2013 Holiday Special Part I

This holiday season, I have bottled two batches and labeled these as gifts for friends and family.  This is a discussion of the first, TBM's Merry Mead.  I'll cover the second as I finalize the label and bottle the batch.

Merry Mead

Merry mead was a recipe created from the dregs of one of our Wedding Meads.  During the bottling process for the Blackberry Bliss, I realized there was approximately one gallon left of blackberry and blueberry mush (the fruit had dropped out of suspension during the fermentation, and was not pressed to harvest the remaining liquid).  Seeing the opportunity, I quickly added 12 pounds of orange blossom honey, topped the carboy up to 5 gallons, pitched some more yeast, and let it ferment.  

The Merry Mead Label

I have never had any problems with bread yeasts creating off flavors during prolonged aging, so the five gallon carboy remained buried in a closet for months.  After nearly a year of primary fermentation (20 Nov 2012 to 18 Nov 2013) this mead was racked to a 3 gallon and a 1 gallon carboy.   The 3 gallon carboy came out perfectly clear, but the 1 gallon still has some remaining lees to settle.  Merry Mead is exclusively from the 3 gallon carboy, bottled on 16 Dec 2013.

I am very satisfied with the final product.  The berry flavor compared to Blackberry Bliss is barely perceptible, leaving the orange blossom honey and cinnamon as dominant flavors.  The cinnamon leaves a slight numbness to the tongue during tasting (similar to the effects of cloves, but I've double-checked the recipe and couldn't find any in my notes).  The mead finished very sweet, but not cloyingly.  There is enough residual acid and cinnamon to create a balanced mead, highly drinkable and great as an after dinner apertif.

Given the recipe process, I don't have an accurate measure of alcohol content for this batch, but have approximated it around 10%.  The previous Wedding Meads settled in right around 10%, and it is doubtful this batch made it much further.  After a single glass you could feel the punch.

For those family members and friends lucky enough to get a bottle this year, I'd love to hear your feedback.  Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Pumpkin Apple Bochet

Here is a little batch I put together last week, using some leftover ingredients frozen last year.  Let me know what you think!  No word yet on whether it'll be any good, but initial tastes give me hope it'll turn out alright.

Recipe:
1 frozen baking pumpkin (cubed last year while uncooked, frozen)
1 pint granny smith apples (frozen, cut into small slices)
6 lbs orange blossom honey
1 packet D47 yeast
Depending on flavor, may add pumpkin pie spice (cardamum, cinnamon, clove) after primary fermentation
2 tsp yeast nutrient (3/4 tsp at pitch, 3/4 at 24 hours, 1/2 tsp at 48 hours)
1 tsp yeast energizer (1/2 tsp at pitch, 1/4 at 24 hours, 1/4 tsp at 48 hours)
SG = 1.123 (15.88% potential ABV)

Process:
Bake frozen pumpkin at 400 deg F until roasted (15 to thaw, break up pieces into pan; 20 minutes, flip pumpkin pieces; cook additional 40 minutes, mush pumpkin in pan).  Remove pumpkin from heat.

 The pumpkin baking process. Top left, frozen pumpkin and apples. Top right, partially thawed. 

Bottom left, partially baked. Bottom right, baked and mushed together.

Boil honey and 2 cups water (used to dissolve honey remaining in container) until honey is dark golden with a good portion burnt (approximately 1 hour), stirring continuously.  Add one half gallon cold water at the end of the boil to cool the honey, and redesolve the now very thick, somewhat burnt honey.  Chill to 70 degrees.

Boiling the honey. Be careful, honey volume will increase greatly during boil.  I used a 5 gallon brewpot to boil 1/2 gallon of honey, and nearly had the honey boiling over.

While must is cooling, rehydrate D47 per packet instructions.  Add pumpkin and frozen apple pieces to cheesecloth bag over brewing bucket. Tie cheesecloth bag.  Add rehydrated D47 to bucket, and let sit while bochet must cools.

 Adding pumpkin and apple pieces to the cheesecloth. Tie the cheesecloth bag well. This will ensure a minimal amount of pumpkin and apple pieces drop into the fermenting bucket, to minimize racking losses.

Pour boiled honey into fermenting bucket with apple and pumpkin cheesecloth bag.  Add water to 2 gallons.  My original SG was measured as 1.114 (14.84 % potential).  Add 3/4 tsp yeast nutrient and 1/2 tsp yeast energizer.

Ready to ferment. Bubbles on the top are undissolved pieces of burnt honey.

Follow yeast nutrient additions as outlined above.  Aerate twice daily during initial fermentation, and punch down cheesecloth to discourage spoiling organisms from growing.

