| Date | Comments |
| 6/5/2004 | Mixed the ingredients. The yeast seemed to be starting real slow, then it dawned on me that I had forgotten to add the cinnamon and cloves. I popped the cork, added the dry ingredients, stirred the mixture and let it go. About 1/2 hour later, the mixture blow the water valve right out of the bottle (the cinnamon clogged the vents and the pressure did the rest!) |
| 6/6/2004 | Everything is fermenting like crazy. Everything seems to be going OK, but it's foaming real bad and I have to keep a close watch that the foam doesn't get into the airlock and cause problems. I definitely understand why your supposed to start in a primary bucket now. |
| 6/7/2004 | The foaming seems to have ended. The mixture is still fermenting like crazy. The airlock is venting about every 1 1/2 seconds. The whole house smells. Thank the gods I like the smell! |
| 6/10/2004 | The fermentation is starting to slow (a little!). Right now the airlock is bubbling every 2 1/2 seconds. |
| Note: | So far, I've noticed one thing that I wasn't expecting... Once the fermentation started, the must had a light colored layer of fluid at the top, and the bottom was a fair amount darker. The longer it's fermented, the bigger the light colored layer, and smaller the dark layer. Now, other than some sediment at the bottom, the dark colored layer is completely gone. Next time, I'll try to take some pictures to show what I'm talking about. |
| 6/13/2004 | Still fermenting away. Down to bubbling at about a 3 second rate. |
| 6/15/2004 | Bubbling is down to about every 6 seconds now. Basically, the
color is like milky apple juice. It's definitely going to be a while before I
can see through this stuff. I can hardly wait to see what it's going to taste
like (and I'm only 10 days into it!) Patience is not an easy thing when it's
your first batch EVER! End of the Day: The bubbling seems to be dropping at a fast rate now.. When I got home from work, I checked the airlock and it's down to bubbling at about an 11 second rate. |
| 6/17/2004 | Bubbling is down to 20 seconds between bubbles and I'm starting to get a slight light color sediment on the bottom. |
| 6/18/2004 | Bubbling is now down to every 32 seconds. If I can make it down to the store this weekend to get some supplies I need, I'm going to rack it off to another carboy, check the SG to see where it's at, and add a little more cinnamon, vanilla, and maybe some orange blossom honey to top it off. Can't wait till this stuff clears! |
| 6/20/2004 | Fermentation seems to have come to about a complete stop. I did get down to the local homebrew store, so I was able to check the Specific Gravity. The SG was at 1.04 Of course, I had to try the test sample. Overall, it has a very pleasing flavor and it's still very sweet, but I prefer dessert wines so thats ok. The alcohol has a definite grain alcohol bite to it, but I imagine that will mellow with age. I decided not to rack it yet, but I did add about 4 oz of Orange Blossom Honey, a shot of vanilla flavoring, and enough apple juice to fill the carboy back up (the level was down from where it blew the cork early on). |
| 6/24/2004 | The fermentation started in again after I added the additional honey and apple jiuce. It's not very fast, but you can definitely see the bubbles (if you look hard!). It seldom causes the airlock to bubble, but it is still fermenting. |
| 6/29/2004 | The fermentation is just about stopped. You have to look REAL
hard to see any bubbles. I'm going to rack this batch this weekend. Of course,
I'll check the SG again when I do (and I'll have to take another taste test
 ) If I get
time to make it to all the stores, I may decide to start another batch. I'm
thinking either blueberry or blackberry might be good. |
| 7/3/2004 | I went ahead and racked today. While racking, I took a sample, and the SG is now at 1.04. The alcohol has a lot less bite than it did at the first testing, which I consider a good sign. The general flavor is still quite nice. I topped the carboy off with apple juice, but this time, I did NOT add any additional honey. I did put in a little more vanilla, cinnamon, and cloves. |
| 7/5/2004 | Well, since I racked the mead, there has been no signs of fermentation. I haven't seen a single bubble floating to the top. I'm a little concerned that the SG is 1.04 and fermentation has stopped. Unfortunately, I don't know the starting SG, so I don't know if it's stuck, reached the max alcohol for the yeast, or something else. I used a 'sweet mead yeast' so this might be normal. The must does appear to be clearing nicely. There is already quite a bit of sediment on the bottom, and the must looks a lot less milky. I guess I'll just let it sit and see what happens. |
