Mead Obsession
… it continues!
Slowly I’ve been working on this corner cabinet in the kitchen. Initially it was gonna be storage for fermenting carboys, but then I realized… I’m REALLY getting into this. Most likely I’m gonna order another carboy… or two… three? Nah, five more. I’ve got a problem, and to solve this I gotta rearrange and expand my storage! If you’ve followed my previous blogs, you’ll know I got a new china cabinet, so I was able to replace the metal rack with that. I figured, hey… that’s a lotta more storage. I just need to get some kinda blackout fabric for it. FOR NOW…. this will do:
Yeah, so as you can see – I’ve got two 5-gallon glass carboys with Hade’s Crimson (left) and Orange Creamsicle 1.0 (with lactose, on the right) currently in secondary fermentation; a white 6.5 gallon primary fermenting bucket (empty) on the bottom shelf. Figure I might order another glass carboy AND primary bucket to fill out this shelf. Next shelf up, I have the Yerba Mate Enlightenmint in secondary with a blow off tube (right), and Orange Creamsicle 1.0 (without lactose), followed by an empty 1 gallon carboy with its own airlock, and two empty lidless 1 gallon jugs (I used to use these for ginger beer).
BUT WAIT!!!! A EMPTY CARBOY???
Whatever is that in this mason jar? Why, it’s a yeast starter!
Yeah, so I figured… since I’m doing Orange Creamsicle with orange/tangerine zest, juice of tangerine and vanilla beans to recreate the orange creamsicle flavor… Why not go to the root and use the actual soda? WAIT – why not even use actual orange creamsicle ice cream!!! YAAAAAASSSSS, let’s!
BUT WAIT!!!
Sodium Benzoate. The worst enemy of fermentation – a preservative so vile and murderous, it will seek out all life (yeast and bacteria) and kill it. I couldn’t find any orange creamsicle sodas around here without this preservative, so I did some research. You know that dude from Golden Hive Mead, he’s been doing all those soda meads? Yeah, how do I do this… Reddit, Golden Hive Mead and ChatGPT led me to this conclusion: I CAN DEFEAT THIS VILE PRESERVATIVE!!!! It’ll be a battle, but here we go (recipe will be in my projects section of this website). FYI I used Steward’s Foundation Classic Orange ‘n Cream soda (cane sugar-based).
Steps:
- Sanitize all tools and equipment (duh!)
- In the mason jar, add:
- 2 cups room temperature spring water
- 1 packet Lalvin EC1118 yeast
- Mix, put lid on loosely, and store in warm dark place for 24 hours.
- Sanitize all tools and equipment again (duuuuhhhh!)
- Mix 1 bottle soda to 1lb orange honey in sanitized measuring cup; pour into carboy.
- Repeat with 2nd bottle and 2nd lb of orange honey
- Add 20 oz room temperature spring water, 1 packet Lalvin EC1118 yeast, mix.
- Add 1 bottle soda to yeast mixture, mix.
- Grab the yeast starter, pour the entire content into carboy, swirl to mix.
- Pour yeast-water-soda mixture into carboy.
- Fill with soda ’til it reaches the neck.
There we go! It really smells GOOD! I’m excited about this – I know the yeast will strip a lot of flavor as it ferments, and I figure I’ll take a two-pronged approach to bottling this. 1 gal normally makes 4 750ml bottles with a little bit left over; so I’ll go ahead and bottle two as-is, then add a little bit more of this orange creamsicle soda to the other two bottles to increase the flavor. Well, really, that all depends on how it tastes before I’m ready to bottle it – I might not need the extra soda!
Hade's Crimson Update
So, because Persephone’s Golden was bottled when it was still cloudy, I know there’ll be a buncha lees on the bottom of those bottles. I’ve been a wee bit nervous about using Bentonite, but I decided to take the plunge, bought some and added it to Hade’s Crimson as that’s a 5 gallon batch (25+ 750ml bottles) and I don’t want the bottles that I age for super long to have a lot of lees sitting in it (can impact the flavor long-term). Made a bentonite slurry last night and pitched it into the carboy, and… even tho I initially was gonna bottle this today, I’m delaying the bottling for at least a week so the bentonite can do its job and clarify the mead, pull all sediments to the bottom. Result should be an awesome clarity to the mead in clear glass bottles!
Orange Creamsicle 1.0 Update
On the 26th of November, I took the second SG reading and tasting. The starting SG was 1.060, and on the 26th it read 0.996 – that seems to have fermented rather quickly! Not as high ABV as I hoped for – 8.71%, not too bad. It didn’t taste at all like orange creamsicle – the orange flavor was very subtle, and I could barely detect any vanilla. No go on recreating the flavor, and we ain’t done just yet! I racked it to secondary and added 1lb lactose, but oops – I figure this will come out super dry, so I might have to backsweeten with orange honey, maybe dip in 2-3 more vanilla beans when I take the third reading/tasting, probably later today or tomorrow. Maybe even toss in some more orange and tangerine juice.
Oh yeah, maybe the reason why the flavor is weak… is because this was a 5 gallon recipe, and I somehow made a little bit over 6 gallons instead, so I ended up with a watered-down mead? Yep, this is probably why. w00t! So yeah, I have a second batch of this to experiment with, as well. I think I’ll add the soda I used for 2.0 to this one in secondary! So, I guess I’ll be calling this 1-gallon batch the Orange Creamsicle 1.2? Ha!
Yerba Mate Enlightenmint Update
On the 30th of November, I took a third reading/tasting – SG is 1.050 (11.97% abv currently), and it still has the enlightenmint flavor – it’s present, not subtle but not entirely there. It wasn’t too sweet, but sweeter than the canned beverage itself, maybe just a wee bit. I think this will be a successful batch! It’s been racked to secondary and the fermentation process is still active – so active, I still have the blowoff tube instead of S-shaped airlock! I’m getting a bubble every 2-3 seconds.
Now, this has me thinking about the yerba mate tea version I’ll make soon – gonna make some concentrated tea with yerba mate leaves, then brew a 5 gallon batch. Need to order 1 more 1-gallon carboy so when this 5-gal version is done with primary, I’ll add 4 different extracts/flavors to recreate 5 different versions of the canned yerba mate beverages, with one being just plain yerba mate tea. Oh boy, I can’t wait for this!!! Wait, no… I can’t wait to drink ALL of these recipes I’ve made, will make, and will come up with ideas for new recipes! This is one hella exciting hobby! (good thing I repurposed that metal shelving eh?)
What's next?
Once I bottle Hade’s Crimson, my next recipe will be a Darjeeling tea (5 gallon batch). Once the 5 gallon batch of Orange Creamsicle 1.0 is bottled, the Yerba Mate tea in primary will be next. After that, will revisit a blackberry recipe – a request from my cousin, he wants a blackberry-lime flavor so…
Any requests? Leave a comment!