Hey did i tell y'all im making some alcohol?

[SwimModSponges]

All right, bottling portion of brew weekend is done I'd say.

Six 8oz bottles, six 12oz bottles, six wine bottles, about 2 gallon carboys, and enough that wouldn't quite fit in any of it to have me way too buzzed this early.

Gonna start my next batch tomorrow.

[SwimModSponges]

Here's my full yeild-

[SwimModSponges]

Honeysapple 2

 

[wacky1980]

I've been thinking of taking a swing at making whiskey. I spent the last couple days toasting some oak for a beer project, but now I'm thinking it might be more fun to distill some liquor and then age it on the toasted oak. God damnit, just what I need...another distraction.

[SwimModSponges]

Don't tell the feds you're operating a still they don't like that.

[wacky1980]

4 minutes ago, SwimModSponges said:

Don't tell the feds you're operating a still they don't like that.

they don't got's to know

[SwimModSponges]

So, looks like a lot of the maple syrup solidified and sunk to the bottom, which doesn't seem to be a problem for my hungry yeast.

 

[SwimModSponges]

So we had an assessor come by today to take pictures of the house for refinancing, he comes up from the basement and tells me i've got a delicious smelling brew going, then starts talking shop about how he did a blackberry one, and also- adding onion to apple improves it apparently? 

That's crazy but i could see it.

[wacky1980]

finally got this bitch drilled out, painted, and put together. i'm gonna try tackling a bunch of the wiring this weekend if i don't get sucked into other projects. this control panel gives me tingly bits.

[SwimModSponges]

Well, today's the one month mark.

Testing day.

I'm guessing based on my last few brews it probably went dry at around 11%, maybe a bit more given the  bit of extra sugars from the syrup.

Still have a jar each of honey and syrup for step feed/back sweetening, but maybe I'll keep this recipe dry- last time I kept it dry and it came out pretty good, and my other recipe came out really sweet so...

[SwimModSponges]

Wow... Only got down to 1.044. 

4%.

Well, the good news is it's still bubbling fairly actively, but still...

After a month, that's sorta concerning.+

I don't think it's stalled, just really slow...

I mean the taste is for sure there...

Wondering if the preservatives in the cranberry juice fucked me over.

Think what I'll do is try pitching more yeast.

Hmmmm.....

[SwimModSponges]

Took a reading today, bit  more relieved.

Burned off .014 points of gravity, up to ~6% ABV.

Acerglyns take a long time I guess.

Well  it doesn't need to be done until september so we're ok.

[SwimModSponges]

Weekly check- yep its going good.

[SwimModSponges]

I gifted a bottle of the Peach Mellowmellon to my friend at work who also brews, he gave it a sip on his lunch break, and he said it was the best mead he's ever tasted.

@wacky1980 i should ship you a bottle, im very proud.

[wacky1980]

i'd swap you a bottle for a bottle sometime, sure. i don't have much available right now besides a hoppy stout that may or may not be worth consuming. we're gonna try making a couple seltzers maybe this week for kicks. and i have ingredients on the way to brew a witbier, an ipa, and a shandy. but those last 3 have to wait until i get the brewery built out.

[SwimModSponges]

Goddamn im proud of this.

 

[wacky1980]

i may have asked before, but are those carbonated or still?

[SwimModSponges]

Still, I've never tried carbonation but i imagine it would be nice.

[SwimModSponges]

Weekly check on the Honeysapple-

Went mostly dry at 9% or so, added 3 more pounds of honey.

I hope that's enough, I've got additional maple syrup to add but I was hoping to get up to my yeast tolerance to just use the syrup as flavoring.

I like to finish around a 1.2 specific gravity, that's about the exact right sweetness in my opinion.

[SwimModSponges]

Soooo... today i met my wife's friend who brews and is starting his own meadery, really cool dude.

Did a tasting of our brews, he had a straight honey and a blackberry, i brought my ginger peach Mellowmellon.

Its good to taste other people's works, get an idea of what's what.

Personally i like a complex flavor and mine really shows that. His was very alcohol forward.

...

I think mine are better. 

[SwimModSponges]

And my friend from work returned my bottle filled with his own brew.

Breaking into it right.... now.

 

[SwimModSponges]

Very well done, maybe even better than the other guys id say.

