Blackcurrant Mead
A few things of which to keep you all (you two...you one...anyone?) aware...
First off, last night I bottled the Wee Heavy. It stayed at its previous gravity reading of 1.032, so it is rather sweet, but that is by no means unheard of for an ale of a 1.100 original gravity. It's full bodied, sweet, and smoky. I think it will be a perfect wintertime nightcap, preferably at cellar temperature. I bottled it in 500ml (16.9oz) European pint bottles, mostly, with a few in various 12oz bottles. Give it at least a month...this one would benefit from a few months, actually, if not longer.
Secondly, I'm calling the 80 Shilling a loss...lesson learned. Medicinal, phenolic smells dominate the profile, almost a plastic bandaid smell. No, you can't have a bottle. I would rather not share a poor example of my brewing. After consulting with some of my brewing peers online, there was a consensus reached, that the particular strain of yeast used (Wyeast 1728, Scottish Ale Yeast) is very sensitive to the presence of chlorine in the water, and could have reacted with the chlorine to produce off-flavours. From now on I will be treating all brewing water with a Campden tablet (rather, 1/4 of a Camden tablet per 5 gallons) in order to purify it and clear out the chlorine.
And lastly, today I finally picked up the blackcurrant wine base I had been seeking. I paid $35 for a can of blackcurrant juice (96 fl oz, 3/4 gal) which is a bit excessive, but still worth it. The base mead had been fermenting for two weeks, being made of 12 lbs of local clover honey, 2 gallons of apple cider, and 2 gallons of water. I used the same Côtes-du-Rhône strain as the recently bottled cyser. The base mead started at 1.115 and was at 1.005 at time of racking...plenty of strength in that mead. I poured the blackcurrant juice into a new fermentor and racked the mead on top of it. Oh the smell of blackcurrant juice. It defies description. All I can say is that this is going to be pure nectar. The colour is a rich dark red like a Cabernet. I'm pretty excited about this one, but it will be aging for a while.
Up next! Three new brews. I ordered supplies today, and this next weekend I plan to start a brew of both a cider (with a few twists of my own) and a highly hopped American IPA (to be followed the next week by a Double IPA).
First off, last night I bottled the Wee Heavy. It stayed at its previous gravity reading of 1.032, so it is rather sweet, but that is by no means unheard of for an ale of a 1.100 original gravity. It's full bodied, sweet, and smoky. I think it will be a perfect wintertime nightcap, preferably at cellar temperature. I bottled it in 500ml (16.9oz) European pint bottles, mostly, with a few in various 12oz bottles. Give it at least a month...this one would benefit from a few months, actually, if not longer.
Secondly, I'm calling the 80 Shilling a loss...lesson learned. Medicinal, phenolic smells dominate the profile, almost a plastic bandaid smell. No, you can't have a bottle. I would rather not share a poor example of my brewing. After consulting with some of my brewing peers online, there was a consensus reached, that the particular strain of yeast used (Wyeast 1728, Scottish Ale Yeast) is very sensitive to the presence of chlorine in the water, and could have reacted with the chlorine to produce off-flavours. From now on I will be treating all brewing water with a Campden tablet (rather, 1/4 of a Camden tablet per 5 gallons) in order to purify it and clear out the chlorine.
And lastly, today I finally picked up the blackcurrant wine base I had been seeking. I paid $35 for a can of blackcurrant juice (96 fl oz, 3/4 gal) which is a bit excessive, but still worth it. The base mead had been fermenting for two weeks, being made of 12 lbs of local clover honey, 2 gallons of apple cider, and 2 gallons of water. I used the same Côtes-du-Rhône strain as the recently bottled cyser. The base mead started at 1.115 and was at 1.005 at time of racking...plenty of strength in that mead. I poured the blackcurrant juice into a new fermentor and racked the mead on top of it. Oh the smell of blackcurrant juice. It defies description. All I can say is that this is going to be pure nectar. The colour is a rich dark red like a Cabernet. I'm pretty excited about this one, but it will be aging for a while.
Up next! Three new brews. I ordered supplies today, and this next weekend I plan to start a brew of both a cider (with a few twists of my own) and a highly hopped American IPA (to be followed the next week by a Double IPA).
posted by SQLFunkateer at 10:44 PM
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