Brewing Up Some Cyser

Today my wife and I created another version of mead - a cider and mead combination known as cyser. Basically, we took two gallons of apple cider, 4 lbs of honey, 1/2 lb of demerara sugar, and heated them up. Once the must cooled off, we poured it into the fermenter and added some yeast. Now we wait - probably until next Thanksgiving. Sure, it will have fermented long before then, but aging is important for mead. It helps mellow out the flavors. The yeast are busy doing their thing - eating sugar, making alcohol. What a perfect pet!

Kasztelanski Polish Mead

I found an interesting Mead at the local liquor store, and decided to try it. It's particularly interesting to me because it's from Poland, which is a big part of my heritage. When my great grandfather came over from Poland, he Anglicized our last name to keep it from being obviously Polish.

This particular Mead is brewed by Kasztelanski, and it is very different from the mead brewed here in the US. This mead is very similar to a Port wine, or a brandy in texture. It's quite sweet and has a wine-like character. It also tastes like it may have aged in wood at some point. This is definitely not a dinner mead. It makes a great nightcap, and has a very warming finish. I guess the Poles know how to make mead!

Orange Blossom Honey Mead

Almost exactly 6 months ago, my wife and I brewed up a Mead made from 100% Orange Blossom honey. We love the flowery aroma of the honey, and felt it would make for a wonderful mead. Well, we were right! We sampled some today, and the mead is aging very well. The aroma is like standing in a flowering orange grove. With this particular mead, we decided to try to be as historically accurate as possible, with no extra additives such as yeast nutrient. This is made from Orange blossom honey, water, yeast, and a little bit of organic sugar to help the yeast get started. It's a really sweet mead, made from 9 lbs of honey in a 2.5 gallon batch. The photo does not do it justice - it is much clearer than it appears. The condensation on the glass is misleading. This mead is very smooth, and I can only imagine how it will be in another 6 months - if it lasts that long. The hardest part about making mead is the patience that's required!

Brewing Day today!

Today was another brewing day. I've been trying to escalate my brewing frequency because I like to have a lot of homebrew selection when I go to the beer fridge. I was down to just a couple of varieties, so I needed to step it up. Today I bottled my Scottish Ale, after giving it a taste test from the fermenter. It tasted awesome, even without carbonation. I'm not sure I'll be able to wait the two weeks for it to carbonate. Bottling time is always fun because when our two dachshunds notice we're bottling, they stand under the fermenter, hoping to catch any errant drips (which are never in short supply). I've mentioned our one dachshund, Porter in earlier posts, but we also have a second one, a female named Penny (due to her copper coloring). The two dogs spend our bottling time trying to see who can get to the beer drips first. Invariably, one of them ends up licking beer off the top of the other ones head. It turns into a zoo.

While we bottled the Scottish Ale (which is actually probably closer to a Wee Heavy due to its alcohol content), I had my next beer boiling on the stove. I made a Belgian style Wit beer, with the addition of some fresh apricots we got at the local farmer's market. It's in the fermenter, and hopefully by tomorrow it will be bubbling away. It's probably a little late to be making a summer beer, but with the climate here in Florida, I don't pay much heed to the season. I already have my next two beers planned out - one for fall, and one for winter. I'll be making a butternut squash porter for Octoberfest, and a Spiced Imperial Stout for Christmas. I'll be posting about them when I'm able to taste them for the first time. In the mean time, my wife and I will be brewing again tomorrow, making an all-Florida mead with Orange blossom honey and muscadine grape juice. Technically, it's called a pyment, which is a mead made with grape juice along with the honey. Muscadine grapes are native to Florida, and we bought a bunch of juice at the local winery, specifically for this purpose.

With dinner tonight, I opened another bottle of my Maple Wheat that I brewed a while back, and it is mellowing nicely. I probably won't make it again, because there are too may other beers I want to make, but if I did, I would lay back a little on the maple syrup. It really kicked up the alcohol level, and I'm getting too old for that. We also sampled our metheglin again, to see how it's aging, and it's becoming really smooth. I'm not sure there will be much left by the time Christmas rolls around.

Since I've put some pics of Porter up here already, I guess I should give Penny some exposure too. So here's a pic of both dogs. Dachshunds are great dogs!

Spiced Mead - aka Metheglin

My wife and I broke open a bottle of our spiced Mead - just to see how it's doing as it ages. It's a little early for this particular batch. We brewed it in September 2007 and split it into two 2.5 gallon batches. One batch we spiced, the other batch is natural. A spiced Mead is also known as a metheglin. We brewed this one and then spiced it to be ready for Christmas 2008. This is one very smooth metheglin! As you can see it is a beautiful golden color, and very clear. We brewed the 5 gallon batch using the following recipe:

16.5 lbs clover honey

1 cup Demerrara sugar

1 package Wyeast Sweet Mead yeast

We heated 2 gallons of water up so that it was just under boiling - about 180 degrees, and added the honey and sugar. We "cooked" it at this temp for about 15 minutes, then cooled it off in an ice bath. We then poured the must into a fermenter and added the yeast. It sat in the primary for about 2 months, and then we racked it to a secondary. It sat in the secondary until May 5, and then we separated it into two 2.5 gallon batches and spiced 1 batch. We wanted a holiday mead, so we picked some holiday spices. In a nylon hop bag, we put 2 crushed cinnamon sticks, a crushed nutmeg nut, 21 crushed allspice seeds, and a crushed vanilla bean. We pulled the spice bag after about 3 weeks, and then bottled it. It's been bottled since May26, so we couldn't wait any longer and had to try it. This is a very sweet mead (which is how we like it) and has just the right amount of spices. As smooth and tasty as it is now, I can't imagine it could get any better by Christmas - but I know it will. If you have any questions about how we made this, just post a comment, and I will respond. Mead is truly the nectar of the Gods!

Mead - a Honey of a Wine

Many brew historians consider Mead to be the oldest alcoholic beverage. Mead in its' simplest form is just honey, water, and yeast. Add some raspberries or cherries, and you have a mead variation called melomel. This melomel is flavored with raspberries, which give it a nice flavor, and that beautiful rosy color. Mead is a brew that is not for the impatient. As it ages, it continues to change and improve. You can age mead for 1, 10 or 100 years. This particular brew is only about 6 months old, but is already clearing nicely and starting to mellow. If it lasts long enough, I am sure it will be wonderful in another year. If you have any questions about making Mead, just add a comment and I'll do my best to answer them. If you're already brewing beer, Mead is an obvious addition to your repertoire.