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The Lost Mead

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Soyala_Amaya

Soyala_Amaya

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 21, 2011
991
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Missouri
So I've been brewing mead for a while, and had something MINDBLOWING happen to me the other day. I will be moving come the spring, so I haven't started any new brews since last JULY. I wanted to make sure everything had time to finish fermenting, batch age for a while, and degas so I could have everything in bottles and not have to move full carboys. (there has been some brewers withdrawal but I muscled through)

Anyway, as the move is getting closer and closer, it was time to bottle. I had, according to my calculations, roughly 45 gallons on the counter. It took me three days of hard bottling, but I was down to what should have been my last two 5 gallon carboys...and there was an extra 3 gallon carboy sitting there. Just magically there.

I assume I made it. There is a 99% likelihood it is mead of some sort. It is kind of purple and fruity, a bit young, but not bad.

Other than this I have NO IDEA WHAT IT IS OR WHEN I MADE IT. :eek:

Has anyone else every done this?
 
Soyala_Amaya

Soyala_Amaya

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 21, 2011
991
6
0
Missouri
Marshmallow Blue said:
Not sure if you have an other half, but if you do. They may have tampered with your inventory to have 3 gallons to themselves... I'd hire a PI right now!
Click to expand...

If it wasn't for the fact that my other half looks at my brewing counter with mild greed and yet great fear, I could almost see this. But no, he has no idea what do do with a brew, but he IS a great bottling partner! It really cuts my time in half to have someone else help out on bottling day...and he takes payment in kisses and booze. ;D
 
Y

YogiBearMead726

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Registered Member
Aug 21, 2010
1,519
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San Francisco, CA
I used to have that problem...but I've since taken to labeling my carboys with a sharpie, and have yet to wonder at the contents of a carboy since. Plus, the sharpie comes off fairly easily with a little scrub which is always nice when I need to refill the carboy with something else. :)
 
Chevette Girl

Chevette Girl

All around BAD EXAMPLE
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Lifetime GotMead Patron
Apr 27, 2010
8,447
59
48
Ottawa, ON
I started out with only a couple of carboys, thinking, "how could I ever not know?" Then I left a couple things to age... and when it was bottling time, I had to go through my logbook to identify one carboy, so I started tagging them... then two tags fell off similar looking brews and again, back to the log book to determine the contents by excluding everything else and hoping I could tell the difference between two similar coloured light flavoured wines... Then I thought maybe I should start labelling them, so I hung cardboard nametags on a string around the carboy's neck... then I got two blueberry batches from different years and two blackberry JAO batches from different months mixed up, now I lick-and-stick water-soluble wine labels right onto the carboys to identify my the contents and start date and what chemicals have been added...
 
Soyala_Amaya

Soyala_Amaya

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 21, 2011
991
6
0
Missouri
Chevette Girl said:
and when it was bottling time, I had to go through my logbook to identify one carboy, so I started tagging them... then two tags fell off similar looking brews and again, back to the log book
Click to expand...

This is my issue! I used sticky labels on my carboys, left them to age for about 6-7 months, several fell off, and somehow I just DID NOT WRITE THIS MEAD DOWN IN MY LOGBOOK! I thought I wrote down everything! :confused: I was never a fan of the sharpie method because I couldn't read the sharpie over a batch of mead, but looks like I may have to if I'm this blond!
 
M

Marshmallow Blue

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Jan 16, 2013
830
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0
Northern Newh Hampshire
hivemindmead.wordpress.com
Luckily with my small amount of living space I only have room for 4 or 5 carboys and I know whats in all of them thanks to my youthful memory. Then when I bottle I write a code for what it is on the cap and the month/year brew date

example, my apple cider mead is labeled AC 10/12 and my Fear of the Dark bochet will be labeled FoD 2/13. These codes are listed per recipe in my log book!
 
Loadnabox

Loadnabox

NewBee
Registered Member
Apr 17, 2011
849
3
0
Ohio
I almost did this yesterday

I didn't label my bags as well as I thought, only labeled the boxes. Took a bag out without noticing the writing on the box first, looked at the boxes and let out an expletive.

Fortunately a concord pyment is fairly easy to recognize, but it's getting good enough it was hard to tell from an experimental batch of JAO that was really young without taking a good look and taste.
 
Chevette Girl

Chevette Girl

All around BAD EXAMPLE
Moderator
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Apr 27, 2010
8,447
59
48
Ottawa, ON
Soyala_Amaya said:
somehow I just DID NOT WRITE THIS MEAD DOWN IN MY LOGBOOK! I thought I wrote down everything! :confused:
Click to expand...

Aaahhh... I've got a few entries in my logbook that are out of order for this reason, but they're all JAO's or variants where I slap 'em together and forget about 'em, then I go to rack it and "where the heck is it- ooh, I see, I was dumb again... when DID I start this thing anyway, oh make something up, close enough..."
 
T

tatgeer

NewBee
Registered Member
Feb 18, 2008
59
0
0
NM
I use masking tape with one or two words and the date. That's enough info to look it up in the logbook, and unless the carboy is quite wet, the tape sticks in my experience.
 
Riverat

Riverat

Premium Patron
Premium Patron
Mar 31, 2011
626
5
0
Ellabell, Georgia
www.ogeecheeportapotty.com
I cut the handles off of plastic grocery bags including a good size panel out of the bag (two per bag), they are most always white, I hang them over the neck and write a mini log with a magic marker and just move them with each racking.
 
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