2011 Cactus Challenge

Oh yes! It is time for the 2011 Cactus Challenge where legends are made and dreams are crushed. Hopefully, my dream of a ribbon will not be crushed this year but I have had terrible results overall this competition season. Only the Little Joe's received anything (an Honorable Mention). I really have to step up my game.

This year I am entering 5 meads:

• Black Stone: Dry Mead (24A)


• Autumn Harvest: Cyser (25A)


• Mango Chili: Other Fruit Melomel (25C)


• Yuletide: Metheglin (26A)


• Little Joe's Cream Mead: Open Category Mead (26C)

I'm dipping into the cellar on a couple of these. The Yuletide is the second batch I ever made while the Autumn Harvest is the fourth. Hopefully the aging will help with complexity and bring home some bling!

-Safari Bob

Lemonade Mead

So I was looking to brew a light, summer mead when I chanced by some hard lemonade in the store. I am not a fan of hard lemonade but I got to thinking that a lemonade mead just might be just what I was seeking. Apparently, I am not the first to have this idea; there are quite a few lemonade recipes, mead and otherwise, including my favorite: Skeeter Pee. Someday, I am going to make Skeeter Pee.

Still, I wanted a lemonade mead and that is what I made. Here's the recipe:

7-005

• 6 lbs Clover Honey


• 2 lbs Cane Sugar


• 5 12oz Cans of Lemonade Concentrate


• 1 12oz Can of Pink Lemonade Concentrate


• 2 tbsp Yeast Nutrient


• 1 pkt Lavlin D-47


• Water to 5 gal


• OG: 1.102

Wassail!

-Safari Bob

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