{"id":377,"date":"2009-03-23T06:00:28","date_gmt":"2009-03-23T13:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/?p=377"},"modified":"2009-03-23T06:00:28","modified_gmt":"2009-03-23T13:00:28","slug":"a-simple-mead-recipe-bottled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/23\/a-simple-mead-recipe-bottled\/","title":{"rendered":"A Simple Mead Recipe: Bottled!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Wildflower<\/a>It’s been nearly two years since I started this batch. I added acid and oak chips<\/a> to my simple mead recipe<\/a> in making this still, dry, lightly oaked mead.<\/p>\n

It fermented out to a specific gravity (SG) of 0.996, and I didn’t sweeten. Since the original gravity was about 1.082, I’m calling it 11% alcohol by volume. The pH was 3.0, and titratable acidity (TA) was 4 g\/L, as tartaric. I should mention two things about the TA. First, I’m getting some inconsistent results using my new apparatus that determines TA by measuring the amount of CO2<\/a> given off by a base neutralizing an acid. I’ll have more to say about this in another post. The other thing is that TA measurements of mead are tricky<\/a>, and are best thought of as upper limits rather than precise values.<\/p>\n

So how does it taste? That Lady of the House and I really enjoyed it. Oak is discernible and pleasant, but it plays a supporting role not the lead. Aroma is muted, and I think that’s a characteristic of the honey. I don’t have any on hand for a direct comparison, but I remember meads from heather and clover honey having stronger aromas.
<\/p>\n

Would boiling have improved this mead?<\/h2>\n

That gives me an idea. If wildflower from Miller’s Honey has a weak aroma, then it may be a candidate for boiling. This is just one batch, and each year’s wildflower honey probably differs from those of previous years, so I’m not ready to make such a blanket statement. It’s something to keep in mind, though.<\/p>\n

I experimented with boiling<\/a> and found that it weakens a mead’s aroma, but may give it more body and a smoother taste. Is it worth it? That depends on a lot of things, including personal taste, but if the aroma is going to be unremarkable anyway, this might be a good trade off.<\/p>\n

About the Label<\/h2>\n

For me, making a label starts with nice artwork. Sometimes I use my own photos, but more often I use the work of another artist. Gary Cooper<\/a> (no, not that<\/em> Gary Cooper) was kind enough to allow me the use of his photo<\/a> for this label. Gary’s collections of classic Hollywood photos is terrific, and my only problem was deciding which one I wanted to use – thanks Gary!<\/p>\n

There’s only room for so much text, so I try to be informative and to the point. I include a name, “bin number” (there must have been one of those Aussie wines in the house when I started that) that identifies the batch, starting and bottling dates, and relevant measurements.<\/p>\n

And now, the easy part<\/h2>\n

The most relevant measure is, of course, how it tastes and I’ll be doing a lot of research on that in the months (and years?) to come – cheers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been nearly two years since I started this batch. I added acid and oak chips to my simple mead recipe in making this still, dry, lightly oaked mead. It fermented out to a specific gravity (SG) of 0.996, and I didn’t sweeten. Since the original gravity was about 1.082, I’m calling it 11% alcohol […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[48],"class_list":["post-377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mead","tag-nad"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t