[SwimModSponges]

Dinner with the folks tonight, dad grilled steak.

Brought mom a big bottle of the mellomellon to share with grandma and one of  my aunts who also makes wine.

I brought a sample bottle of honeysapple 2 to split. 

The mellomellon is for sharing with family.

Not to drink tonight.

Yeah. We had it darn near polished off by desert.

Re-filled the empty sampler bottle for them and just drank the rest.

Shits good man, shits goddamn good.

[SwimModSponges]

All right, fermentation on this batch seems to have stopped- only at about 10% though.

I used a different yeast so that may have something to do with it, also I'm not sure I got an accurate gravity reading when I step-fed it on account of it not being as well mixed as I wanted.

Seems like fermentation stopped at a 1.010, dryer than the mellomellon (I'm ok with that because while the mellomellon is absolutely delicious it is also pretty dang sweet). Also I still need to back sweeten with maple syrup and I don't want all the flavor to ferment out right away.

Adding vanilla to smooth it out too.

Thinking that's going to be an ingredient I use in (maybe) all of my recipes-

Vanilla for smoothness, tea for mouth-feel, ginger for tang and to carry flavors (the tingle seems to make the flavors linger like that song from the cranberries), raisins for body and depth.

[SwimModSponges]

Whipped together this winter  recipe- flavor profile I'm going for is something like a chocolate orange.

    Winter- Spiced Coffemel Bouchet
2 gallons cold-brew coffee
1 gallon spiced orange tea (constant comment)
5 Jars of honey
1 jar caramelized honey
1 ginger root
1/2 bag raisins
2 packs yeast
1.5+ gallons water
5 teaspoons vanilla extract (in secondary)

[SwimModSponges]

Racked today. 

5 full gallons backsweetened with maple syrup, cranberry, and vanilla. 

Maybe a liter left over, drinking some now.

Its young yet, but its getting there.

[SwimModSponges]

hoo boy...

Went to pop open a bottle of the second bottling of the mellomellon (the remaining less than 2 gallons that sat on lees and got super neglected until I got around to it, so it's just for me, not worth giving to guests)  and it fizzed over like nothing else.

Went a lot drier too, of course.

[SwimModSponges]

God damn thats a lot of booze. 

Minus 1 liter bottle that i bumped qith my elbow while putting them on the shelf. RIP.

 

[SwimModSponges]

Next batch starting out at 1.084.

Pretty consistent with my starting gravity.

[SwimModSponges]

1 month on the coffee mead.

Didn't end up bochet-ing it in the primary fermentation, just coffee, tea, ginger, clove, allspice, orange zest, and raisin.

Went dry at 1.0000. Cloudier than nothing else but I mean that's to be expected since it's still in primary.

Taste is pretty much exactly where I wanted it to be at  this point in the process. The acidic flavor from the orange blend into the acidic flavor in the coffee so you've got  this one acidic flavor that mingles between fruitiness and bitterness.

Next step now that the coffee is done- add the creamer.

I really want to bochet this. Buy a little thing of  honey at the grocery store and cook it up in the crock pot, then  when it's nice and carnalized I'mma dissolve it in some more coffee along with cocoa and vanilla. More cloves too.

Gotta say I was really worried about how this one would turn out- when I try to capture the flavor of orange and coffee together in my head toothpaste always wants to join in because my brain thinks breakfast. 

But no, exactly where I wanted it to land  before I planned  to hit  it   with backsweetening in the secondary.

Gonna be real goddamn good this  december.

Next mead is going to be a recreation of the peach honeydew brew with dandelions added.

The one after that though?

Plum, currant, hibiscus, ginger.

Mmmmmmm.

[SwimModSponges]

Did another taste tonight with the father in law.

Very coffee. 

He really liked it, but i mixed in a little cocoa and vanilla into mine to see what the taste i'm aiming for is like.

I liked it, but both he and the wife liked the original more.

[SwimModSponges]

Got another review back on the  coffee mead from somebody I gave a  sneak peek to.

He says it's the best one yet.

He's a huge coffee drinker though so...

Still not sure I'm happy with this batch.

[SwimModSponges]

Well I finally bottled that motherfucker.

[SwimModSponges]

Just got 80 oz. of black currant jelly.