| 7/9/2004 | Well, after some comments from Joe over on the GotMead forums,
and a little more research on my own, I'm fairly certain that the fermentation
has done all it's going to do. The yeast is rated for 14% alcohol and ~75%
attenuation, and give the amount of honey (and apple juice) I started with,
that should be exactly what it did. The must has almost completely cleared, and there is probably a good 1/2 inch of sediment in the bottom of the carboy. You can't read a newspaper thru the bottle, but then you couldn't read thru the original apple juice either. The color is maybe a little darker that the original apple juice.If time permits, I think I will rack this again this weekend. One other thing, when I did the last racking, I poured what remained in the bottom of the carboy into a mason jar and put it in the fridge. Let it set a few days to settle, and then last night, I poured off the reasonably clear stuff on top. The alcohol still has the bite or gasoline taste to it, but that taste seems to fade real fast, leaving you with the apple / cinnamon / vanilla flavors. It seems to have a very smooth finish. My guess is I'm going to end up with a very nice cyser just in time for the Holidays! Last thing. If I can make it to the home brew store for some more yeast this weekend, I'm going to start a 3 gallon straight batch in my primary. Once the foaming stops, I plan to use this for 3 - one gallon batches of melomel. A gallon each of blackberry, blueberry, and peach. I've already purchased frozen blackberries, and I have some fresh Texas blueberries that I need to wash and freeze this evening. I plan to attend the Parker County Peach Festival this weekend and get enough fresh local peaches for the last batch. I can't wait to see what the house smells like with all three of these going at the same time! |
| 7/19/2004 | I can now see through the carboy. It's has a heavy amber color, but it is clear. I never got around to racking it after the last update, so I'm going to rack it tonight. As long as nothing else settles out, I'm planning on bottling it in 2 weeks. That might be a little early to bottle, but I liked the taste at the last racking and since this is my first ever mead, I'm having a real hard time waiting! |
| 7/22/2004 | I finally found time to rack to a clean carboy. When I pulled the bottle out of the pantry, I was pleasantly suprised to find that the mead has cleared very nicely. I have no trouble seeing through the bottle. The mead is a medium gold in color. SG tested at 1.039 @ 74 deg. I topped the bottle back up with fresh apple juice. I'm going to let it set for awhile and in a few weeks, if nothing else settles out, I'll start bottling. |
| 8/8/2004 | Well, I decided to bow to conventional wisdom and put some perservatives in my sweet mead. I racked off to a new carboy and added about 3/4 tsp k-sorbate and 2 campden tablets. SG was 1.039 and I added marbles to top off the carboy. The sample tasted great. Almost all of the alcohol bite is gone. The taste starts clean and finishes with a cinnamon/clove kick... Very interesting taste. I'm going to bottle next weekend. |
| 8/14/2004 | IT'S BOTTLED! Well, I bottled this batch this morning. I ended up with a case (24)of 187ml (~6 oz) bottles, 3 - 16 oz flip tops, and 13 1/2 - 12 oz beer bottles. I ended up with fewer bottles than I was expecting, which probably means I've got the wrong number for the number of oz in a gallon. I'll have to look that up so I calculate it right next time. Overall, I'm real pleased with the process and end product. I think the only thing I'm going to change for my next batch of cyser is I'm going to use Lavin K1V-1116 yeast and try for 18% alcohol with a finishing SG of 1.030. |
| 8/16/2004 | Well, the last thing to do is of course... Label the
bottles! I went out and bought one of those 300,000 image clip art library, and
overall, was rather disappointed with the images they had. (Thats nothing new,
I'm disappointed with most clip art libraries I've seen.) After much playing
around, I finally ended up with this design... I think it would be better if the bee had a happy face instead of looking like he's being worked to death, but it's the best I could find. |
| 10/31/2004 | It's just amazing the difference time makes in your mead. This mead is now real smooth, without even a trace of alcohol bite. Overall, I think it's just a little too sweet. It finished at 1.039 and I think it would be a little more rounded if it was setting at 1.030 or maybe 1.025. The YL still loves it and it's not so sweet that I can't drink (and enjoy) it, so it's a success! |