Of Wines and Meads (and just what is mead, anyways??)

Good day!  We have been organizing, racking and bottling a bunch of beers, wines and meads lately.  While we were going through these processes, I thought I would write down the wines and meads I/we have made (note: this will not include any beers we have made - I'll save that for another list!).  I have made all of the wines, and we have fun sharing the mead making. 

If you are interested in anything on these lists, just let me know and I will post some recipes!


Doesn't this pear wine look beautiful?  Charlie said it tastes just like eating a ripe pear!

Wines

• 5 gallon Strawberry Wine (amazing strawberry essence, 1st place winner at county fair)
• 3 gallon Kiwi Wine (quite acidic, waiting for it to hopefully mellow)
• 1 gallon Wild Plum Wine (amazing, crisp and tart)
• 3 gallon Mixed Fruit Wine (a taster pronounced it " a perfect dry Rosé ")
• 5 gallon Crab Apple Wine (quite tart, waiting for it to mellow) 
• 1 gallon Dandelion Wine (smooth and sweet - surprisingly tasty)
• 3 gallon Pear Wine (tastes just like eating a ripe pear)
• 5 gallon Riesling Wine (made from kit, absolutely a winner, perfect sweet Riesling flavor)
• 5 gallon Australian Shiraz Wine (made from kit, a delightful dry red wine)
• 5 gallon Italian Pinot Grigio Wine (made from kit, tasted just like a pinot grigio!)
• 1 gallon Apple Champagne (still in secondary, but it smelled delicious!)
• 2 gallon Mixed Fruit Wine #2 (still bubbling away in the primary)

• 10 gallons Hard Cider (wasn't sure where to add this; tasted deliciously crisp, tart and appley!)

This photo shows a glass of pomegranate mead - our favorite of all the meads we have made. 

Meads 

Before we get started on this list, let us ask the question: what exactly is mead?   

Mead is an often misunderstood drink - when Charlie and I tell people we make mead, they wonder, is it a watery wine?  a type of beer?  or just something weird?  

To put it simply, mead is a wine-like beverage made from a water and honey fermentation - the key is the honey.  Mead must be made with honey.  Mead can be quite alcoholic, sometimes as high as 20% (I guess it can go higher than 20%, but I think it compromises the flavor).  

Meads can range from dry (tasting just like a fruity wine) to a sweet dessert wine with the perfect nose and essence of honey - and anywhere in between.  Mead is a very elegant, beautiful drink that is best sipped in small quantities.  

Technically, the word "mead" refers only to a beverage made from honey fermented with water - with no flavorings or additives.  

When you add fruit and other flavorings to mead, you get such names as blossomel (fermented or flavored with flower blossoms), cyser (made with apples, apple juice or apple cider), melomel (fermented or flavored with fruit or fruit juice), metheglin (fermented or flavored with herbs and/or spices), braggot (malted grain and hops added) and several others.  For ease of understanding, we generally call all of our honey-fermented beverages "mead" (it is hard enough to explain what a 'mead' is, let alone a 'blossomel' or a 'metheglin!').

Here are the meads we have made so far:

• 5 gallons Traditional Mead (tasty, focusing on the essence of the honey)
• 15 gallons Pomegranate (a sweet dessert wine, delicious beyond imagination)
• 7 gallons Blueberry Melomel (fantastic blueberry flavor, honey nose, slightly dry)
• 2 gallons Madagascar Vanilla Tropical Mead (a delicious pineapple-y, mango, vanilla flavor)
• 5 gallons Black Cherry Mead (not good at first, but in one year it was amazing, fruity and dry)
• 5 gallons Medium Show Traditional Mead (sweeter than the traditional mead)
• 2 gallons Peach Ginger Nutmeg Mead (interesting flavor, waiting for it to 'ripen')
• 1 gallon Cranberry Mead (tart, amazing, just right for that turkey dinner!)
• 3 gallon Chokecherry Mead (still in the secondary, but it smells delicious)
• 1 gallon Hop Braggot (mead meets beer? interesting flavor)
• 1 gallon Cardamom Rose Hip Mead (delicate cardamom flavor, colored nicely by the rose hips)
• 1 gallon Vanilla Saffron Mead (yes, yes, yes, such a delicious vanilla flavor, colored by saffron)
• 1 gallon Juniper Berry Mead (great gin-like flavor, but sweeter (and less alcoholic) than gin)
• 5 gallon Apple Cyser (amazing apple/honey smoothness and flavor, tasty beyond imagination)

The amazing Cyser on a snowy winter day.  

