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

Cider and Melomel

Today, I got busy and made a new batch of strawberry melomel. Nancy (my significant other) loves the strawberry mels and she, along with her "book club", have about cleaned me out. So, I got on it.

I also made a hard cider with cranberry which is a first for me. I had some difficulty deciding how to get the cranberry flavor for the cider; after all, have you ever seen fresh cranberries for sale in West Texas? Yeah, me neither. Dried cranberries often have preservatives and other chemicals to keep them from clumping. So I went with a 100% Juice Cranberry Cocktail. I hope it works. Here are the recipes:



7-003 Cranberry Cider

• 1 gal 100% Juice Cranberry Cocktail


• 4 gal Apple Juice


• 4 oz Grapefruit Juice


• 1 tbs Pectin Enzyme


• 2 tbs Yeast Nutrient


• 1 pkt K1V-1116


• OG: 1.050

7-004 Strawberry Melomel

• 1 gal Clover Honey


• 10 lbs Fresh Strawberries, pureed


• Water to 6 gal


• 3 tsp Pectin Enzyme


• 5 tsp Yeast Nutrient


• Juice of 3 Lemons


• 1 pkt K1V-1116


• OG: 1.112

Wassail!

-Safari Bob

7-002: Mango Chili Mead

Oh yes! I took a break from the dissertation to brew another batch of sweet, sweet mead. I decided that I needed to try to make a mango mead with a smokey New Mexico chili pepper finish. I don't know why, that just sounds good to me. Mangos are tricky with mead, I hear. I have never before tried to brew with it. I can't wait to see how it turns out. Here's the recipe:

7-002

• Flesh of 12 Mangoes; pureed
  
• 1 gal clover honey
  
• Juice of 2 medium lemons
  
• 4 gal water
  
• 2 tbs Yeast Nutrient
  
• 1 tbs Pectin Enzyme
  
• 1 pkt K1V-1116
  
• 3-5 Dried New Mexico Chilies (secondary)
  
• OG: 1.092
  

-Safari Bob

2011 Bluebonnet Brew-off

Friday, I boxed up my precious brews to send to Fort Worth Texas for competition in the 2011 Bluebonnet Brew-off. The Bluebonnet Brew-off is one of the largest single site homebrew competitions in the United States and it is the first leg of the Lone Star Circuit of homebrew competitions in which the Ale-ian Society participates. I hope I get some points for the home team!

I am sending three brews:

• Sunday Picnic: 38c Melomel Other; strawberry melomel


• Kokopelli: 41d Specialty Cider & Perry; hard cider with habanero


• Little Joe's Cream Mead: 39c Open Category of Mead; cream soda mead

We will see how they do in such a large competition. I am certainly looking forward to read the tasting notes for suggestions toward future tweaking of the recipes.

Wassail!

-Safari Bob

And now for something cool that has no relation to mead:



and..