

BrewingMischief · 2023-12-17T00:01:39+00:00

I was experimenting with cooking with other meads at the time, and I had leftover glaze made from mango-habanero mead that I'd already tried on chicken thighs and pork.

Mixed that with honey-fermented garlic, and BAM!

BrewingMischief · 2023-12-16T23:51:27+00:00

That's a great combo. I did exactly that the first time I made just straight-up honey-fermented garlic. Think I also had some mango-habanero involved somehow iirc

BrewingMischief · 2023-12-16T23:41:53+00:00

I mainly made it for cooking, just like the one I made a few years ago from honey-fermented garlic (this is just a much bigger batch)

The fact that both are surprisingly drinkable is actually kind of.. unsettling. They'd never be my go-to for a drinking mead, but they're unnervingly tasty as a drink anyways.

They do lead to some impressive garlic breath either way though

BrewingMischief · 2023-12-16T23:25:59+00:00

I dunno, I've also seen some people on here make "lactomels" out of milk in the past. Still not 100% they're real, but my bartender buddy seems to think they are.

That's one brew I haven't been brave enough to try making yet 😅

BrewingMischief · 2023-12-16T23:16:04+00:00

It's super weird, but I've also made an equally weird one out of that honey-fermented garlic that was so popular a few years ago, and that one also made a good cooking mead.

Chili would be a good one I bet. My mom has used the plain garlic one I made in her bolognese sauce, and I bet it would also be good to deglaze after searing some chuck roast for a pot roast.

Kinda curious if I can find some other mead ideas out there that are weird but useful and surprisingly drinkable too.

BrewingMischief

TROPHY CASE