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Woo-hoo! Honey money!

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Chevette Girl

All around BAD EXAMPLE
Moderator
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Apr 27, 2010
8,443
53
48
Ottawa, ON
Finally got money, finally bought honey!

$93 for a 15 kg pail, unpasteurized 2011 clover from my local apiary... in the autumn I'll be going back for a pail of this year's goldenrod harvest.

Now, what to make... so many experiments to run... I don't know where to start! Probably with a bottle washing session so I can bottle some of the stuff that's been sitting around so I've got carboy space for new creations... I'm officially scheduling next Friday to be a wine day. Definitely have to get all those red currants out of the freezer before anything else, I've got enough collected from the last few years to do a 5-gal batch, but I think that'll be a wine, I'll make a gallon or two of mel with the second run though.

I definitely have to make a traditional because it's been so long since I've done one, but I need to decide how strong to aim for... I think maybe I want to make some at 10% and some at 15% concurrently and see how well the fermentations go, how well they age and how much backsweetening I'll need to do if they finish dry (which they should unless I run into pH probs but I've ordered the strips while I sort out what I'm doing about calibrating my stupid pH meter... I so need to make friends with someone in a laboratory). Then when I get the golden honey I'll repeat the same recipe with it...

My very long to-do list keep escaping me when I sit down to plan or start something though... so we'll start with keeping it simple. If I ever get everything bottled and have room on the shelves again, I'm definitely doing a yeast test...
 

AToE

NewBee
Registered Member
Jun 8, 2009
4,066
3
0
Calgary AB Canada
Cool - I'd maybe recommend 13 or 14 % for the higher ABV one though. 14% is pushing it really if you want to drink within 1-1.5 years in my opinion, above that is cool, but in a traditional nothing hides that alcohol burn.

Also, it seems like it's only 1% or 2% less than 15% - but it's 30% or 40% more alcohol than 10%ABV, so it is still a really massive difference in ABV even at 13% compared to 10%.
 

Chevette Girl

All around BAD EXAMPLE
Moderator
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Apr 27, 2010
8,443
53
48
Ottawa, ON
I am intending on backsweetening it, or most of it, I tried a second-run mead recently and it was a little drier than I like so I think I still prefer things sweeter. But the plan is to age a couple bottles dry.

I'm now trying to reconstruct the mental to-do list of all the things I've thought were a good idea to find out, and slap it into a text document... yay for search functions...
 

wildoates

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 22, 2009
2,373
4
0
Elk Grove, CA
I haven't done any brewing this summer, busy with other things, and anyway, cooler weather is better for it. I'd like to pick up some of the CA OB honey I posted the link to t'other day, and make a trad with it at least. I hope. :)
 

SpamDog

Worker Bee
Registered Member
Dec 27, 2006
63
1
8
Congrats on getting some honey money! I just finished off my 60lb pail on a Cyser and a Pyment. Now I have to figure out how to save up for another pail.

Maybe its just me, but I have a favorite recipe that I make every time I get a new pail of honey. I say make your "House Mead" if you got one, then make some crazy stuff that you have been dying to try. I also have my list of things that I want to try in my meadlog

Happy Fermenting

Spamdog
 

Chevette Girl

All around BAD EXAMPLE
Moderator
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Apr 27, 2010
8,443
53
48
Ottawa, ON
That's the thing, all my staple brews are wines (pear, red currant, wild grape and crabapple) and not meads, and I don't think I've made a straight traditional mead since I found this site, so my previous trads all have acid additions and no energizer, and I don't even have any left for sampling.

My staple failproof recipe lately has been blackberry JAO, and I've got a huge stash of frozen blackberries so I COULD make a big batch, but I've got a fair bit of finished blackberry JAO stocked already... so I don't really need to make more. And 15 kg isn't THAT much honey...
 
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