Cherry Melomel Started

I admit, I am on a mead kick. Mead is extraordinarily easy to make, and gives you immense latitude for creativity. This weekend I started a cherry melomel. In the same manner as the zingimel, and the blackcurrant melomel before that, initially it is only a "base cyser", a mead of honey and apple juice. This will produce a relatively neutral mead, in that apple juice retains little appley-ness after a vigorous fermentation (much to the chagrin of cyser makers). In the secondary fermentation, when the yeast is about done, I will add the fruit. The yeast I used for the cherry mel is Lalvin 71B, the "Narbonne" yeast. It comes highly recommended for fruit mead, because it will neutralize acids in the must, resulting in a softer, hopefully sweeter mead. Depending on the final gravity of the mead when I rack it, I will be adding some extra honey...I want a fairly sweet mead from this. The cyser base for the zingimel is still fermenting, I'll give it another week to finish up.

I also tried the first bottle of the first mead I did, started in early August. It's a spiced cyser, and yes, it needs significantly more time aging. Hot and potent describe it quite well; its a raucous little beverage right now. Definite alcohol presence that might put off some tasters accustomed to tamer beverages, but I'll wager there's nary a Viking that'd turn down a flagon of this golden elixir, fiery or not. I bet it will be excellent for next year's Thanksgiving, however.

Tongue Splitter

So I opened a bottle of the Tongue Splitter last night, which has spent about 2 1/2 weeks in the bottle. Surprisingly the carbonation was excellent, and the head was as frothy and long-lasting as any homebrew I've yet completed. Wow, what an aroma. Fellow hopheads and lupomaniacs, this brew's for you. Five glorious ounces of American hops...citrusy, grapefruity, extraordinarily fresh. This is one brew that will be much better fresh and young, so I'm not planning on aging it much. It is ready for consumption!

The base cyser for the zingimel is nearing the end of its fermentation cycle, I think. Perhaps this weekend I can rack it onto the ginger. Not only that, but I now have the requisite ingredients (cider, honey, nutrients, yeast) to get started on the next mead, a cherry melomel. No cherries added until secondary, though, I'm afraid. I plan to use high quality fresh-frozen tart cherries, in quantity of, I don't know, 6-9 pounds. I want this one bursting with cherry flavour, not in a fruit candy kind of way, but in a rich, winey, complex and deeply flavourful way. I will probably oak this one as well. I'm much more inclined to oak the dark melomels than the lighter meads like the spiced cyser and zingimel. Speaking of, I shall be cracking the first bottle of the aforementioned spiced cyser at Thanksgiving. Far too early, I admit, in that it will only have 4-5 months of age, but it should give me an idea how it is progressing, and a point of reference for future samplings.

Cider and Kölsch Bottled

Last night I attempted an ambitious bottling session...first the Honey Kölsch, then the cider. 10 full gallons of brew bottled and conditioning. The Kölsch was nice...the honey taste was either faded into oblivion, or was subtly enhancing the other flavour components. I had worried the addition of honey might veer the beer away from the traditional, approachable pseudo-lager type that I was aiming for, but thankfully that is not the case. However, the finish is decidedly wheaty, which I find pleasant, but others who dislike wheat beer may not. This is somewhere between a regular beer and a wheat beer in that it uses some wheat malt but only a small percentage. It is very clear and light gold...a beautiful beer that hopefully will have a nice head as well. After three weeks conditioning at room temperature it will be placed in the fridge for cold conditioning.

The cider was very interesting...a pinkish, purplish hue of red (thanks to the blackcurrant nectar and cranberry juice) with a tart, acidic, and winey nose. I liked it much more this time...the individual fruits don't stand out admittedly, but it seems more melded and interesting. Dry and wine-like is what I would describe this as...and definately refreshingly acidic. Potent, too. Probably about two times as strong as a standard strength beer, so caveat emptor, and pour accordingly. Its also conditioning...I wanted to carbonate the cider. It will be very dry, and not sweet like many people expect hard cider to be, but this isn't sorbated, artificially carbonated, sweetened macro-cider...this is real, artisanal cider, to be laid down and enjoyed over time. I think the first bottle opened will be on New Years, as a substitute for champagne...another tart, dry, and bubbly beverage.

Up next, mead, mead and more mead. Yes, the one in the primary right now, a high gravity base cyser to be racked upon a bed of fresh ginger, is still bubbling away. It will become a "Zingemel", ginger mead. Today I went to the Farmer's Market and bought some extraordinarily fresh ginger root, much better looking than the stuff at Hyvee, for half the price that it sells for there. I also looked for cherries for a cherry mel, but they are past season I'm fairly certain. I'm almost positive I will be using cherries to make the next mead, a cherry melomel. I purchased a couple packets of Lalvin 71B Narbonne yeast which works great with melomels and gives a softer, sweeter taste profile with less acidity. I might go crazy and use 15 lbs of honey in that one, to boost the final gravity for some sweetness. We'll see how she does. But the ginger mead is still fermenting, so I'll give it another week or two in primary. It's only been a week, which is no time, really, for mead.

