Batch 8-005: Honey Blonde Braggot

Last Saturday, I taught a class on mead making at Sograte BBQ & Brew in celebration of Mead Day 2012. During the class, we sampled six different kinds of honey and three types of mead. As a group we also made a cream soda mead that should be tasty! Cary may even make it available on tap when it is ready.

As part of the class, I attempted my first braggot. I have always wanted to try to make one and the class offered a great opportunity for me to research and brew one. Here is the recipe:

8-005

• 6 lbs Golden Light Malt Extract
• 1 lb Golden Light DME
• 1 lb honey malt
• 1 lb flaked wheat
• 1 oz Fuggle 4% hops @60 min
• 1 oz 7C's hops @2 min
• 12 lbs orange blossom honey
• 1 pkt Safale US-05 Dry Ale Yeast
• water to 5 gal
• OG: 1.142

Wassail!

-Safari Bob

2011 Cactus Challenge Results

The results are in! I did not do as well as I hoped, but at least I won a ribbon:

MEADS
2nd ROBERT SCHAFER
ALE-IAN SOCIETY
LITTLE JOE'S CREAM SODA MEAD

Here is the recipe!
Wassail!

Honorable Mention: Little Joe's Cream Mead

So today I hear that my Little Joe's Cream Mead received "Honorable Mention" at the 2011 Alamo City Cerveza Fest! Woo hoo! The Little Joe's Cream Mead is batch 6-002 and a favorite of Nancy's. Little Joe is Nancy's Chihuahua who thinks that he weighs somewhere north of 200 lbs and is the terror of the neighborhood squirrels. God help any fauna that dares to invade his domain (ie the back yard)!

Honorable Mention
Robert Schafer
Little Joe's Cream Mead
Ale-ian Society

http://bexarbrewers.org/winners.shtml

Wassail!

-Safari Bob

Mead: Not Just For Nerds Anymore

I have been busy in the mead lately! I bottled the cream soda mead in 12oz bottles and I primed with sugar in order to induce carbonation. I have tried carbonating mead before and it did not work--too much acid I believe--but I have higher hopes for this latest batch. I hope that it will taste like cream soda only with 14% ABV. God help us all at the next Memorial Day or Fourth of July BBQ.

I also ran across an article praising the mainstream popularity of mead:

Mead, that drink of viking saga and medieval verse, is making a comeback. But this ain't your ancestors' honey wine.

"It's not just for the Renaissance fair anymore," says Becky Starr, co-owner of Starrlight Mead, which recently opened in an old woven label mill in this little North Carolina town.

In fact, this most ancient of alcoholic libations hasn't been this hot since Beowulf slew Grendel's dam and Geoffrey Chaucer fell in with the Canterbury pilgrims at the Tabard.

Here is the article: Article on mead from the San Francisco Gazette

-Safari Bob

Batch 6-002: Cream Soda Mead

Today I finally got around to brewing a new batch of mead. I was inspired after Nancy and I were at the local grocery store and she confided that she loves Frostie Blue Cream Soda which happened to be on the shelf. I thought, "Hey! I could make a mead like that!"

The real question is whether or not to add blue food coloring. I have never used anything like this in any of my meads. Does anyone out there have experience using food color in mead? I have heard of green dye used for St. Patrick's Day but I have never sampled any. In any event, here is the recipe:

6-002

Primary:

• 15 lbs Clover Honey
  
• Juice of 1 Lemon
  
• 5 tsp Yeast Nutrient
  
• 1 pkt K1V-1116
  
• Water to 5 gal
  
• OG: 1.120
  

Secondary:

• Cream Soda Extract
  
• 1 Vanilla Bean
  
• Blue Food Coloring?
  

-Safari Bob