Before I start I will apologize as unfortunately for this update I have no pictures. There have been a lot of updates over the festive period so I shall start in order with the old. I have taken both the Bochet and the Banana Melomel from primary into secondary back sweetened and added bentonite to clear. I've taken readings from both of them and calculated their ABVs. For the Bochet I get 8.9% and the Banana Melomel yields around 13.4%. They've been clearing for a few days now and the colour has cleared significantly already so it's nice to see the bentonite doing it's job.
As with all tasks related to food and drink you have to try your product along the way... it would be rude not to! The bochet had a lovely flavour which was just what I was going for; subtle vanilla and caramel with an almost toasted marshmallow flavour. When I first read that the Bochet would taste of toasted marshmallows I was a bit skeptical however it describes the drink perfectly. The only downside I noticed with this specific attempt was a slight watery feel to it. I'm hoping the aging process will kick some body back into it.
The banana melomel was interesting to sample. Due to the high alcohol content (and also a seemingly higher than normal acidity courtesy of our good old CO2) the drink was quite harsh to begin with and wasn't anywhere near as banana flavoured as I would have liked. I can attribute the decrease in banana flavour to the fermenting process. Obviously flavours of ingredients change after they have been fermented. Although I haven't with this batch, it might be wise to add banana into the secondary to impart more of the original flavour back into the mead - or at least some banana flavoured syrup. As with the bochet though I am hoping that the flavours can reassert themselves properly in the aging process.
To put my words into practice too, I have started another 1Gal batch of banana mead to hopefully give similar results to the current one but where I can use my ideas with regard to the secondary. Similarly with batch one there is a high sugar content from the honey and from the bananas so I was anticipating a volatile initial ferment like last time and had the blow off tube on standby. Turns out my expectations were right and the evening into the ferment the blow off tube had to be employed before the volcano got any worse!
And now for the final new addition - a 5Gal of traditional mead. I shall add more specific details of this later buy basically I have started a 5Gal carboy full of traditional mead off. The aim for this is to give a mead of around 10-12% to be put into my 15L oak cask for aging. I have been looking forward to oak aging ever since I bought the cask and now is my chance to. I am a assuming I will have enough left over as well to fill a 1Gal demijohn and if so I am wanting to experiment a little and try to create a "Jaffa Cake" flavoured mead. The orange and chocolate flavours should be easy enough. For the Orange I have a overly sweet orange juice to add into the secondary: that sweet it is not consumable on its own. For the chocolate I shall add in some of my homemade chocolate vodka (cocoa beans soaking in vodka). The cake flavour is slightly trickier. I have been doing some research and come across a few recipes where people have brewed an apple pie cyser. The "pie" flavour for these seems to come from the spices that are added such as vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Obviously these all compliment apple flavours well but would go less so with orange and chocolate so for the "jaffa cake" mead I am thinking of just adding in vanilla and nutmeg. It has also been mentioned to me to add in oats. When oats are used in the brewing of stouts and bitters they give a more rounded feel to the drink, imparting an almost creamier taste. I am hoping for similar with mead too but I shall do more research before then too.
More pictures and specific information to come!
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