Fear not! We are still very much alive hereabouts. As with most hobby sites, occasionally real-life gets in the way of regular updates. And of course the whole thing about home brewing is there are brief periods of activity, followed by long periods of waiting.
New stuff coming soon. Prepping a couple of album reviews and more mead-oriented material. I’m also putting together a Mjolnir necklace with (hopefully) historically-appropriate beads, so expect pictures as that develops.
Looks like Harald Bluetooth’s palace has actually been located by Danish archeologists. Pretty major find. Of course I’m more partial to his son Svein Forkbeard, but a find is a find.
I’m pleased to report that unlike the utter foulness of the manuka mead, the second batch of Prison Mead has turned out quite drinkable indeed. This 3 gallon batch was made with unpasteurized wildflower honey and off-the-shelf Fleishman’s yeast. I think of it as a proof-of-concept experiment.
From ferment to glass in three months means that while it’s certainly on the “aggressive” side, it nevertheless is still quite drinkable. While the nose is a bit on the “clear your sinuses” meter, the taste is surprisingly mild and very sweet. It’s almost like a fruit wine in it’s character. There was no finishers or clarifier used so of course it’s on the hazy side, but in many ways this is speculative archeo-brewing. This mead is probably very close in colour and taste to what ancient peoples would have been preparing.
I’m considering this a success, which means that for the small-scale home experiments I’ll be on to something different next. I think next up will be some recipes I’ve been reading for Short Mead, which has an even quicker ferment-to-table time than this three-month mead.
All in all, good times.
It’s been a rather quiet period around The Meadheim lately — various meads have been quietly fermenting/aging, no major folk metal releases or local tours, and I’ve been too busy actually doing craftwork to write about it. Hopefully this weekend I can catch up a bit.
Last week we racked the three carboys of mead we put up in March, and all is looking good. Tonight I’m going to filter the second batch of Prison Mead plonk, which should actually turn out drinkable, unlike the first batch. Never use manuka honey for mead. Lesson learned.
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More anon!
Not only my favourite new phrase, but a fantastic new-ish branch of archeology.
A great article on reproducing ancient alcoholic beverages and it’s leading expert Patrick McGovern.
This past Friday it was the 3 month mark for the first batch of Prison Mead. Unfortuantely, it looks a bit of a bust.
While the fermentation was just fine and everything went as it should, it seems that the manuka honey just isn’t suited for mead making — there are nasty flavor compounds that developed. What starts as a nice dark caramel-like taste in the original honey, translates into a bitter and oddly plastic taste in the ferment. Not good at all. Perhaps there are some hillbillies somewhere that would like to get drunk off of it, but not me. I’m going to take just one bottle from it and dump the rest.
Happily, it’s not all bad news. The second batch which will be coming to maturity next month is tasting very good. This was made with simple wildflower honey, and has developed a very mild and sweet taste.
This was always a big experiment, so now we know: manuka honey is fit for toast, not mead.
An Anglo-Saxon settlement has been found in Cheltenham. I have a soft spot for Saxons, so this is totally relevant.
Continuing with their tradition of awesome fan relations, Eluveitie are having a live chat tomorrow. Details at Metal Camp.
Today we racked the mead made with blueberry honey into a second carboy to mix it with the pure blueberry juice, and the large tub of local Ontario wild blueberries. The straight mead out of the initial carboy retained a very pleasing amount of the blueberry taste- distinctive. It’s always a toss up as to what the magic of fermentation is going to do to the flavours of the honey- in this case, pure blueberry flavoured liquid gold.
We’re hoping for some secondary fermentation action with the new sugars in the second carboy- but even if we don’t, it still packs the delicious kick that we all know and love. We’ll leave in a few weeks and see what happens. It’s for science!
And, I’m exceptionally pleased to have 23L of dark purple booze in Meadhalla right now. Boozeberry mead. Anything made of honey and fruit must be good for you, right?
That’s what I think, too.
Sad news of one of the pioneers of Metal. Ronnie James Dio has lost his battle with stomach cancer.
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Someone please explain to Bert the Viking Cat that he can't lay in the bathtub while I'm sanitizing mead equipment.
@councilofmead saw yr tweet about Moonsorrow & must say the Tulimyrsky song is awesome!!! brillant! :)