Since this is D47, make sure to ferment under 70 degrees.  We keep our house at 67 during winter, so hopefully I'll be okay on the temperature requirements.


Notes from the batch so far:

• Mead is very slow to start.  Evidence of krausen formation from must on the bottom of the bucket lid, but no foam was noticeable on the surface after 24 hours.  During stirring, a good 1/2 layer of foam formed, but dissipated rapidly, leaving me to believe this recipe will not foam much.  
• Original SG was 1.114, but after 24 hours had jumped up to 1.123 as stated in the recipe above.  I believe this is caused by the burnt sugars dissolving after pitch and additional sugars from the pumpkin and apples leeching into the must.
• Tastes very much of toffee, no noticeable pumpkin flavor, and hints of apples.  Am intrigued to find out where this goes.  Tastes good now, but bochets may turn out to be too 'dark' for my tastes (I'm thinking stouts/porters, but without the body).

Let's Make a Stirplate

The last two weeks, I have been working on completing a home-built stirplate.  A stirplate allows a meadmaker (or homebrewer) to culture a larger yeast colony than what comes in the yeast packets or vials prior to pitching.  A yeast starter better acclimates the yeast to the must, and improves fermentation rates due to the healthier yeast and larger starting colony size.

My design for the stirplate is based on the one available at stirstarters.com, with a minor modification to the resistor and potentiometer.  The smallest potentiometer available at Radio Shack was 5k-Ohm, so I was forced to increase the resistor size accordingly to ensure a proper voltage drop across the fan.

The supplies (all prices at Radio Shack unless otherwise listed):

• 1 SPST Sub-Mini Switch ($3.49)
• 1 micro-F Capacitor, 2 pack ($1.99, $1 each)
• 5 k-Ohm Linear Potentiometer ($3.49)
• 680 Ohm Resistor, 5 pack ($1.49, $0.30 each)
• LM317T Voltage Regulator ($3.49)
• Breadboard ($3.49)
• 8"x6"x3" Project Box ($8.99)
• Four 3" machine screws ($1.26 x2, extra needed for additional nuts to mount fan)
• 12 V computer fan (free, salvaged from an old computer build)
• 4 D83 Neodymium Magnets (free, leftover from another project, usually $1.33 each)
• 12 V 1 Amp power adapter (free, harvested from old Verizon router)
• 22 AWG wire, soldering iron, lead free solder, electrical tape, hot glue gun (price not included)

Total price, tax included: $28.38 ($34.02 with magnets included, fan likely less than $10 additional)

Following the schematic from stirstarters, I laid out all the components and got to work building.  I highly suggest that anyone working with electronics have the appropriate multimeter, and measure the system components before soldering into place.  I should also warn you that the potentiometer will catch on fire, I repeat, it WILL catch on FIRE, if you short the voltage regulator.  Just be careful; I will not be held responsible for any accidents that occur.

Not knowing the pin layout for the LM317T and the potentiometer, I sought some help from a friend working on the same build.  You can find information on the pin layout for the LM317T here.  The potentiometer layout can be found here.  Note that you can reverse terminals on the potentiometer to control the clockwise/counterclockwise rotation of the potentiometer corresponding with an increase in power to the stirplate.  My design used the middle terminal for input, and the ground terminal as the output.  I only wired to two of the pins.  Test it out with a multimeter, and see what you prefer.

It had been years since the last time I put together an electronics project, but the build was easy enough.  First-timers shouldn't have any problem securing all the wires together.  And if soldering doesn't appeal to you, you can add some connectors to the supply list to complete the build.

           The Work Area                        Finalized wiring, Fan removed

All Screwed Together

Once finished, I put it through a test using a 1 gallon carboy filled 3/4 to the top.  Sure enough it created a steady vortex, more than enough for building a good yeast starter.  I still need to trim the potentiometer and add a knob, but looks weren't what I was going for.  It is functional, and more than capable for my needs.  Success!

Completed Project with Steady Vortex

Brewing Season is Upon Us

Now that the Maryland weather is cooling down, I can return my focus back to making meads again.  During much of the summer, the 84 degree temperature inside doesn't bode well for fermentation.  Most yeasts prefer temperatures between 65 and 75 degrees.  Lacking a way to control this, I tend to shelve the idea of making meads (unless they prefer high temperatures) and wait for the fall.

With the changing leaves, I have plans to start experimenting with local yeast capture.  We have a few eastern red cedars on our property with mature berries covered in yeast blooms.  I'm currently working to build a stir plate (plans at http://www.stirstarters.com/), with the intention to focus all winter on meadmaking with a local yeast.  At the same time, inspired by places like Blue Dog Mead and Leaky Roof Meadery, I will focus on low alcohol by volume meads, ideally in the 5-8% abv range.  I also want to try my hand at bochets, or caramelized honey meads.

