The honey has arrived today! I managed to branch out a bit when it comes to honey varieties, and the first one I nabbed is what is called the "caviar" of the honey world - heather honey. This is thick as treacle and very dark, containing very "green" notes to it. I think this will lend itself brilliantly to a metheglin (herb/spice mead), I just have to decide what herbs and spices would do well. Still having a think about that but wondering if a "chai mead" might be over-reaching, or perhaps a traditional spicy "mulled mead" type loaded with spices and hints of orange. I'll continue to have a think on it, as I want to try and use some herbs from my garden - hm, lavender? Still thinking!
I also bought a non-local treat - Spanish orange blossom honey. Light, clear and sweet, my son fell in love with it the instant it came out of the package and he's eaten two helpings of honey-with-yoghurt today. I indulged as well, and I have to say this is a delightful honey - something about it just seems to whisper of spring. It's a very delicate honey and to my mind would lend itself well to an orange-spice mead (and I have blood oranges and to spare!). However its main use today was to top up two batches of mead I started in December.
I started with a raspberry, and then did a cherry shortly thereafter. I originally used a raw variety of honey from Europe - I had originally intended to use some raspberry honey but the taste was so divine that I couldn't bear to simmer it, and we ate most of it! The results after two racks and the yeast dying has been pretty good, and both are starting to clear now - note the sediment in the bottom of the fermenters.
So, it was time to sterilise the new containers and also to try out a new bit of kit - normally in order to rack your mead off the lees, you just use a bit of tube and do the whole "suck on the end and try not to choke". However, it's not always a fault-free process, and if you botch it you end up taking a fair bit of the lees off the bottom, thereby ruining the whole point of racking. This siphon however is brilliant - just a tube that you pump, which creates enough vacuum to move the mead from one bottle to the other. The really ingenius bit is a "sediment cap" which keeps all the muck off the bottom from transferring. This makes the job so easy, I couldn't believe I didn't get one sooner (but then I wasn't really mead-making again till recently - still, it will do nicely for country wines as well, I imagine).
While I was sterilising my new kit and the containers, I mixed up some top-up-mixture - there was a bit of space in the secondary fermenters which could do with adding a bit more honey, but you can't just blob it in and give it a shake; honey is a natural product and therefore has its own yeasts and bacteria - normally these are good things for you, but when you're making mead you simply can't have that happening; it means you could develop some really off flavours or your whole batch will go bad. So, I mix a ratio of one-part honey to two parts water and put it on the stove, then bring it to a simmer. The resulting scum (which is starting to form in the photo) is skimmed off, then the whole thing is brought down to room temperature. It's a sure bet to start this pretty early in the day as it will take time to cool down. I can do this as and when during the whole racking-secondary fermenting process but I prefer to wait till the yeast has died off, otherwise you run the risk of starting the yeast all over again. This is also a good way to correct a mead that is too dry; if you want it sweeter, change the ratio to 1:1 and add accordingly. This sort of top-up for melomel (fruit-based mead) seemed to lend itself well to the orange blossom, so I broke it out, made the mix, and let it simmer. The house was smelling like a boiled sweet in no time!
I racked off my first batch, then sterilised the siphon before moving to the next bottle - VERY important step that some folks miss out. Don't mix your kit between batches. Yes, it means a lot of sterilising but as I was washing the old bottles as I went, it was easy to just run some of the sterilising solution through the siphon, then run rinsewater through the lot.
At this stage, I decided to give a test with the hydrometer just to get an idea of where the sugar ratio was. Using a sterilised "wine cheater" to get a bit of the mead out the bottle, I measured and found to my surprise that both were very dry. I didn't mind this so much with the cherry as I think the acidity of the cherry flavour made for a very crisp mead, but I definitely wanted the raspberry sweeter. I have topped both up with the cooled honey/water mixture and these settle and clear a bit more, I'll take another hydrometer reading and adjust the sugar levels accordingly. It could actually take a few months before they clear entirely, and that's fine. What I was rather surprised about was the cherry actually tastes pretty good already, and it's only been a month! It's going to be brilliant when it's finally ready. The raspberry is a bit too tart and does taste rather raw, but I can also taste the hints of how it will be once it matures, and I think I'll be quite pleased with that one when the time comes.
The only drawback to all this work is the fact I've already used half the bucket of orange blossom honey. The horror! I admit I'm eyeing my brew bucket at the moment and debating what I could mix up tonight, but I've already got some fruit beer on the go in the secondary fermenter, and I've a mind to wait till we're in proper spring before making any more mead.
So, tonight it seems I'm going to be having myself a bowl of toasted muesli, yoghurt...and honey. Dinner of champions!
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