Sunday was racking day. I hadn't done much with our wines and meads since February. They've been aging in a pantry since then. It was definitely time to rack them, but supposedly mead is more forgiving than wine, so I was hoping my negligence didn't impact anything.
Orange Clove Mead: I started this mead in Jan 2011. The recipe came from Will Kalif's web site The Joy of Mead. He has a recipe link on the main page. I ordered his books back in January and were also pleased with them. They are worth purchasing if you are new at making mead. Anyway, this mead really got neglected since January, I racked it once after the initial transfer to the carboy. So for the most part it's just been aging in the pantry. We tasted it Sunday and it was spectacular!! Not too sweet and it did not have that overpowering alcohol taste you get with some young wines. It was a pretty golden honey color, more orange than yellow. Think honey diluted with water.
Orange Blossom Mead: This mead was started in August of 2010 after we attended a Mead Day Celebration sponsored by Alternative Beverage in Charlotte, NC. The Mead Day this year is scheduled for August 6th. We made this Mead with our friends Janet and Mike. Mike's been making wine for years and he turned us on to it last year. So we came home from Charlotte that day with 12 pounds of Orange Blossom Honey from Florida, mixed it up in the kitchen and divided it between the two of us. Janet and Mike also added pears to part of their portion, so I'm excited to see how their's turns out. Our's tastes really good, sweeter than the orange mead, so this will probably not be my favorite mead. I like them sweet, but not too much, this one is at the edge of being too much. This one cleared to a very pale yellowish color, like a chardonney. But, it's not completely cleared. I've been watching it for months trying to decide if I should intervene. I figured you can't learn by not trying so I racked it and added some Sparkolloid, a clearing agent. Will see what it looks like in a week, and no matter what will bottle it so it can rest for a few weeks before Mead Day!! If you live near Charlotte and are interested in Mead and honey bees, then plan to attend.
By the way, I used White Labs WLP720 Sweet Mead/Wine Yeast in both meads and Wyeast Labs Large Smack Pack. #4184 Sweet Mead in the blackberry wine. I'm very pleased with both, other than the orange blossom mead which is a little too sweet, the other two are at "my" perfect level of sweetness. It's funny how that works. I've tasted all of these wines/meads along the way and thought they weren't sweet at all. But, now that they are aging and finishing, the sweetness is coming out.
Blackberry Wine: This wine also got neglected. I started it in January 2011, racked it in February with my son. It was sort of a diaster, later that night I saw red stuff under the pantry door. We had moved two wine cooler into the pantry that same day and Jeff had plugged them in. I guess the heat and agitation from racking got the yeast going. I had a near explosion in the pantry and barely got the bung off (over the kitchen sink) before the whole thing blew. Had blacberry wine going everywhere. Can't remember exactly what I did, other than unplugging the wine coolers. We had started out with a gallon jug and a 1/2 gallon, when I got finished cleaning everything up and combining them, I was left with a gallon. In July, I wish I hadn't lost that 1/2 gallon. When I opened the carboy to rack, the whole kitchen smelled like blackberries. The wine still tastes young, a little alcoholly, but there is a lingering taste of blackberries on your tongue after drinking it and it is mildly sweet.
Strawberry wines: We had two strawberry wines (actually the first wines we made last years using two different recipes) we've been fooling with them and I racked them every month, multiple times according to stuff I read about wine making. Added stabilizers and sweetners at different points. Racking them as soon as I got a layer of yeast on the bottom of the carboy. Well these taste like crap and after waiting and waiting for them to develop (they are over a year old now) we finally decided to throw them out, so I can use my carboys to make something else.
What did I learn in all this: Leave them alone, wines and meads will do what they are supposed to do "age", just leave them alone.
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