I will spend part of the time updating you on my plans to turn my backyard into a local fruit paradise.  Right now, we have blueberry, blackberry, chokeberry and huckleberry bushes, with two very young persimmon trees.  Unfortunately none of these are old enough for any serious production.  Combined with the wild raspberries growing in our creek, over time I hope to make meads from these fruits.  I'll have to fight my wife for who gets to use the fruit (she does love to bake), but hopefully in time I'll have enough for us both to share.

I leave you with this recent article on the mead industry.  If mead is a canvas, what would you like to paint with?

New AMMA Publication

Thought I'd take this time to reference to the latest American Mead Maker's Association's (AMMA) newsletter.  Has some interesting articles on mead-food pairings, mead recipe design, an historical reference to mead (Pliny the Elder), and a recap of the 2013 Mazer Cup: AMMA Summer 2013.  If you missed the first two newsletters, they are worth a read as well.

For those who don't know, the AMMA is a relatively newly formed body with the following long-term goals:

• Establish relationship with government officials
• Member discounts at participating wineries
• Reduced entry fees at mead events
• Establish Mead Style Guidelines for legislation and competitions
• Create Mead Judge Certification program
• Clinics taught by industry leaders and subject matter experts
• Mead science research

The organization is extremely young, only founded in May 2012.  I encourage all to support their local meadery, and in turn support the AMMA.  They may not seem like much yet, but show promise in promoting mead related causes in the coming years.  

And while you're at it, you should help promote fair regulations for the mead industry, brought to you by the one and only Ken Schramm, author of The Compleat Meadmaker: http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/revise-ttb-regulations.fb31?source=s.icn.fb&r_by=2503511

Beer and Liquor? Where's the Wine and Mead?

Found an interesting article on artisanal alcohol and boutique beer as great industries to start companies in 2013 (inc.com, beer liquor best industry 2013).  As a home meadmaker, it makes me wonder what leaves mead or wine off the list?  Numerous mead companies are sprouting up across the nation, and it is increasingly being carried in local liquor stores, as well as some larger chains.  Wine might be a saturated market, but the local economy still stands.  Having lived in both Virginia and Maryland, these states are actively pushing the growth of wine within their borders.  Is the barrier to entry any different?  Or have wines already become saturated, and is mead still its own cottage industry (despite a recent article in Popular Mechanics and being named to the Forbes 2011 food trends)?

One day I'd love to start my own meadery, and articles on craft brewing and the increase in the market is inspiring.  Following startups and new meaderies on kickstarter gives me hope that the business idea could work (meaderies on kickstarter), although my plans are far more ambitious.  At some point it will have to reach the popularity of craft brewing to ever take off.  So that's what gets me writing here.  Go out and support your local meadery, and if you can't find one, for the time being a local brewery, winery, or distillery will have to do.

Wedding Mead

It was a beautiful day in April, as the love of my life prepped to walk down the isle.  My niece and first cousin once removed (what an annoying way to refer to a cousin's child) were clogging up the aisle.  Just moments before they were so happy to play with the rose petals, and now that they had to actually do it, they froze and threw off the timing.  But you aren't here to read about my wedding and romance, this is about mead!

Terrapin Bluffs Mead made its first public appearance at my wedding (well, larger than serving to only a few people at a time).  I served the basic JAO recipe and a modified JAO made with blackberries and blueberries, each scaled to 5 gallons so there was enough to go around.  We served both as parts of the toast, to rave reviews from all of our guests.  

As part of the process, I developed a special mead label to signify the occasion.  We used a sunset paper cutout as the central design element for the wedding, so I thought it fitting to place it smack dab in the middle of the logo.  I still kept the TBM logo around, but rotated it and shrunk it to take second place behind the importance of the day.  We used appropriately colored ribbons to glue the logo to the bottles, giving it the final professional appearance.  

From the tasting notes, most of the wine-drinkers preferred the blackberry variety, although as a general rule the majority of the wedding preferred the traditional, unmodified JAO.  We were just happy to serve the mead, and have everyone with us for our wonderful wedding.  It was so great having all of you involved, and hopefully there will be more mead for all the guests come Christmas!

Time Flies...

