Mead and Cider (and Peary too) Mmmmm

[jkane]

The honey is collected for the year. The cherries and raspberries have been collected and were stored in the freezer. Apples are almost all picked. Pears are also picked. The cranberries are ready for fermentation too.

No, this is not a fruit salad! It is time to ferment the year's harvests. :-)

Everyone likely knows what Cider is, so no details. It is fermented apple juice.

Mead is what you get when ferment honey. It is the traditional drink of the Norse Gods. It is also the tradition that created the concept of a honey moon. For the first "moon" (28 days) of a marriage, the couple is to drink mead (made from honey) and copulate each day. This ensures that the first born will be strong and healthy! It also helps to relax new bride sometimes. ;)

Cyser is a mix of honey and apple juice!

Peary is a mix of honey and pear juice. This is a new one to us. I learned a lesson. I hate pressing pears! They are so soft and slimy, it took 2 hours to get just 15 gallons of pear juice! In the next 2 hours we pressed 65 gallons of apple juice! Much faster. Now I know why it is so hard to find farm fresh pressed pear juice.

Here is what I have fermenting in the carboys (glass containers like 5 gallon water jugs).

Peary - 4.5 gallons of pear juice and 8 lbs of clover-thistle honey
Cyser - 4.5 gallons of apple juice and 8 lbs of clover honey
Black Raspberry Cider - 5 gallons of apple juice and 9 lbs of black raspberries
Sweet Sac Mead - 4 gallons of water and 22 lbs of "pine tree" honey
I plan to add wormwood, anise, and fennel after it is done fermenting.
Like an absinthe flavored mead.
Cherry Mead - 14 lbs sour cherries, 15 lbs of cranberry blossom honey, and 3.5 gallons of water

Some 1 gallon experiments with different honey's.
Raw Mead - 3 lbs of the "pine" honey and 3 quarts of water
The pine honey was made when the bees were very busy in the pine trees.
It is very caramely in flavor.
Black Locust Mead - 3 lbs of black locust honey and 3 quarts of water
Cranberry Blossom Mead - 3 lbs of cranberry blossom honey and 3 qts of water
Agave "Mead" 3 lbs of Agave Syrup and 3 quarts of water
Technically not a mead without honey, but a test to see what it tastes like.
Agave is what Tequila is made from if it were distilled.

Our big 10 gallon fruit fermenter is busy with the cherry mead starting right now. After that, in a week or 2, we will start the cranberry.

Cranberry Mead - 20 lbs of cranberries 15 lbs black locust honey and 4 gallons of water

The house smells wonderful with the yeasty aroma's. :-)

Fruit meads like the cherry and cranberry are called Melomels. A Sac mead is very high in alcohol. A spiced or herbed one, which the Sac will be when it's done, is called a Metheglin. (End of today's mead lesson.)

Every year in September, we join a bunch of others (at least 4 of us are kilted) and drink last year's meads, which we each make and share. We drink out of a "mead horn". It is passed around and each person drinks while standing in a circle. After they drink, they toast to the Norse Gods with by raising the horn high and yelling Yo-Ho in what every tone they feel fits their level of satisfaction for that particular mead sample.

There is one more tradition ... the women are in charge of the mead circle. They are tasked with keeping people in a nice round circle. They are required to taste every time the horn goes around also. The last woman standing, at what ever time it is the next day, after everyone else is passed out, gets crowned and the title of Mead Horn Queen. My wife has held that title for about 6 years in a row now. She even tried to give it away this year, but the other women were either giving up while still able to stand before midnight, or passed out by 1 AM. She's my gal! I love her.

We did start a new wine too, but that doesn't count. It is a Merlot. Like the bad stepchild, it is not allowed near all the meads and ciders! ;)