NEXT! (the to-do list)
- Thread starter Chevette Girl
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We just saw some this morning in an oriental grocery store. I'm sure there's bound to be a similar oriental grocery store in the Denver area.
They're great places to pick up inexpensive, whole spices as well.
Well the Bamboo Jasmin Mead is underway. I ended up using some bamboo tips that were boiled and not preserved on anything but water from a local orential market in Denver called Pacific Ocean Market. I also put a little lotus root into it. I am not expecting much flavor and maybe a little mouth feel in those so it will primarily be a Jasmin mead. The Jasmin I got whole dried from a local herb store called Herb's and Arts. They have some great spices. Got 1/2 oz for under $2.00. It has been in the secondary for 2 weeks not and it really dropped color and is clearing fast. Wow. I think that I shall be taking the Jasmin out and racking it. I may have this in the bottle in the next few months with how quickly it's droping. I just need to oak it with some lightly toasted oak and that's it. Oh, maybe some stabalization and back sweetening. That should delay the bottling a bit.
Laters.
Matrix
Laters.
Matrix
I'm pretty sure that jasmine is the next 1-gal batch on the list for me, and now that I've got a couple 3-gal carboys free again, traditionals with the clover and golden honeys...
What kind of jasmine or jasmine tea do you want to use? Asian? North American knock-off? European? I've got a hankerin' to do a jasmine tea mead myself. I've decided to go with the traditional asian action on this one. But perhaps in the future I might want to use a European style chrysanthemum white tea? Anyway, jasmine sounds exciting keep us up to date with your batch! P's....
Just on a side note re: dry mead.
I made oskaars dry mead and to my surprise once it's age had really started doing it's work there was this strong element of sweetness that came through. The reason is because the abv was close to the max without leaving any residual sugar, but with that much honey there was a LOT of residual flavor.
I made oskaars dry mead and to my surprise once it's age had really started doing it's work there was this strong element of sweetness that came through. The reason is because the abv was close to the max without leaving any residual sugar, but with that much honey there was a LOT of residual flavor.
Making a dry trad is on the list... one of these years...
It's an asian tea (Chinese I think), jasmine and I think green tea.
It's an asian tea (Chinese I think), jasmine and I think green tea.
Someone around here posted a link to a very descriptive paper, I think it was wildoates, gimme a sec to find it... Yep. Do a forum search on "syllabub", it's the one by wildoates with that title, the first post has the link.
And yesterday I weighed out the partial buckets of honey I've still got, so it looks like "next" will be 3 gallon dry traditionals to compare the golden and clover honeys, with some honey reserved for backsweetening if I deem it necessary. I will probably try for something like 2.5 or 3 lb per gallon, CG's lazy SNA schedule, aeration until 1/3 break, the full deal.
Nice. I used to drink tea a lot! I would personally suggest white jasmine tea if you can find it. If not Green Jasmine from China is just as good. The most important thing that I stress to new tea drinkers about tea is proper preparation. You are not supposed to just throw leaves in and leave it for hours,days,weeks or months. The only tea that has an exception is white tea, that's why I suggest it first. You can throw that in after washing it and leave it for however long you want. Green, Oolong, and Red (Black) tea will leave a bitter and/or tree bark taste if left in too long. If you use black tea steep it until you get a deep red then immediately remove the strainer/bag. I've amazed people at work with the plain old Lipton tea bags in the lunch room. Even those bags steeped properly have a wonderful aroma/flavor.
But of course.. everyone is different. My wife just throws a bag in and leaves it there. Pouring more and more water over it.
That totally depends on the type of tea and the amount used, I find small amounts of black or green teas work really well for the pot-refilling method and a lot of my herbal teas really don't because the flavour's all gone after the first few minutes. When I make myself a big mug rather than a pot, I have a specific taste in mind so I'm a little more precise in how I prepare it, but when we make a pot for the house, we're just looking for something to flavour our hot water...
I just went with standard Jasmin from my local herb store. My wife bought it for me so I don't know exactly what type it was. I used 1/2 oz (which turned out to be a good double handful) for 1 month in the secondary. Looks to be a nice strong jasmin with some good honey sweetness.
I think that this will turn out great.
Matrix
I think that this will turn out great.
