Mead Update, Wine and More - A Long Overdue Update

I just realized I haven't posted anything here since last year and it's almost April! Sheesh! No, I haven't given up my beer journey, but I have slowed down quite a bit with a lack of funding being the main reason.

Deschutes, O'Dell, and Twisted Pine

Wow, two posts in one night. Either something is wrong, or I'm playing catch-up again... My money is on the later. Anyways, the next round of beers were a very hoppy bunch.



Chainbreaker

I'll start off with Deschutes' Chainbreaker IPA. This one was a very interesting beer. It's a white IPA that is almost as white as a Wit. It is a very moist beer that is light on the tongue. I also found it surprisingly semi-sweet. What was shocking was the mixture of sweet and the strong piney hopps. A great brew.



O'Dell  IPA

Unfortunately, I did not take notes on this one and it's been a while since I drank it. It was, of course, hoppy and pretty good but I don't remember any of the finer points. :(

Twisted Pine

The last of the batch is Twisted Pine's Hoppy Boy. This beer poured medium gold with a big head, yet had a very light scent to it. Without much of a bouquet to it, I was worried it would be weak, but the first sip proved me wrong. This beer has an insanely powerful hopps flavor that is quite bitter and lingers for a good long time. It's not a bad bitter, but a good hopps bitter. In fact, the hopps in this one is almost too strong and overpowering.

Mert's Milk

Before I get started, I must say this post is over a beer that you will not find in stores anywhere. It's a 100% pure, Ozark made Homebrew brewed by a rookie brew-master. He calls his beer "Mert's Milk", and it is very good.

Silver Batch

His story began when he stumbled upon an unused homebrew kit relatively inexpensive. It came with a Pale Ale kit of unknown age or origin, but he was going to brew it anyways as it was a good place to start. While cooking everything up, he accidentally overcooked the malt extract which created a much darker Pale Ale than intended and gave it a more caramelized flavor. This first batch, which I'll call his "Silver Batch" because of the silver bottle caps, had a great malt flavor that was heavy yet smooth.

Orange Batch

His second batch was supposed to be a Maple Beer, but the maple flavor was so mild, it was hard to distinguish it. This second batch, the "Orange Batch", was slightly hoppier than the first and more of a lighter gold color. This brew was bottle conditioned with a little extra yeast. By the time I finished my last bottle, you could tell the yeast were still working away as it kept getting a little more stout. As for the maple, it was there. Once the beer began to warm up a little, the hint of maple came out. This second brew also produced a massive head and I had a hard time keeping it from overflowing.

His third and fourth batches are going to be a special holiday blend in time for Christmas followed by a California Pale Ale that he will be triple hopping around New Years. I can't wait.

My hat is off to Mert's Milk. I've loved the first two batches and look forward to future ones (and I'm not just saying that because I know you'll read this...) I only hope some day I'll be able to brew my own beers right along with you.

Before I sign off, I'd like to give a quick Mead update. I took a taste of my plain mead a while ago. It was only about a month or so since I started it, so it was still quite a bit cloudy. After the first swig, well, let's just hope another month of fermenting does the trick...

Winter Grind

Winter Grind is back and still awesome!

That is all.

Mead!

I did it at last!

No more talk, I have finally created my first batch of Mead, and it was so simple! I went with a "economical" recipe (aka cheap) that was literally honey, yeast and bottled water.

I started by visiting The Home Brewery in Ozark, Missouri for my main ingredients. They consisted of a 5 pound container of pure wildflower honey, a package of Lalvin EC-1118 Wine Yeast, and a small package of Yeast Nutrient. Total cost, with tax, $22.51. Next, I visited a local Dollar Tree and picked up two 1 gallon jugs of spring water. Total cost, with tax, $2.15.

And that was all my shopping. Nothing else. Total cost for my first batch of Mead was $24.66. Now, onto the production using things I already had around the house.

All of my supplies. (The Mother's cup is the yeast reactivating in water.)

One of the big things everything I read about said was sanitation. Everything that touched the Must (honey water) had to be sanitized, and I took this very seriously. I grabbed the largest stock pot I had out of the cabinet and filled it with warm water until there was approximately a gallon in the bottom. I next added 1 teaspoon of plain bleach to the water and mixed it in. Next, every utensil shown here, including the balloons, took a bath in the bleach water. After a very thorough rinse I was off running.

Happy yeast bubbling
away.

First thing I did was put the yeast into a cup of water to get it reactivating. That sat for about 20 minutes or so until it was nice and bubbly. While the yeast was doing it's thing, I put the container of honey into warm water to make it a little easier to pour.

With those two things set up, I next poured the water into the big stock pot and added the 2 teaspoons of nutrient. To that went the 5 pounds of honey and  my cup of now ready yeast. I stirred vigorously to mix everything up well and aerate the water some.

Finally, it came time to pour it into the bottles. This was a little nerve wrecking, but I went slow and steady and it went okay. Last thing I wanted to do was spill my first batch of Mead!

Mixing the honey into the water meant it wasn't going to fit back into the original gallon jugs. Luckily I had an empty bottle from my girls' juice that hadn't been recycled yet. It was maybe 1/2 gallon in size and turned out to be perfect. Plus it gave me another opportunity to try flavoring it.

So now I have 3 beautiful bottles of Mead ready to ferment. I left one of the gallon bottles 100% plain. To the other gallon bottle, I added 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. I would have added a raw vanilla bean, but remember, I'm doing this cheaply. To the last small bottle, I added about 1/8 teaspoon of ground nutmeg as I read that made a good flavoring.

To top it all off, I put a balloon on top of each container and poked a hole in each balloon. This will allow the CO2 to escape without letting anything back in. A very cheap airlock!

Voila! Now we just have to wait...

And with that, the Mead is essentially done. Now all I have to do is wait for it to ferment. I'm planning on siphoning off a few bottles worth around Christmas to try it out and I'll let the rest sit much longer. I can't wait!

Now for the numbers. Like I said before, total cost of the supplies, for about 2-1/2 gallons of Mead, was $24.66. We'll call it $25 for easier math. I was looking around a bit online and from what I saw, the average price for a 750ml bottle of Mead was about $15. 2.5 gallons = 9463 milliliters. 9463 milliliters / 750 milliliters = 12.6. So, what I just made would equal about 12 750ml bottles of store bought Mead. At $15 each, that is $180.00. I just made $180.00 worth of Mead for only $25.00. Now that is what I call economical!

Octoberfests and Mr. Pumpkin

I always enjoy the holiday season. The heat of the summer has passed, the leaves start changing colors, and the awesome seasonal beers start to show up on the shelves. I have now tried 3 different Octoberfests and while each one has its similarities, they are slightly different depending on who made them. I also got a chance to visit a friend from last year, Mr. Pumpkin.

A Small Celebration

A few weeks back, we sold some furniture on Craigslist and to celebrate, I bought myself a few bottles of Lagunitas. It had been a while since I had these two particular beers and I was looking forward to having them again. I started with Hop Stoopid and loved the sweet hopiness of this beer. Wilco Tango Foxtrot was next and it was still rich and malty. Delicious.

I've noticed my tastes have been slightly changing here recently and some beers that once tasted good don't wet my whistle like they once did. These two brews are an exception at least and I thoroughly enjoyed them again.