First of all.. Hi! ;D
I have been thinking of making mead for a while now. I've been to this site a few times in the past but I didn't know enough about brewing lingo so it sounded harder than it was.
I decided to try after watching a video podcast on making a mead. Well, I remembered this site so I came back and started reading. Alot. I decided to make a dry mead to start. I picked up everything I needed and mixed everything together. After following the nutrient addition schedule I had a crazy fermenting mass-o-goodness. Now, to try something different (can't make things easy), I decided to use Birch beer extract to flavor my mead.
5lbs clover honey
1.5g water
1/2 bottle birch beer soda flavoring
yeast(can't remember what one but it was around 15%abv rated. At work right now)
nutrients
SG- 1.110
Flash forward a few weeks: Everything is done fermenting(SG-9.994) and the mead smells GREAT! Has a very strong alcohol taste but a nice birch beer finish. I know this will go away but my question is this:
Is the smell giving me a preview of the taste once I let it age?
For my second batch, I want to let it age on a nice bed of dark chocolate. I know the directions I've found here all call for hot chocolate powder but can I use, say, 2-3 inches of bakers chocolate as a bed?
I have been thinking of making mead for a while now. I've been to this site a few times in the past but I didn't know enough about brewing lingo so it sounded harder than it was.
I decided to try after watching a video podcast on making a mead. Well, I remembered this site so I came back and started reading. Alot. I decided to make a dry mead to start. I picked up everything I needed and mixed everything together. After following the nutrient addition schedule I had a crazy fermenting mass-o-goodness. Now, to try something different (can't make things easy), I decided to use Birch beer extract to flavor my mead.
5lbs clover honey
1.5g water
1/2 bottle birch beer soda flavoring
yeast(can't remember what one but it was around 15%abv rated. At work right now)
nutrients
SG- 1.110
Flash forward a few weeks: Everything is done fermenting(SG-9.994) and the mead smells GREAT! Has a very strong alcohol taste but a nice birch beer finish. I know this will go away but my question is this:
Is the smell giving me a preview of the taste once I let it age?
For my second batch, I want to let it age on a nice bed of dark chocolate. I know the directions I've found here all call for hot chocolate powder but can I use, say, 2-3 inches of bakers chocolate as a bed?