Matrix
Update, I am "Oaking" this one with some bamboo leaves. The leaves I got dried for about $2.50 for about 30 1 1/2 foot long leaves. Just rinced them off and steamed them in the ol steamer for 5 min to bring them back to life. It smelled good. If this works out I may just "Oak" more meads with it. Wondering what character it will add, probably add that nice scent at least.
Matrix
This year's revision...
Whoah, I didn't really get much done from my list last year, no-heat red currant... that's about it, eh? everything else was a seasonal interloper or a "cleaning out the freezer" exercise... and my fruit freezer's still full to the top. Probably time to go in there and do inventory so I can plan out my next wines... probably start with the gooseberry mel/wine comparison.
Next on the list is to do three 3-gal traditionals to compare 3 different honeys (clover, golden and wildflower), then maybe I'll have enough honey left over to finally get that jasmine batch started!
Hopefully I will start my first true beerlike endeavour, it will probably be the iced tea beer thing III, although my hopped pumpkin hydromel was kind of promising...
Revised list as of now, in all its glory... I'm going to make a new section for experiments, as I probably won't get to many of them. Frustrating, that.
Meads:
Experiments:
Wines:
Beer:
Whoah, I didn't really get much done from my list last year, no-heat red currant... that's about it, eh? everything else was a seasonal interloper or a "cleaning out the freezer" exercise... and my fruit freezer's still full to the top. Probably time to go in there and do inventory so I can plan out my next wines... probably start with the gooseberry mel/wine comparison.
Next on the list is to do three 3-gal traditionals to compare 3 different honeys (clover, golden and wildflower), then maybe I'll have enough honey left over to finally get that jasmine batch started!
Hopefully I will start my first true beerlike endeavour, it will probably be the iced tea beer thing III, although my hopped pumpkin hydromel was kind of promising...
Revised list as of now, in all its glory... I'm going to make a new section for experiments, as I probably won't get to many of them. Frustrating, that.
Meads:
- Syllabub
- Hopped tea mead
- Big metheglyn
- Jasmine mead
- Coffee mead
- Mustard in something, maybe with marshmallows (maybe another Chevette Weirdomel).
- Chocolate JAO (add cocoa)
- Chipotle pepper mead
- Dmntd’s porter Braggot with vanilla?
- Norskersword’s 4-week cyser
- Wayneb’s Fileuil de la nuit or Kens’ Heart of Darkness
- Ibwahooka’s Royal Metheglin
- Maple-pecan mead
- JAO with highbush cranberries
- Metheglyn with rosehip and hibiscus tea
- Chevette Weirdomel including dragonfruit
- Mint Brochet (Humbug Mead?)
- Mars Colonist “apple of my chai” cyser with next year’s cider harvest
- Earl Grey metheglyn (MacFearghais109)
- Yarrow metheglyn (Fishmeester)
- Skunkboy’s clove metheglyn – 2 tbsp clove per gal
- Gamer’s Grog (per Deacon Aegis) with polyhedrals or jade dice
Experiments:
- Traditionals at 10 and 15%
- Traditionals comparing different honeys
- Need to make something dry so I can figure out if I like dry wines yet
- pH test – traditionals - one with lemons like I’d done before, one with no acidity, one with controlled pH once meter is calibrated
- Chevette Girl’s Acerglyn with other yeasts and SNA – K1V and D47 at least
- yeast test, big batch of traditional, divided into 6: EC1118, K1V 1116, DC-47, 7B, bread yeast and whatever one I’ve forgotten, or maybe an ale yeast.
- Water test – city out of tap, city boiled or left sitting, Britta or softened, distilled, hard well water, track pH, SG and rehydrate yeast in appropriate waters
- Yeast abuse test – top sprinkle, rehydrate, acclimated starter
- Backsweeten vs target SG with age – start two batches, one at lower gravity than the other, stop the higher-grav one with chemicals and then stabilize and backsweeten the other to match, bottle in small bottles, open in pairs to compare at 6 months, 1 year, etc, with age
- Tannin experiment, tea vs grape tannin
- Chocolate in primary vs secondary, nibs vs cocoa
- Traditional: comparison between long-term storage in glass vs plastic carboy
- JAO side by side with and without raisins.
