A few meads of mine.

Here is a few meads I have been working on since the begainning of January/2006. From left to right.....Two separate litter bottles of spiced mead ageing, a rose rhodomel, and the 2.8 carboy of cyser, almost ready for first racking.....

http://server5.pictiger.com/img/109...erikbarton-desktop-untitled-folder-6-mead.jpg

The spiced meads a ok for my very first experiment with mead, however, it is a bit strong on the clove factor as I added about 27 cloves to one gallon during the must preparation.

The rhodomel in the middle is also getting good as the taste is starting to mellow with a little age. Its actually a really rich mead so I dont think you would want to drink this stuff all night, good for a glass or two though. I also have another half gallon of this stuff not pictured. I plan on putting all of this into glass containers the next time I rack it....The color of this batch is incredible, crystal clear and red.

Third is the cyser I have not tried yet, as it has not even been racked once yet. I plan on adding some spices and may give out a few bottles of this during Christmas next year, if its good at that time, that is...

yes I realize this...I know the photo kinda looks like a lot of sunlight on the mead....Its really not though as a point of sunlight creeps through the blinds for only about 1/2 hour first thing in the mourning.....I wouldnt want to ruin my hard work....It would spoil the rewards.

I might start a chocolate mead after that carboy frees up.....

As a little update to my meads....The rose mead is almost gone, down to about half a gallon....It was just too good, however I havent touched any in a while and I plan on saving the rest....Mabe I will drink it later after the summer is through.

Plenty of spiced mead, same as in the photo except I did take one tiny nip a while ago.

The plans for the cyser have changed considerably though.....I drank a bit at first, it was good, but kinda hard due to strong alcohol content, and a rough / non mature gasoline flavor.

I decided to add a bunch of fresh black berries to the cyser. I have a big tree full of ripe berries in my backyard that was just too temping not to utilize. I cruched em up, added a bit of water and simmered em for mabe 10 minutes then let em cool off and threw em into the cyser. I also added a small teaspoon of light grown sugar. I kinda hope this doesnt ferment and just sweetens the mead, as it is now, the fermentation stopped a long time ago...but even if the fermentation starts back up again, well, thats ok too. The whole cyser, or is it now a mel? Looks purple in color, like a fine grape wine.

I think Apple / Blackberry mead sounds purdy dern good dont you? Sort of an old country time mead.