Hope everyone had a great Christmas!
So, the holidays are pretty much over now. *whew!* Here are the ingredients for the next mead recipe I want to try. I got a large can of blackberry puree that will be perfect! Actually, a honey and fruit wine is called a melomel, so this recipe is for Blackberry Melomel:
Yield: 1 gallon
Ingredients:
3 lbs. blackberries
1 cup sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp lemon zest
3 bags of blackberry tea
2 lbs. honey
1/8 tsp grape tannin
1 tsp acid blend
1 tsp pectic enzyme
Package of yeast
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1.5 cups orange juice at room temperature
I think for my blackberry mead I am going to use a Champagne yeast from Northern Brewer, an excellent resource for all things brewing!
I will be posting the instructions a bit later!
So I started that Maple Mead a bit ago and racked it a week ago, but I am not quite sure how it is going to turn out. Sadly it smelled quite acidic, so something might have gone wrong along the way. Definitely going to give it a bit longer before testing again. It should be ready to rack again in a month or so, so we shall see what happens then!
If the Maple Mead doesn't work out, I have a recipe (which I will definitely post later) for a Blackberry Mead that I am just dying to try!
That is all for the moment! I definitely need to find a new jewelry tutorial to try!
I finally started my Maple Mead a few days ago. Yay! Sadly, though, I had a bit of a mishap with the stove/boiling honey. It boiled over quite a bit, so I lost a bit of the water/honey/maple syrup that should be in the jug. Well, it will be ready to be tested in a month when I rack it (move the liquid from one jug to another to filter out the particles), so we shall see if it is the right sweetness/taste then. If not.... then it will be time to add in a bit more honey and maple syrup!
So exciting! The one thing I find frustrating with brewing though, is how long it takes to make a mead. Many recipes I have seen call for the drink to sit for a year before it can be consumed! Crazy!
In all this mead should take three to four months before it is ready. I can't wait for the taste testing!
Here is another wire wrapped labradorite pendant! This time I added in a bit of copper and I am really loving the effect!
Additionally I have been trying a new type of crafting. Recently my boyfriend has become interested in brewing. It is an interesting process, so I am going to try a bit of brewing myself. He likes to make beer, but I am interested more in wines and mead, so this weekend I am going to start the process of creating a Maple Mead. I found the recipe here. Should be interesting and I definitely can't wait for the taste testing!