- JAO side by side, control and one with nutrients, aeration
- Pyment-mel comparison with wine
- Stabilize versus not, both meads and wines
- compare gooseberry mel to gooseberry wine at same starting gravity
- Ginger peel vs no peel, primary vs secondary
Wines:
- Black Currant
- Blackberry
- Black Raspberry
- Something with chocolate nibs from Heinrich
- Parsnip
- Beet
- Cactus pear with heat
- Kit: mulled/spiced ice-style
- Kit: split one into 2 – 3-gal batches, one for wine and one a pyment/mel
Beer:
- lemon tea beer for summer
- Vanilla or something like Akueck's vanilla-cinnamon beer
- Check brktrt-18’s suggestions on my "how do you figure out what you like in a beer" thread
- Pumpkin Ale
- Papazian’s sour cherry ale with choke cherries
I've got quite a few to dos on my list for 2013. Not sure it rivals chevette girls but take it as it is.
- New England harvest mead with apples and cranberries
-a pyment
- oak aged coffee vanilla mead
- pumpkin mead with some aging inside a pumpkin
- meadowfoam vanilla mead, also Oaked
-cinnamon bun mead
-cranberry blood orange melomel
- vanilla tea mead
- tupelo traditional
- traditional with tupelo and lavender honeys
- watermelon lemon melomel
-dark berry melomel with black raspberry blackberry, and black currant
-root beer mead with sassafras and birch
-cinnamon peach orange melomel
- New England harvest mead with apples and cranberries
-a pyment
- oak aged coffee vanilla mead
- pumpkin mead with some aging inside a pumpkin
- meadowfoam vanilla mead, also Oaked
-cinnamon bun mead
-cranberry blood orange melomel
- vanilla tea mead
- tupelo traditional
- traditional with tupelo and lavender honeys
- watermelon lemon melomel
-dark berry melomel with black raspberry blackberry, and black currant
-root beer mead with sassafras and birch
-cinnamon peach orange melomel
Cinnamon bun mead! That sounds amazing! Maybe some lactose added for the icing, extensive sur lie for the bready yeast flavor, little bit of molasses for the brown sugar flavor, and quality cinamon sticks!;D
My list is far shorter:
21 year mead
Bog standard traditional
XX ale (my beers are historic mostly)
AK ale
Crystal braggot (no base malt, just honey)
Litchi Mel - hack ip vs Brewster
Mango Mel - nam doc Mai vs cawkshawl vs Julie
Custard apple Mel
Star fruit Mel
Jabuticaba Mel
Rhodomel
Low pitching rate test as per thePitching Rate Thread
I'd love to try a coffee mead (metheglyn?)
I have a lot of tropical fruit on there because it is easy to get here, fresh apple aren't. Most o those will be one gallon or 2L batches except the first five.
If I get the chr hansen PRELUDE yeast I'll run some batches determining pitching ratio, but that's about it.
My list is far shorter:
21 year mead
Bog standard traditional
XX ale (my beers are historic mostly)
AK ale
Crystal braggot (no base malt, just honey)
Litchi Mel - hack ip vs Brewster
Mango Mel - nam doc Mai vs cawkshawl vs Julie
Custard apple Mel
Star fruit Mel
Jabuticaba Mel
Rhodomel
Low pitching rate test as per thePitching Rate Thread
I'd love to try a coffee mead (metheglyn?)
I have a lot of tropical fruit on there because it is easy to get here, fresh apple aren't. Most o those will be one gallon or 2L batches except the first five.
If I get the chr hansen PRELUDE yeast I'll run some batches determining pitching ratio, but that's about it.
Bob, if you can get decent apple cider, go with it instead of apples, there's nothing wrong with it. I only make my own cider because I have access to oodles of free apples (presuming a good harvest year, at least).
And I think coffee mead might be a mel, aren't the "beans" actually berries?
And I think coffee mead might be a mel, aren't the "beans" actually berries?
They are picked as berries but may not be berries by the time they become coffee ready. I think. Ill bet you times to dollars you'll get RiverRats scenario if you put a coffee mead as a melomel in a competition. (His meadowfoam traditional was marked for being in the wrong category).
Also, just use both apples and apple cider. Problem solved!
Also, just use both apples and apple cider. Problem solved!
