#no.061023

I jostled the carboy and got this lovely effect.

This is my rose petal mead, made with Sainfoin and Tian Shan wildflower honey.

I'm surprised how clear it has gotten in just over 5 weeks. I haven't used any clearing agents, unless you count the ⅛tsp pectinase additive. I have a batch that's 2 weeks older and still much cloudier. The airlock is only letting out one bubble per minute, so I think it'll be ready to rack soon.

Look at my beauties! I blurred myself out of the reflection. I put in some Super-Kleer this morning (fining agent derived from shellfish) and it's already made a huge difference in clarity.

My second time using that fining agent. This time I actually measured it out properly with a beaker and a pipette (it comes in a blister pack sized for a 5-6gal batch).

In the larger jug is the mead where I left the mulling spices in way too long. The smaller jug is my root beer mead that I brewed with coconut water. It's actually the first mead I've made that tastes good at room temperature. The root beer spices infused perfectly. It's just the right level of sweet and has a nice kick. The other ones I've made tasted significantly better chilled.

I am not trying to make coconut-flavored mead.

What I like about coconut water is not the flavor, so much as the mouthfeel. Besides which all the r/mead posts I've read contend that relatively little coconut flavor comes through when you use coconut water in a brew, so if I did want to make a coconut flavored mead (which I don't) it would make more sense to add coconut syrup or coconut chips than use coconut water.

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Flavor-wise, I'm going in pretty much the opposite direction people would expect -> root beer. I found a root beer spice blend with good reviews online.

I'm not much of a fan of carbonated beverages in general, but there are two that I find myself craving every so often: A&W root beer and Boylan cream soda.

I'd probably like them better if they weren't carbonated.

Or quite so sweet.

Or quite so non-alcoholic.

You see where I'm going with this.

I racked it off the lees (siphoned it into a different container, leaving behind most of the dead yeast that settled at the bottom), then diluted it with some water and added some yeast to hopefully re-start fermentation and get it a little less sweet.

I also went ahead and added in the root beer spice blend. I'll taste it tomorrow to make sure I don't leave the spices in too long.

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Speaking of leaving in spices too long,

I'm probably going to have to toss my mulled mead. It tastes really...medicinal. I'm going to try egg white fining to see if I can remove some of the bitterness from the oversteeping before I completely give up on it.

The one gallon batch of avocado blossom honey mead especially has a ton of yeast settling at the bottom. I think I only put in a ¼tsp when I started the batch 2 weeks ago, so the colony must have been multiplying at an incredible rate.

The airlock is still bubbling every 2 seconds. I didn't even add yeast nutrient or anything. The sweet honey smell is much fainter than it was in the beginning, presumably because most of the sugar has been converted to alcohol at this point.