Dawen

So this was originally for the 2022 sunshine_challenge - I saw the first prompt, Amber, and of course my first thought was the color. And my first thought of what I could physically Do that was amber - was jewelry - with things I already had on hand, was mead.

I'd been meaning to get a new batch of mead started anyway.

Some progress pics, hopefully showcasing the amber-ness of my honey/immature mead:


The mead begins! I've partially filled my jar with all the honey that will go in, plus some water - more details below!

This is when it was first bottled, you can see it's still frothy from using the pump on my flat little airlock to remove air.

And here it is again, still a bit frothy, in my windowsill where the afternoon light made it look more amber-y. :P

Obviously these images aren't finished mead; I let it sit for a few weeks, pour it into a new jar (leaving sediment behind) to keep fermenting, then eventually pop it in the fridge to kill the yeast off, and let it age a few months. Then it will be Finished Mead, but tbh would still benefit from a longer aging. I'll put my recipe, such as it is, behind a cut for those who are interested!

My basic recipe is from Practical Self Reliance. I decided to make a half-gallon batch, partly because this is a mead I know my family likes and partly because we don't use those jars very often, so it's fine for me to fill it up for several months.

Anyway, that means I used: 1 1/3 cup honey, 1/2 tsp looseleaf black tea, and a scant 1/4 tsp champagne yeast. Plus enough water to fill the jar to the neck. The tea is a source of tannins and nutrients; often homebrewers use raisins but ours aren't organic and I didn't feel like taking the time to research and see if conventional raisins have anything that would inhibit fermentation. So I used tea instead. :D

1 1/3 cup honey (or, 2/3 cup for a quart batch) makes a very dry mead, especially if you don't use any sort of additive to halt fermentation. It's my standard go-to for the amount of honey, though if I add fruits I might need to adjust it.

The champagne yeast is a type of wine yeast; I bought like ten packets somewhere online a couple years ago, poured them all into an old, clean tea canister, and keep it in the freezer. I specifically chose a yeast with one of the highest alcohol tolerances, which it can keep fermenting longer before its own alcohol production starts to kill it off. My mead can and will kick you in the teeth. :D

In the progress pics above you can see I didn't fill the jar up all the way at first. I prefer to fill it up 3/4 of the way with hot water (this time just as hot as the tap gets; I've used a kettle before for boiling water) to dissolve the honey, then add cold water to cool it down again before I pitch the yeast.

So this batch was started Saturday, July 9. I should rack it in 2-3 weeks (in batches this size, I'll just carefully pour it into another, clean 1/2 gallon jar) and put the airlock back on. Then I'll let it ferment for another month or so before I rack it again, pop it in the fridge for a few days, and then consider it "bottled." Then I forget I have it for a few months at a time so by the time I actually drink it, it's been aging for a year and a half.

That said. This doesn't actually completely halt fermentation, so I try to check on my bottled meads regularly and open the lids to make sure pressure doesn't build too high. I haven't ever "properly" bottled a mead, ie with corks or beer bottles with caps; if I did I might need to look into ways to kill the yeast.

I made a quart batch of mint mead shortly after I started this one. They've both been sitting in their fermenting jars since, well, last July - nearly a year. I need to pour them off their lees, strain out the particulates (the mint and raisins, mostly), and taste them to see if they're any good. I've never left mead on the lees this long before, so they might be bitter or taste off because of that.

But at least they're aged...? :D

Edit: It is now September 2024 and I have finally drained them off their lees. Feedback from my tasters (family and friends) inform me neither of them are as good as previous batches... Moral Of The Story: do not leave mead on the lees for over two years ^^; XD