Mad mead science.
I suspect even the most warped of you haven't thought, what happens if I try to wash my mead. Well I was on an 80 mile Bicycle ride and I did.
Two glasses each with 8 ounces of Dry Mulberry Mead
Add 1/4 cup milk to one of them. The acidity in the mead will make it coagulate. I originally thought I would add some lemon juice to start the coagulation, but I didn't have to.
And 10 minutes later you get this
1 Hr Later
As you can see the one with the milk is starting to clear nicely
The Next morning. I should have wiped the condensation off before the picture, but oh well.
After Racking
And here is what I lost.
The results
Besides the obvious color changes
The "Washed" mead lost a bit of flavor, but also a bit of the astringency. Unfortunately I used a mead that I actually liked pretty well. I'm going to wait until I have a very young mead with some off flavors, or one that doesn't come out to my liking and try it again.
Here are comments from a couple of well qualified people in our club. I didn't tell them what I had done, or what the differences were until after they had written their notes. This was a Dry (Finished below 1.000) mulberry mead.
#1 Rich color, Good Pomegranate notes in flavor - Dry finish - Sweet in the middle. Very good mead
#2 Pale Peach color with same Peach Flavor. Sweeter finish than the first. Not bad, but not as good as the first.
#1 Considerable Cherry fruit flavor. Reserved acidity mild honey sweetness to balance fruit. Good well balanced mead
#2 Simi low honey flavor and sweetness. Cherry fruit flavor rather muted, balanced towards the honey.
Overall in questioning members of the club I'd say about 1 in 3 or 1 in 4 preferred the washed, most preferred the original.
Just thought some of you might find it fun.
Cheers
Jay
I suspect even the most warped of you haven't thought, what happens if I try to wash my mead. Well I was on an 80 mile Bicycle ride and I did.
Two glasses each with 8 ounces of Dry Mulberry Mead
Add 1/4 cup milk to one of them. The acidity in the mead will make it coagulate. I originally thought I would add some lemon juice to start the coagulation, but I didn't have to.
And 10 minutes later you get this
1 Hr Later
As you can see the one with the milk is starting to clear nicely
The Next morning. I should have wiped the condensation off before the picture, but oh well.
After Racking
And here is what I lost.
The results
Besides the obvious color changes
The "Washed" mead lost a bit of flavor, but also a bit of the astringency. Unfortunately I used a mead that I actually liked pretty well. I'm going to wait until I have a very young mead with some off flavors, or one that doesn't come out to my liking and try it again.
Here are comments from a couple of well qualified people in our club. I didn't tell them what I had done, or what the differences were until after they had written their notes. This was a Dry (Finished below 1.000) mulberry mead.
#1 Rich color, Good Pomegranate notes in flavor - Dry finish - Sweet in the middle. Very good mead
#2 Pale Peach color with same Peach Flavor. Sweeter finish than the first. Not bad, but not as good as the first.
#1 Considerable Cherry fruit flavor. Reserved acidity mild honey sweetness to balance fruit. Good well balanced mead
#2 Simi low honey flavor and sweetness. Cherry fruit flavor rather muted, balanced towards the honey.
Overall in questioning members of the club I'd say about 1 in 3 or 1 in 4 preferred the washed, most preferred the original.
Just thought some of you might find it fun.
Cheers
Jay
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