Two Meads

After an unexplained illness and a bit of research back in June, DeAunn thought she might have a gluten allergy.  She decided to go off gluten for a while and see how it went.  Good news: her health improved almost immediately and she still remarks how much better she feels the longer she goes without it.  Bad news: now she can't partake in the beer I make.  I've looked into some options for gluten-free brewing and may explore that more down the road, provided I can come up with something better than New Grist (not my speed).  Neither of us care for wine, and DeAunn is allergic to sulfites (though the sulfited drinks we've had this summer don't seem to have bothered her, interestingly), so I'm not planning to get into making it right now.

Over the last few months we've sampled a variety of ciders and meads for further GF possibilities, with some great finds.  French perry was a particular hit, as was pretty much the full line of meads, melomels (honey & fruit), and metheglins (honey & herbs/spices) from Brothers Drake Meadery in Columbus, Ohio; their semi-dry varieties in particular really redefined mead for us as a beverage that didn't have to be sticky sweet.  If you find yourself in Columbus, do yourself a favour and stop in at the tasting room.

My eyes will be peeled over the next couple months for local cider to ferment, but honey is something that seems to be available more readily.  There are a few apiaries in the area, so fortunately using local honey is a viable option for us.  Without really planning on it, however, we got our mead making start on the road in July.  While visiting DeAunn's family in Alabama, we had the pleasure of eating peaches from a local farm that were the juiciest and best tasting that either of us had ever had.  With mead on my mind and some of champion mead maker (and BTV guest) Curt Stock's recipes and processes bookmarked, I devised a plan.  We bought a couple baskets of peaches before we left to take with us on our visit to Pennsylvania; there we procured some local honey and, after more searching than I'd anticipated, wine yeast.  Remove the pits and freeze the peaches, add in some yeast energizer, yeast nutrient, and water, and voilà, we were fermenting about a gallon of peach melomel in a bucket in the back

seat of the car as we traveled.  I transferred it to secondary once we got back home and added bentonite to flocc out the proteins and yeast; the sample at transfer was very promising.

It would've been enough to see how this batch turned out and then to move on to further experimenting, but last week a notice came over my Facebook feed about Mead Day on the 4th.  Since it's so easy to make, it took hardly any time at all to pick up all the ingredients for a couple gallons of blackberry melomel.  I'm interested to see how long these take to be drinkable; while conventional wisdom points to months (or years) of aging, Curt's staggered nutrient addition method purportedly turns out ready-to-drink batches in as little as six weeks.  The peach melomel definitely pointed in that direction, but Brothers Drake are turning out really excellent mead following a more traditional aging program.  Extended aging would also play well to experimenting with wood, dry hops, and other possibilities.  If you haven't tried making mead, I'd highly recommend just trying it out by getting together a pound or two of honey, a gallon jug, and a packet of Lalvin Narbonne 71B-1122; it can be a very rewarding addition to your brewing portfolio.

Pennsylbama Peach Melomel

Batch size: 1.25 gallons
Projected OG: 1.123 (estimated)

Fermentables
 4 lb Local PA honey
3.75 lb Local AL peaches - pitted, mashed, frozen

Yeast
Lalvin 71B-1122

Extras
Yeast nutrient
Yeast energizer

Staggered nutrient additions (SNA): added yeast, nutrient, and energizer at pitching time, 24 hours, and 48 hours into fermentation

Brewday: 14 July 2012

Secondary: 7 August 2012
Added .5 tsp Bentonite, dissolved
SG: 1.032

Bottled: 29 September 2012
FG: 1.029
ABV: 12.4%

Bottled still.
Great peach aroma, decent peach flavour, finish is sweet but satisfying.

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Mead Day 2012 Blackberry Melomel

Batch size: 2 gallons
Measured OG: 25.0P (1.107)

Fermentables
 5 lb Local UT honey
1.25 lb Organic blackberries, frozen

Yeast
 Lalvin 71B-1122

Extras
Yeast nutrient
Yeast energizer

Brewday: 4 August 2012
Fermented in swamp cooler at 71F
Nutrient and energizer added at pitching and 48 hours later

Secondary
Bentonite added, oak added to 1 gallon

Bottled: 27 October 2012
FG: 1.002
ABV: 13.8%
Bottled still.

Tasting: The peach melomel, finishing sweet, reinforced the delicate peach flavour.  Alcohol was present and maybe a little pushy, but just let you know this was a substantial libation.  The blackberry melomel, on the other hand, finished very dry.  The blackberries lent a fruity tartness, with the oaked portion also having an enjoyable tannic drying sensation on the back of the tongue.  Very different, but also very tasty.