Already two months since my last post, and I've barely said anything about mead.  Summer's are busy, but they shouldn't be so much that I can't write about something I care for.  I've got many ideas for new posts, and am dwindling in motivation to put pen to paper (fingers to keys may be more appropriate).  So, I'm going to post a public to-do list, and hope maybe in the coming weeks I'll get around to actually posting about everything.  I'll even update with links as they are completed.  I do this as my wife stares at me with those wonderful eyes, full well knowing she's thinking "Yeah, right..."  So here goes, the list of topics:

1. Our wedding and the meads I served (link),
2. The Mazer Cup, and the scores of the meads from the wedding,
3. The American MeadMakers Association (AMMA),
4. The dwojniak in primary, the only mead I've made in the last few months,
5. A note on buying kegs when you know nothing about the topic.  Shame on Midwest Supplies for offering 'as-is' kegs for cheap.
6. And finally a post on that most sacred of ingredients, the honey itself.

That seems like a good start.  With any luck, I'll be finished by next year...

Designing a label

With Terrapin Bluffs as the name, I set out designing a logo.  I had defined a few requirements...  I wanted 7 scutes (the plates on a turtles shell) to coincide with the number of diamondback terrapin subspecies.  I needed a reference to bees, since everything I make includes honey.  And that was it.  A pretty large box to work in.

At one point, I even envisioned a turtle whose shell was built of honeycomb, and whose body was dripping with honey as it stepped from location to location, leaving little drops everywhere along the way.  It's eyes, nose and mouth were the opening to this moving hive.  This fully ambulatory honey hive was pretty cool in my head.  However, my art skills aren't that great, and I wanted something simpler anyway.  The honey turtle may still be a mascot one day, but it wasn't good for the label.

I eventually decided on a turtle shell with a hexagon border (honeycomb), with the Terrapin Bluffs name wrapping around the shell.

Here are a few of the early label designs, with 7 scutes in entirety.

The first design iterations, from winter 2012.

Early drawings of the turtle shell for the logo (summer 2012)

Now we're getting closer.  My carved pumpkin for last Halloween (Oct 2012).

Finally I realized I should include the namesake for the brand in the design, and decided to outline the shell in the image based on the shell on a real turtle.  I took the 7 scute idea from the pumpkin carving (1 large central scute outlining the typical 5 scutes down the middle, with 3 scutes on each side depicting where the 4 would normally be).  I started with a photo, and outlined the shell portions I wanted.

Last, it was just adding a layered hexagon, changing some colors, and there you have it, the TBM logo.  Thanks for reading!

Why Terrapin Bluffs Meadery?

I contemplated long and hard what kind of name I would want for a meadery.  Did I want to evoke an image of something, choose a family name of heraldry (Jones wasn't that interesting...), or even name it after a legend?  I was initially leaning towards the legend idea, as it would be fun to play on the history of mead with each of the new recipes.  However, finding a suitable legend proved difficult.

At first, I researched the story of the Red and White Dragons of Welsh mythology, where it required a cauldron of mead to quaff their thirsts such that they no longer fought and shook the castle walls.  The name was to be Lludd's Tavern, after Lludd Llaw Eraint, the hero who eventually captured the dragons.  If he could create a mead (well, purchase really) that could entice dragons, it certainly would be fit for friends and family.  I am also predominantly Welsh on my father's side, so it would have made sense from a historical perspective.  Needless to say, I found out that a pub by the name of King Lud used to exist in England, and scrapped the idea.

Then I thought about Norse mythology.  Most people revert to knowledge of Beowulf when discussing mead's origins, so I thought, why not play on the already popular ideas of Vikings drinking mead.  I thought of using Loki's Tavern as the meadery name, where I could name all my meads about his deeds or those of other trickster gods from cultures around the world.  Unfortunately, I don't really fancy myself being a trickster or prankster of sorts, so it didn't really gel with my personality or ideals.  Back to the drawing board I went.

Finally, it dawned on my that I should really use something personal to me.  Since I was about 5 years old, I've kept turtles as pets.  I even went to the University of Maryland, despite being from Florida.  I really liked the idea of using the terrapin as the namesake for the meadery.  However, there already exists a Terrapin Beer Company in Athens, GA and a Terrapin Station Winery in Maryland.  How could I differentiate myself from these two companies and not run the risk of infringing on trademarked products?  After all, both already produce alcohol (albeit beer and wine are regulated differently, and neither of these two companies could sell eachother's product, but that's a topic for another blog!).  Terrapin Meadery was too simple, and I didn't think it would fly with the two companies in existence.

Then I remembered all those times I've seen lots of turtles basking on the banks of rivers, streams, and lakes.  If I stretched the idea of these banks, I figured I could call them bluffs.  It also worked since I'm bluffing that I own a meadery (who knows, maybe I one day will).  After I thought more and more about it, the name just stuck.  Terrapin Bluffs Meadery.  It just fit, but then it came time to design a label...

