Apple flavored mead like stuff was bottled last night
Doug Freyburger
and butter. When pushing the cooked fruit through the sieve I looked at
the mashed skins and wondered if it would flavor mead nicely. I like
apple wine and apple brandy so apple mead should be good. Maybe apple
skin mead would be good. My primary fermenter was empty and waiting so
I started a batch.
Three quarters sorghum, one quarter honey. I tried sorghum because of
colony collapse disorder and now I use it interchangably with honey.
Dissolve and bring to a simmer. Add the mashed skins as flavoring.
Start it cooling and transfer to primary fermentation then add a package
of ale yeast. I added enough sweetener to hit about 10% alcohol but I
did not use a hydrometer to check. Two months of primary fermentation
until I was sure it had finished and settled.
It turned out pretty full of apple debris as I expected. Pour through a
strainer to remove the debris and let settle for two days to start to
clarify again. Two days to settle was it for any secondary
fermentation for this batch. Transfer to half liter bottles for further
settling and aging.
Of course I kept a mug for myself to taste. It is a little sharper on
the apple flavor than I had hoped but that makes sense given it was
skins not the fruit. Still a little young but I was pleased at how good
it was with only two months of fermentation.
Got mead? Mmmm mead. I think this one is technically methylgil or some
such Old Saxon gesundheit word not mead.
Steve Peek
"Doug Freyburger" <dfre...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:ibf5lv$22o$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
Well, technically you've got an apple wine. According to guidelines a mead
should have honey contributing >50% of the fermentables. That plus apples
would be a cyser. Sorry to nitpick but that's what guidelines are for.
I've heard very bad things about fermenting molasses, but I've never been
sure whether it was actually sorghum or blackstrap. In my area the term
"molasses" is used interchangeably even though they are produced from very
different plants.
Did you use any pectic enzyme? If not, clearing may be an issue. Apples
contain large amounts of pectin and cooking seem to set them.
Sounds tasty! How about aging a bottle with a cinnamon stick in it?
Cheers,
Steve
Doug Freyburger
>
> Well, technically you've got an apple wine. According to guidelines a mead
> should have honey contributing >50% of the fermentables. That plus apples
> would be a cyser. Sorry to nitpick but that's what guidelines are for.
Cool technicality. I'll stick with apple flavored mead like stuff.
It'll help explain what I put in it.
> I've heard very bad things about fermenting molasses, but I've never been
> sure whether it was actually sorghum or blackstrap. In my area the term
> "molasses" is used interchangeably even though they are produced from very
> different plants.
Sorghum brews out like regular mead. I have not tried sweetener made
from sugar cane.
> Did you use any pectic enzyme? If not, clearing may be an issue. Apples
> contain large amounts of pectin and cooking seem to set them.
No effort to clarify this batch. I don't expect cider to be clear so I
don't expect this batch to be clear. It tastes fine and I'm happy.
> Sounds tasty! How about aging a bottle with a cinnamon stick in it?
Thanks for the suggestion. I'll hop open one and put in some cinnamon.
Joel
>Steve Peek wrote:
>> Well, technically you've got an apple wine. According to guidelines a mead
>> should have honey contributing >50% of the fermentables. That plus apples
>> would be a cyser. Sorry to nitpick but that's what guidelines are for.
>
>Cool technicality. I'll stick with apple flavored mead like stuff.
>It'll help explain what I put in it.
Eh, call it sorghum mead. Guidelines are just that-- guidelines.
And if the guidelines in question are BJCP guidelines those exist
mostly for guiding people who enter and judge homebrew competitions.
For instance, I call my blond ale a blond ale even though it doesn't
conform to the competition guidelines and hence wouldn't do well
judged as such.
--
Joel Plutchak
"New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any
other reason but because they are not already common." - John Locke
Dick Adams
> "Doug Freyburger" <dfre...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> Got mead? Mmmm mead. I think this one is technically methylgil
>> or some such Old Saxon gesundheit word not mead.
> Well, technically you've got an apple wine. According to guidelines
> a mead should have honey contributing >50% of the fermentables. That
> plus apples would be a cyser. Sorry to nitpick but that's what
> guidelines are for.
At best, he may have an Open Category Mead (26C). But that is a
stretch.
> I've heard very bad things about fermenting molasses, but I've never
> been sure whether it was actually sorghum or blackstrap. In my area
> the term "molasses" is used interchangeably even though they are
> produced from very different plants.
All the bad things you have heard about fermenting molasses are gross
understatements. The only reason to ferment molasses is to distill it
into rum.
Dick
Steve Peek
"Dick Adams" <rda...@panix.com> wrote in message
news:id13ld$34t$1...@reader1.panix.com...
Now which "molasses" are you referring to, sugar cane or sorghum? They are
very different plants. The syrup from sugar cane becomes rum and I've heard
the syrup from sorghum can become a powerful moonshine.
Steve
Dick Adams
> "Dick Adams" <rda...@panix.com> wrote:
>> All the bad things you have heard about fermenting molasses are gross
>> understatements. The only reason to ferment molasses is to distill it
>> into rum.
> Now which "molasses" are you referring to, sugar cane or sorghum?
> They are very different plants. The syrup from sugar cane becomes
> rum and I've heard the syrup from sorghum can become a powerful
> moonshine.
I did both. The molasses was from the first running. Blackstrap
is from the third running. I also fermented Sweet Sorghum syrup.
It had an equally noxious aroma. No wonder they distill it.
Dick
Doug Freyburger
>
> I've heard the syrup from sorghum can become a powerful moonshine.
Consider "Brown Dog" from Apple True Winery -
http://www.aeppeltreow.com/
They recently got the licenses to sell it and apple brandies. It is
smooth as Crown Royal. Among whiskies I usually perfer the harsher ryes
but I'm not consistent.
Sorghum works fine in the place of honey for home brewing.
Dick Adams
> Steve Peek wrote:
>> I've heard the syrup from sorghum can become a powerful moonshine.
> ...
> Sorghum works fine in the place of honey for home brewing.
The base ingredients for beer, wine, and Mead are
Beer - Grain - an annual agricultural crop
Wine - Fruit - a perennial agricultural crop
Mead - Honey - a biological crop
As wonderful as malted sorghum may be, if your
base ingredient is a malted grain, it is
technically not a Mead. But that only matters
if you want it judged as a Mead.
It's your homebrew. If you like it, that's all that counts!
Dick
- Mead is no more a honey wine than beer is a malt wine.
Doug Freyburger
>
> It's your homebrew. If you like it, that's all that counts!
I had the first bottle after a month or so of aging. I've made better
meads so it's merely okay. I ended up mixing it 50-50 with sweet cider
and that made a very nice "instant hard cider, just add apple mead" ;^).
Yesterday I started a batch of porter. An ale not a mead. I do roughly
half of my home brew batches as mead, roughly half as ales or beers.
Bubble, bubble, boil and trouble. Cauldron seath and primary
fermenter's airlock make a tiny little bloop noise every couple of
seconds. Ah well, Shakespeare's version is a lot more poetic but I bet
any batch of ale he made is long since skunked.