Return of the Meadmaker

So I bottled my mead. Finally. Actually, what prompted this undertaking was no great strategic plan on my part but rather the drinking of my last bottle of nut brown ale (recall my side trip to Austin Homebrew Supply during Armadillocon). I'm out of beer, and I tend to save my alcohol budget for really exotic beers or wines or spirits. Random drinking beers I like to brew myself, hence the need to empty the fermentation vessel of mead.

Because it was easiest, I bottled the 1.5 gallon batch of maypop mead first. It'd settled out very clearly, was a pale yellow, and looked innocently appealing in the bottles. I got six bottles worth once all was said and done, and took a taste as well. The exceptionally long time I've aged it in the fermentation vessels (I started them out in January) was quite apparent with the maypop--it tasted like a very, very mild chardonnay. Better than my first effort at fermenting a straightforward mead, but as a melomel the fruit was practically nonexistent. The medium-toast French oak chips were not very strong of presence, either. I'd worried that leaving them on the mead for three weeks was too much, but it's obvious three months would've better served me. That, and adding a LOT more passion fruit. Maypops have a milder flavor than commercial passion fruit, but geeze, I didn't expect it to be invisible. This mead will be consumed in due course, but it'd appeal most to people who like light beer and anemic white wines.

The blueberry mead on the other hand, has got some kick to it. The color is a pretty purplish amber, and it still has that harsh mead medicinal taste. Not mild at all at this point. The flavors are still muddled, but there's something there as far as flavor character goes that the maypop lacks. It's also fairly dry, not sweet at all (nobody will be confusing this with the prickly pear!). I ended up with 23 bottles of the stuff once all was said and done, with only the final three bottles having significant sediment issues. This is one that will benefit greatly from extended aging (at least, that's my hope).

I've already got enough honey on hand to start a new batch, but that'll have to wait until I've scratched my beer itch with this "dark ale" kit, which I'm going to make using equal parts of dark malt extract and honey (yeah, I can't wean myself entirely from the honey--this will be my first attempt at using it in beer). In the interim, I can work up some labels for the mead (and, truth to tell, I've yet to properly label those half dozen bottles of mint metheglin from last summer, either).

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