My First Mead

My first mead, and which would come highly recommended to be your first mead, was a simple recipe of Joe Mattioli's Foolproof Ancient Orange, Clove and Cinnamon Mead, or JAO for short.  Not knowing much when I first started, I went with a recipe that was geared towards the beginning meadmaker, forgiveness for mistakes included.  Some may say to just start with a traditional mead, but if you want something fast, easy, and delicious to drink, this is the place to start.

The Recipe 
JAO, and all it's variants, are based on the simple premise that 3.5 pounds of honey fermented with Fleischmann's Active Dry bread yeast and mixed with a fruit will generally end up ok.  The basic recipe is as follows (liberally copied from JAO):


1 gallon batch

3 1/2 lbs clover or your choice honey or blend
1 large orange, cut in eighths or smaller
1 small handful of raisins (approximately 25)
1 stick of cinnamon (not to be confused with cassia)
1 whole clove
(Optional) a pinch of nutmeg and allspice
1 teaspoon of Fleischmann's bread yeast
Water to 1 gallon

Process:
Use a clean 1 gallon carboy.  Dissolve honey in some warm water and put in the carboy.  Wash orange well to remove any pesticides and slice in eights --add orange (you can push em through opening big boy -- rinds included -- its okay for this mead -- take my word for it -- ignore the experts).  Add raisins, clove, cinnamon stick, any optional ingredients and fill to 3 inches from the top with cold water. ( need room for some foam -- you can top off with more water after the first few day frenzy)  Shake the heck out of the jug with top on, of course. This is your sophisticated aeration process.

When at room temperature in your kitchen, put in 1 teaspoon of bread yeast. ( No you don't have to rehydrate it first-- the ancients didn't even have that word in their vocabulary-- just put it in and give it a gentle swirl or not)(The yeast can fight for their own territory)

Install water airlock. Put in dark place. It will start working immediately or in an hour. (Don't use grandma's bread yeast she bought years before she passed away in the 90's)( Wait 3 hours before you panic or call me) After major foaming stops in a few days add some water and then keep your hands off of it. (Don't shake it! Don't mess with them yeastees! Let them alone except its okay to open your cabinet to smell every once in a while.

Racking --- Don't you dare
additional feeding --- NO NO
More stirring or shaking -- Your not listening, don't touch

After 2 months and maybe a few days it will slow down to a stop and clear all by itself. (How about that) (You are not so important after all) Then you can put a hose in with a small cloth filter on the end into the clear part and siphon off the golden nectar. If you wait long enough even the oranges will sink to the bottom but I never waited that long. If it is clear it is ready. You don't need a cold basement. It does better in a kitchen in the dark. (Like in a cabinet) likes a little heat (70-80). If it didn't work out... you screwed up and didn't read my instructions (or used grandma's bread yeast she bought years before she passed away) . If it didn't work out then take up another hobby. Mead is not for you. It is too complicated.
If you were successful, which I am 99% certain you will be, then enjoy your mead. When you get ready to make different mead you will probably have to unlearn some of these practices I have taught you, but hey--- This recipe and procedure works with these ingredients so don't knock it. It was your first mead. It was my tenth. Sometimes, even the experts can forget all they know and make good ancient mead. 

----

If you decide to give this mead a try, I hope you find it as successful as I did.  That winter, it made a perfect gift for the family.  Thanks Joe for the delicious recipe!

The Beginning

A few years back, September 2009 to be precise, I fermented my first batch of mead.  I was 23, fresh out of college with a little bit of spending money, and thought why not try my hand at making some homemade alcohol.  It can't be that hard.  I had never tried mead before, but thought beer was overdone and wasn't a huge wine fan at the time (how many guys are in their 20s?), and why not start with the drink of the Vikings?  If it was good enough for Beowulf, it must be good enough for me!

Three and a half years later, I'm still making mead, although not as much as I want to.  I currently have 13.5 gallons under airlock, but I could always use some more.

For those who don't know what mead is, you aren't alone.  And when I say I make mead, most people ask, "How you make meat?" thinking I'm a farmer of sort.  Mead is simply fermented water and honey.  Many ingredients can be added to make variants of mead, including fruits (melomel) and spices (methyglyn).  For those interested in more about mead, stay tuned.  Or if you aren't patient, check here: www.gotmead.com.  It's the best repository of mead knowledge I've found, and the folks are friendly too!

I recently decided on a name for my fictitious closet meadery, Terrapin Bluffs, and a logo (things I'll explain in later posts).  So, I figured the next step might as well be to document all my merry adventures making the world's oldest (arguably) fermented beverage.  So this is my journey, or more appropriately, will be.