What’s Cooking?

Here’s a list of what’s coming down the line.  Each mead also includes the approximate time of when it will be ready to go.

 

Cherry Mead:
Made with Japanese Knotweed honey.
Aged on cherries.
– Ready now!  Bottles are available.

*AHA National Homebrew Competition 2018 – First Round – 2nd Place winner

Bourbon Barrel Aged Mead:
Made with a combination of Japanese Knotweed and Buckwheat honey.
Aged in a bourbon barrel for six months.  This was the second use of this particular barrel.
– Ready now!  Bottles are available.

Peach Mead:
Made with a Florida Wildflower honey, peach puree and peach extract.
– Ready now!  Not bottled, only in keg.

Smoked Braggot Bochet Mead (Faux Despair):
This one started with Maris Otter, Vienna, and Smoked Peated malts.
After the mash and boil, the brew was combined with wildflower honey, half of which was boiled to caramelization.
– Ready now!  Not bottles, only in keg.

Black Cherry Mead:
Made with Brazilian Wildflower honey.  This is one of my favorite honeys for mead making.  Aged on sweet cherries, tart cherries, and blackberries.
– Ready now!  Not bottles, only in keg.

Tupelo Mead:
Made with two sources of tupelo honey, 25% from Florida and 75% from Georgia.  It was just made, but I can’t wait for this one to be ready.
– Ready now!  Bottles are available.

Juniper Aged Mead:
This mead was made with a friend of mine.  He’s originally from Wyoming and was able to provide some clover honey and juniper branches from that great state!  We call this mead the Wyoming Cowboy – Juniper Tumbleweed.
– Read now!  Bottles are available.

Goldenrod Mead:
This mead is made with goldenrod honey.  My favorite honey to use (generally speaking) is wildflower.  But this mead turn out to be quite excellent.  I don’t have any bottled yet, but will very soon.
– Ready now!  No bottles, only in keg.  *This will be up for bottling very soon.

Heather Mead:
It look several years (and quite a few bucks), but I was able to save up enough heather honey to make a batch.  The honey is from several sources, but it is all from ling heather.
– Spring 2021

Laphroaig Barrel Aged Mead:
I was able to obtain a used Laphroaig barrel from a local distillery.  They used it to finish one of their bourbons.  I was excited to get it because it still had a lot of good peaty aroma left.  The barrel was much larger than the volumes I’m used to dealing with.  It was a whopping 36 gallons.  I had to get a little creative to get it filled up, but a blend of seven different meads got it to the top.  This mead has a lot of depth from the different varieties that were added.  The two main contributors were a vanilla mead, and a mead aged on dried heather tips.  Both of these flavors come through, as well as the smokiness from the barrel.
– Ready now!  No bottles, only in keg.  *This is the next mead up in line for bottling.