2012 Arizona Mead Cup

Oh yes! Competition season is starting and it's time to get in gear. This year I am sending a couple of entries to the 2012 Arizona Mead Cup sponsored by the Brewmeisters Anonymous homebrew club in Phoenix Arizona and is taking place 31 March & 1 April. This contest is part of the Great Arizona Homebrew Competition.

I love homebrew contests although I did not do so well last year (only one ribbon). Still, my goal is to win at least one ribbon in some cider category this year and I will hopefully snag a couple for mead as well. Of course, each contest seems to privilege different kinds of entries and I am trying to adapt my strategy accordingly. For instance, sweeter meads did well at the Cactus Challenge last year while dry meads scored higher at the Bluebonnet.

In any event, it is always fun to see what others think about your homebrew. What are you sending this year? What competitions are you going to enter?

-Safari Bob

Cranberry Pomegranate Cider

So I am really enjoying making ciders. Wal-Fart continues to sell Musselman's Apple Cider for $1.50/gal so it is cheap and easy to make as well as simply delicious. Still, it is about time to get back to making mead.

In any event, I made a new cider a while ago with cranberry and pomegranate juice. I am hoping that it will be done by Christmas but, if not, it will be well aged for next year. I think the cranberry/pomegranate flavor will make an excellent holiday cider. The question is whether to carbonate!

Here is the recipe:

7-010

• 5 gal Apple Cider
• 2 cans Welch's Cranberry Concentrate
• 48 oz Pom 100% Pomegranate Juice
• 3 tbs pectin enzyme
• Lavlin EC-1118

Wassail!

-Safari Bob

Mead I have Known: Golden Delicious

One of my favorite meads to drink is batch 3-004: Golden Delicious. This cyser embodies Autumn for me and is smooth, sweet without being cloying, and oh so tasty with a lovely touch of cinnamon.

In addition, this cyser won silver at the 2010 Cactus Challenge and took less than four months from brew (6.16.07) to bottle (10.6.07)! The only downside to this cyser is that I am almost out and I need to hoard the few remaining bottles in my cellar. Perhaps I need to start a new batch--soon. Here is the recipe; please let me know if you start a batch of your own.

3-004

• 1 gal clover honey
• Apple juice to 5 gal
• 1 lb dark brown sugar
• 1.12 oz apple pie spice
• 1 vanilla bean (secondary)
• 3 tsp yeast nutrient
• 1 pk K1V-1116
• OG: 1.138
• FG: 1.014
• ABV: 17.1%

Wassail!

-Safari Bob

Tests Show Most Store Honey Is Not Honey

So I am thinking about my next mead and I run across this article: Tests Show Most Store Honey Is Not Honey. I have heard stories about some stores buying counterfeit honey consisting of high fructose corn syrup and food coloring although I have not (to my knowledge) seen this in action. For my flavored meads, I do sometimes buy honey from Wal-Fart because the honey flavor is secondary for my purpose. Still, I do like making a good traditional from time to time and this does concern me. So, I will buy honey from respected online dealers, like eBee Honey or local sources from now on. Here is the story:

More than three-fourths of the honey sold in U.S. grocery stores isn't exactly what the bees produce, according to testing done exclusively for Food Safety News.

The results show that the pollen frequently has been filtered out of products labeled "honey." The removal of these microscopic particles from deep within a flower would make the nectar flunk the quality standards set by most of the world's food safety agencies.

The food safety divisions of the World Health Organization, the European Commission and dozens of others also have ruled that without pollen there is no way to determine whether the honey came from legitimate and safe sources.

Tests Show Most Store Honey Is Not Honey

Wassail!

-Safari Bob