I'm keen to brew again, but haven't budgeted enough for it yet. I'll keep you posted. Next project will likely be Chocolate Stout and Imperial Stout or ESB and IPA. Votes?

Double IPA Floundering

My Double IPA is exhibiting poor attenuation. I racked it Saturday to secondary after three weeks in primary, and it still showed a specific gravity of 1.035, when it should be much lower, preferably in the low 20s. I pitched some dry yeast (Cooper's) in hopes of getting some fresh yeast to resume fermentation, but I'm not seeing any activity. I might consider pitching champagne yeast, but I'd much prefer not to. There's no reason a 1.082 ale should need champagne yeast. Still, time will tell. The hydrometer samples have not been bad...with all the immense hops, the residual sweetness from the high specific gravity is not unpleasant.

Friday I started another mead, or to be more accurate, a cyser. 12 pounds of clover honey and 4 gallons of apple cider, without any water. I'm fairly certain the apples will not remain very apparent after fermentation, as the cider blend was filtered, sweet, and nondescript. I also used EC-1118, a saccharomyces bayanus strain, also known as champagne yeast. It is a very vigorous and thorough fermentor that is sure to attenuate this mead to its capacity, producing a very lightly flavoured, crisp, and potent mead...an ideal "clean slate" upon which to craft a ginger metheglin. In secondary I plan to add a full pound of freshly peeled and chopped ginger root. All in all, what I'm looking at is a very strong "ginger wine" with a light body, a potency in the range of fortified wine, and a very strong ginger flavour. This will be an ideal aperitif, palate cleansing and fresh, but not something one would want a large glass of. It will be, to make up a new term, a "zingimel", loosely meaning ginger mead. Believe me, this one will need to age a long time, being of such high gravity and using champagne yeast. At bottling I'd be willing to wager it will taste like kerosene and ethanol. All that will mellow with time and it should be a nice long-aging mead. I will probably use composite corks.

The Koelsch is finishing up its stay in secondary, and if my count is right, next weekend is bottling time. After three weeks to carbonate, I will be cold-aging it in a refrigerator until Christmas. I will be quite interested to see how it comes out.

Keeping an Eye on Local Restaurants

Last night I had the pleasure once again of dining at The Rheinland Restaurant in downtown Independence. In my mind it shares much of what I envision for St. Crispin's...a very warm, welcoming restaurant with a genuine cultural authenticity and relaxed atmosphere. Of course, naturally this is a completely different creature, being a German restaurant, but still, there was a certain atmosphere they have that I'd like to capture. I had the Jaegerschnitzel, which is without question my favourite item on the menu. I also sampled Koenig Ludwig Hefeweisse, with a glass of Spaten Optimator with Raspberry Romanoff for dessert. Excellent!

This morning I visited the Farmer's Market (downtown city market), and I was lucky enough to again catch the beekeeper who supplied me with my last gallon of honey (blackcurrant mead). I bought two more, since I probably won't be able to see him til next year, and I'm still keen to continue my meadmaking experiments. Right now, there are a few possibilities in the running. A ginger metheglin, a dry crisp mead with up to a pound of fresh ginger root imparting an intense spiciness, a sort of "ginger wine". I could also follow a recipe many others have done, a Peach Ginger Melomel, but I think it would be too difficult to capture and retain the essence of the peaches well, without using untold pounds of peaches, and that introduces pectin haze problems, not to mention fermentor space. I think if I try either of those, it will be a pure ginger metheglin. Then there are the fruit meads...a berry melomel, even another blackcurrant melomel if I could find the juice for cheap, would be quite tasty no doubt. I've also read about this intense "Apple Butter Cyser" that might also be good, if a bit over the top. I also was considering a clone of Lurgashall Tower of London Mead, an English mead fortified with Scotch whisky. Luckily I was able to find a bottle of this, and while I haven't sampled it yet, I will try it out and see if I like it enough to try making my own. It certainly sounds interesting, but it wouldn't be cheap, and the temptation to use lower-quality Scotch to save money would be there, and if I'm doing anything I want to do it well. So in all likelihood, a strong dry ginger mead and a melomel using as-yet undetermined fruit will be my choices for this honey, but thats far off still.

Right now I go to start racking my Honey Koelsch (well attenuated, already...1.057 to 1.012!) into secondary. The sample I took this afternoon had a strong bitterness that I think will mellow with conditioning, and a honey-wheat character.