Hi Guys, i think i possibly posted these questions before months ago, but coudlnt see how to easily find my old posts to see if there was a response, so ill just ask again if you dont mind!
I made my first batch of mead last year, and it must be around 6-7 months aged now (i think), and it appears to have gone well. i started it in a big plastic 5 gallon drum racking it a couple of times and eventually to a 5 galon glass carboy, here it stayed for around 3 months aging and then i racked it into 5 1 gallon demijons, i have used campdem tablets, but nothing else other than water yeast and honey.
the mead tastes good, like a dry white wine infact which was a suprise to me as id only ever tasted sickly sweet meads from Lindisfarne and Moniack. so im happy with its dryness...
questions:
1) the mead i am about to bottle, do you recommend doing anything else to it? its been in corked demijohns for a while withouth airlocks, so i think its fairly stable.
2) the fifth Demijohn which is only half full (as i lost some in the racking) i want to use to make a experimental spiced melomel (thinking apple raspberries and cinnamon or similar) whats the best ingredients/method to acheive this at this late stage? i dont want to dilute the alchohol strength much, so was thinking to used some kind of natural condensed flavouring if it exists?... also id love for it to have a red raspberry (blood) colour as it will suit the name i plan on giving it.
(please note i am in Scotland so if possible avoid US brand names and tell me the actual type of product you mean, otherwise i may get rather confused and/or be unable to find what your talking about)
3) if i add fruit/syrup and spices etc, which effectively will be backsweetening it i guess... will this mean it may start fermenting again? if so whats my best way to prevent this?
I made my first batch of mead last year, and it must be around 6-7 months aged now (i think), and it appears to have gone well. i started it in a big plastic 5 gallon drum racking it a couple of times and eventually to a 5 galon glass carboy, here it stayed for around 3 months aging and then i racked it into 5 1 gallon demijons, i have used campdem tablets, but nothing else other than water yeast and honey.
the mead tastes good, like a dry white wine infact which was a suprise to me as id only ever tasted sickly sweet meads from Lindisfarne and Moniack. so im happy with its dryness...
questions:
1) the mead i am about to bottle, do you recommend doing anything else to it? its been in corked demijohns for a while withouth airlocks, so i think its fairly stable.
2) the fifth Demijohn which is only half full (as i lost some in the racking) i want to use to make a experimental spiced melomel (thinking apple raspberries and cinnamon or similar) whats the best ingredients/method to acheive this at this late stage? i dont want to dilute the alchohol strength much, so was thinking to used some kind of natural condensed flavouring if it exists?... also id love for it to have a red raspberry (blood) colour as it will suit the name i plan on giving it.
(please note i am in Scotland so if possible avoid US brand names and tell me the actual type of product you mean, otherwise i may get rather confused and/or be unable to find what your talking about)
3) if i add fruit/syrup and spices etc, which effectively will be backsweetening it i guess... will this mean it may start fermenting again? if so whats my best way to prevent this?
