Mead and Wine: It Takes Time

 Earlier this year, I shared a post on my old blog (now posted here) about the "Happy Day Gift" that Jason gave me. It was a kombucha making kit, and I have made, and experimented, with brewing kombucha. At the same time, Jason started his own brewing experiments. He had been researching making honey mead for a while, and really wanted to try it. Since that first "brewing" post, Jason has been a busy little bee creating a wide variety of meads and wine that are now aging peacefully in our basement. At least, that's what we hope they are doing!

To share a bit of what all he has been brewing in our kitchen, and basement, he started with a plain honey mead.

This first batch was his baby for quite a while. It sat in a bucket on the kitchen counter for quite a while before he transferred it to the glass jug. Then it had to sit at a fairly consistent temperature for another month, I think, in the glass jug so that all the sediment (yeast, floaties from the various ingredients, etc.) could settle to the bottom. With it being so hot this spring, he occasionally had issues with it getting too warm in the kitchen. So he would transfer it back and forth between the kitchen and basement as needed.

Whenever he had to transfer the mead from one container to another (bucket to jug, to another jug, to bottles), he used some sort of siphon gadget that he purchased for his brewing hobby. Over time he has perfected his methods for the most optimal process, but his early methods included using a cooking pot on the floor.

He also does a lot of testing with his beaker and this spinning thing (a hydrometer, I think) for sugar content and I'm not sure what else. (Maybe Jason should be writing this post...) He also samples along the way, as have I. The early taste tests are not anything too great in my experience, but Jason seems to be able to foresee what the end result is going to be based on the early tastes.

He was quite proud when he got his very first batch of honey mead bottled and corked! And, it did look very pretty! His one complaint was that it still had floaties from using honey that was packaged with the honeycomb. After the bottling, it has set in the basement for going on six months now. Just the other week, he opened a bottle to share with his wine making mentor and, I have to say, I was impressed! It tasted pretty nice for a first time mead maker!

Right after Jason started his very first batch of honey mead, he started making plans for other batches and flavors. Since strawberries were in season, he started a batch of strawberry mead right away. Little Pumpkin and I went out and picked the strawberries at a local orchard, both for his mead experiment and to eat fresh.

This is the best photo I have of the strawberry mead. He was transferring it from the bucket to the glass jar (which was sitting on top of the cooking pot on the floor!). I have to say, though, whenever I tasted the strawberry mead during his testings and samplings, I was not sure if it was going to turn out. It was a lot smellier of a ferment than the honey mead was! Because it has to age longer than the honey mead does (about a year), we are still waiting to try the end result of the strawberry mead.

When blackberries came into season, Jason decided to try making blackberry wine. This time, he got to go pick his own fresh fruit with Little Pumpkin! I'm not a hundred percent sure on the differences in process between mead and wine making, but I think they are fairly similar. But different. Jason has a good friend from college that has been making wine for a few years, and he has gleaned a lot of information from the gentleman that owns the brew shop where he can get most of his supplies. So he talks a lot with his "brewing mentors" whenever trying a new flavor, or product.

His bottling method doesn't include the cooking pot on the floor- just the bottle. And, random fun fact for you: Every single time I see his siphon hose with the clamp, all I can think of is the milk tester lady taking samples in the milking parlour. I doubt that's what everyone pictures when they see this. It's probably just me and some very ingrained memories from milking cows. But, I digress. Back to wine making!

Of all Jason's mead and wine making experiments this summer, I think the blackberry one looks the most delicious! If I remember correctly, I thought the blackberry wine tasted better, though very "sharp," during his tests and samplings prior to bottling than the strawberry mead did. However, as a wine, this blackberry one has to sit for about 18 months before we can try it. So it will be a while until we know how it turned out!

If you think that these experiments were a lot of brewing, you should know that I didn't get photos of each of his experimental batches! Jason also started a peach wine when peaches came into season. I was not really involved in that brewing process, and I don't think I ever tasted it. I do remember it having more of an odor, similar to the strawberry mead, when it was fermenting. But, I think Jason was pretty confident that it would turn out well. It has been bottled and resting in the basement for a couple of months now. It will also have to sit for a long time before we can try it.

He also tried making a batch of "cheap" wine by using just regular, plain, fruit juice that you buy at the store. (Prison wine is what he called it...) I believe it was made with both mixed berry and grape juice. I don't believe I tasted that batch, but I know that when Jason bottled and tasted it, he said it wasn't going to be as good as the stuff made from real fruits. It also has to age quite a while before we will know the real end result of  the "cheap wine."

And lastly, Jason created a batch of apple cider mead! That recipe was a complete experiment as there was no recipe for him to follow. He just used his current knowledge, and that of his brewing mentors, and made it happen. He's not quite sure how long it will need to age, and it was the most recent batch made, so it will definitely be sometime next summer or fall before he opens a bottle. He is expecting it to be quite delicious, though!

Since Jason has tried all of the seasonal fruits that we had access too, he is now talking about making a large batch of the plain honey mead. He has done that one once, tried the semi-finished product already, and believes he can produce a good, quality mead now. He has not started that project yet, but keeps talking about it with his "brewing mentor," and is slowly gathering the supplies. Jason is also prepping to try another batch of "cheap wine," but wants to use white peach fruit juice this time. Somehow, with the recipe he's either found, or made up, he thinks that will turn out really good even though it is the "cheap" method. I keep asking him if maybe we should wait until we can try what he's already made before filling the basement with aging bottles of mead and wine that we don't know if we will like them, or not. But, his theory is that if you keep making new batches, once you are able to start trying the aged bottles, you'll always have a rotating supply of aged product. He did find a used wine rack to start storing his aging bottles in, but if he keeps making new batches and they have to age for a 12-18 months, or more.....

One thing I do have to say is that Jason enjoys sharing samples, and the finished product, with people that are interested in trying it. When my mom and sister were visiting in August, he offered them samples of what he had leftover after bottling the last two batches at that time. (I can't remember which flavors they were; maybe strawberry and the cheap wine?) I'm pretty sure my mom only sniffed the sample, and my sister actually tried a sip. Just a small sip. Neither of them are wine or mead connoisseurs (nor do they indulge), and they were not impressed, to put it mildly. Don't let their personal experience scare you, though! When our friends, Shaun and Tiffany, were here (also in August) Jason opened a bottle of the aging honey mead early because they wanted to try a sample. I believe that they said the mead was pretty good, but they would like to try it again once it's fully aged. So, if you are interested in sampling Jason's products, just let us know which one you'd like to try and we can schedule your visit over the time that it should be ready! Just keep in mind that good mead and wine takes time.