Well, the last experiment was rather interesting. I particularly liked the subtle rasberry like taste partway through the fermentation. The one major thing I learned from the last batch of Goji Mead was to check the specific gravity of the juice prior to adding Honey. The result in the previous batch of Goji Mead was a very high starting Specific gravity and a high alcohol content end product. Consequently, my wife was not too fond of the burn.
Today I am doing things quite abit differently. First of all, I checked the specific gravity of the Goji Berry juice and found it to be around 1.050. Once I added the blackberry juice and water it dropped substantially but it was still at 1.021. Here is the recipe:
2 - Litres re-consitited Goji berries Blended in a blender
6 - Cups steamed unsweetened blackberry juice
3 - Litres water
3 - Cups Clover Honey
1 - Pack of 1118 yeast
Innoculated at 8PM on Friday Decemeber 7th
Specific gravity = 1.071
I will ferment this batch of Goji Berry Mead to dry. Once complete, it will be mixed with the previous batch of Goji Berry Mead which will hopefully result in a more palitable Mead. By fermenting it to dry with a lower specific gravity, I will also gain a better understanding on the effect of complete fermentation. I will still pasteurize the Mead upon completion.
I did an experiment and found 1 cup of honey to equal an increase of about 0.015 on the specific gravity scale.
Time for the 36 or so hour test. I just checked on this batch of Goji Mead and found the specific gravity to be around 1.040 and still fermenting. The taste isn't as fruity as the previous batch, which it looks like it is because of the decrease in honey as all other proportions are similar with even a decrease in the amount of water. Of course this will be combined with the earlier batch of Goji Mead and the taste will be altogether different.
ReplyDeleteYesterday was abit hectic so I didn't have a chance to post. At about Noon, the Mead had reached about 1 percent potential alcohol so I pastuerized it and put it in the secondary.
ReplyDeleteTo be quite honest, the taste wasn't really that nice, then again nothing I've let ferment fully was all that tasty at first. Oh well, it can age and it will get mixed anyways.
After running some sparkeloid through the Mead, I let it sit for quite some time. I finally tasted a little bit the other day and it was quite interesting. When I have some time, I will grab a full glass and give it a try.
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