Yesterday I got an email about a tasting event at Keystone Homebrew, but couldn't get there for it.

Did you know there is a craft distillery in Philadelphia? They make a rye vodka and a gin, but what caught my eye was that in December they released an absinthe! (the absinthe and main websites suck, but the other two are pretty nice - I'm assuming it is too soon for their absinthe site to be up and running)

Looks like I've got something to pick up for Pennsic :)

Any SCA brewers (or non-SCA brewers even) in the area: Check out the following Yahoo group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CelticCockBrewersGuild/

While the Guild is no longer active, we want to continue to use the mailing list for connecting and keeping in touch with brewers in the southern region. They are planning to maybe meet quarterly, as well as hold brew dates and classes once again.

... that a picture is worth a thousand words. If so, then consider this a 7,000 word story about what complexated and I did after racking the chocolate mead.


[bucket of 5 gallons of chocolate mead, before first racking]

( Read more... )

It is time for a mead update :)

This past spring and early summer I started making mead again with help from complexated. She got to learn the process, and I got to finally use up the honey I've had for, well, a very long time. This past weekend jessiervnsmk joined us to make the final batch with the old honey, as well as rack and taste the other three batches.

There are now five batches in process, all 5 gallons each:

Heather Honey Mead - Started several years ago with a bargain priced small bucket of heather honey. It never quiet worked out, but I'm holding on to it until I can figure out what, if anything, will make it worth finishing. Gavan suggested some experiments with acids and back sweetening that I need to try at some point.

Blueberry Melomel - Started in April. Wildflower honey and 2 qt of 100% blueberry juice from Trader Joe's. We racked it this weekend and it tastes great so far. Not too dry or too sweet and a nice fruit flavor on the finish.

Filthy Hippy Metheglin - Started in May. Wildflower honey, an Auntie Arwen Hippy tea blend and a quart of dark maple syrup. When we racked it the strongest flavor was the sassafras, no maple notes currently. Eventually I'll have to try a mead with just maple syrup added.

Mead Moon Mead - Started during the Mead Moon in June. Straight wildflower honey. Still fermenting some, but still has a nice flavor. Looking forward to a taste during the next racking.

Chocolate Mead - Started this weekend. Last of the wildflower honey and 16 oz of 100% cocoa powder. While mixing it looked like chocolate icing, then chocolate syrup. They say chocolate mead is best after aging a year or so - good thing we have so many others to drink while we wait.

I need to pick up more honey before starting anything else. We've got a buckwheat, spiced and more plain mead on the short list right now.

--

Sunday I got to taste the commercial meads that Gavan has been making for his new meadery. All of them were quite good and I think each had its own fans. I picked up the Black Current, Elderberry, and Hibiscus.

I can't tell if I've actually been busy these last few months or not. Can't really remember much of it, and the calendar only gives me a few clues.

I've started making mead with complexated - we made our third batch last night in honor of the Mead Moon on Wednesday. We also racked a heather honey mead I have that didn't really work out. It has a bitter taste to it that I don't think I can do anything about/with. Still need to research it though.

Gaming is happening, two D&D games and regular Philly Gamers meetings. I've got no free Saturdays this month or next, so no Game Day anytime soon. (Technically, this Saturday was recently freed - skipping an SCA event - but I need to get stuff done around the house).

Got the new 4th ed D&D books. Only read a little of them so far, it's definitely different. Not sure about good or bad yet, but we'll give it a try at some point.

My next SCA event is Bhakail's Investiture (6/28 - history display and games), then Great Northeastern War (7/11-7/13 - history display). EK War Camp is likely, but camping vs day tripping is still up in the air. After that we're on to Pennsic.

Just got the last of what I was owed from my previous job (yay). Took 'em a while but I figured they would be good for it eventually.

Zwahlen's has Blueberry ice cream today and tomorrow. I wonder if it will make a good milkshake...

Finally bought a GSP the other day. Still haven't really tried it out (though I watched it track my progress to work this morning).

I need a nap. Or lunch. Or both.

Looks like March is going to be a big month for beer in Philadelphia.

Philly Craft Beer Festival - March 1st
http://www.phillycraftbeerfest.com/

Philly Beer Week - March 7-16th
http://www.phillybeerweek.org/

and for completeness, here is Joe Sixpack, Philly beer reporter
http://www.joesixpack.net/

We got a slow start last night, but Amy had done enough of the prep work that we were able to jump right into bottling. We got through two of the meads and left one for bottling on Friday (I hope). Gavan brought over two kegs for me to use, but I put off kegging until later in the week.

The Cranberry III mead is very tasty - strong too. It sneaks up on you if you're not careful (or if you are trying to finish off the dregs instead of sending them down the sink...)

Last night I finally got around to racking a few of my brewing projects. I've taken procrastination to a new level - I checked my notes and discovered the last time I had done anything was when I started a batch of mead on Feb 11th, 2006. So I racked that out of the bucket (poor bucket) and into a carboy. I'm happy to report that, while drier then I like, it is very drinkable. I don't know if I should bottle it on Monday or not. On one hand it would be nice to bring some to Cooking Thyng, since that is where the batch got started. On the other hand, it would probably clarify some more now that it is off the primary lees.

I also racked two beers that I started a long time ago - really they shouldn't still be around, but they are and they don't taste bad. I want to get them in kegs and see how they are with some carbonation. Maybe I can bring one to our office party next week.

Tonight I'll rack the remaining two kitchen meads and maybe violet_amy's cherry wine. I'm still not sure what to do with the heather mead in the basement. It has a fairly large cloudy layer that I can't really explain or get to go away. I guess if I can clear all the other stuff out of the kitchen, I'll bring it upstairs and try racking it again. Or maybe stick it in the cold garage and see if that causes more stuff to fall out of solution.

Next weekend is Cooking Thyng, so I'll be starting another batch of mead there. Not sure if I'll stick with plain mead or go for something else. Hmm, might be time to do a spiced mead again. I still have a packet from Auntie Arwen that I wanted to try.

The Foundation downstairs from me got mentioned on SCA Today:
http://scatoday.net/node/7771

Yesterday Amy and I did some brewing. I was surprised to find that it was only the second time I did any brewing this year - and the first time was beer for Pennsic. Very sad.

We started two beers, a Hefeweizen and an Irish Red Ale. I had bought the ingredients for these at the same time I did the beer for Pennsic, so I'm not too surprised that the yeast for both of them has failed to start (need to pick up replacements tonight or tomorrow).

Amy also started the third batch of Cranberry Honey mead. There isn't as much honey in this batch as in the first two, but we're going to be adding two quarts of cranberry juice to it after it settles down (the yeast is working just fine for this one)