By the way, these are comprehensive lists of all of the wines and meads we have ever made since we started vinting over two years ago.  A lot of them are gone.  And if you are wondering what we do with all of these bottles; of course we drink some, but we also love to share with friends and family and give bottles away as gifts.  We also have quite a few bottles put away to try in 5 or 10 years or so (or 15 or 20 years!).  

We have found that vinting and brewing is a fun, creative hobby that also brings joy and inspiration to others!

Flavored Water - or Agua Fresca

I am so excited to share with you my newest thing - naturally flavored water!  It is so delicious and has an added bonus of really making me want to drink water - a must when you are expecting!

About a month ago, I started keeping a jar of water in the refrigerator with one or two lemon slices in it.  That progressed to experimenting with other fruits.  Next, I want to experiment with mixing fruits and herbs.

As I was photographing these flavored water's, Charlie came by and asked me, "Did you know this is how they flavor water in Mexico... it is called agua fresca."  I had no idea, but I was off on a wonderful research trail! 

I learned that in Mexico, fruits, cereals, flowers and seeds are blended with sugar and water to create delicious beverages.  I don't add sugar to my flavored waters, but I am very interested in using flowers, cereals and seeds in addition to fruits to make flavored water.  I will let you know as I experiment further.

Today, I'd like to share some of the fruit ideas that I've recently tried for flavoring water.  But, you don't have to do what I've done!  Honestly, you can combine most fruits and herbs according to your favorite flavors and what you have on hand in your fridge.

Flavored Waters

1. Tangerine: 3 tangerine slices in 1 pint water
2. Strawberry: 3 or 4 sliced strawberries in 1 pint water
3. Lime: 1/2 lime, quartered in 1 pint water
4. Strawberry Lemonade: 2 lemon slices with 3 strawberries in 1 pint water
5. Lemon: 4 lemon slices in 1 pint water

The possibilities are endless!  In the future months, I am excited to share new flavors of water that I will experiment with.

How do you make your flavored water? 

Home Made Root Beer

Have you ever thought about trying to make your own root beer?  It really is a fun project and I think it would be great to do it with kids!  The basic premise of the project is to use a closed system to set up a fermentation - that way, the closed system captures the generated carbon dioxide which naturally carbonates the root beer.

In a 'closed' fermentation system (such as this home made root beer), the carbon dioxide dissolves in the liquid, since it has no other place to go.  This gives the drink its fizz, and stops the fermentation process - this leaves most of the sugar intact, which is why the resulting beverage still so delightfully sweet. 

So why go to the trouble of making your own root beer?  I make it because unlike store-bought root beer, making your own gives you a delicious, naturally carbonated beverage that has less fizz and a smoother, richer, creamier taste.  

I had wanted to make root beer totally 'from scratch,' but when I looked up recipes I saw that I needed the roots of a sassafras tree.  At this point, I have no idea where to find a sassafras tree (though I will be keeping my eyes open)!


I decided to use a root beer base.  You can usually find root beer extract at your local supermarket or home brew supply store.  Also, you can order it online if you can't find the extract anywhere else. 

The next thing that is handy - but not totally necessary is a bottling bucket and wand.  You can make the root beer in the bucket, and use the wand to easily fill your bottles (the end of the wand has a spring loaded tip that makes it easy to fill bottles - just press the tip to the bottom of the bottle for flow and release the tip and the flow stops).  If you don't have this type of equipment - no problem.  The directions at the bottom of this post will be to make a 2 liter bottle of root beer with the only needed equipment being: a clean 2 liter bottle and a funnel. 

The next important thing is yeast: I have had good results with this Red Star Premier Cuvee yeast (found at my local brewing supply store), but you can also use regular baking yeast. 

Next step: sanitize your bottles of choice.  I like to use old swing-top beer bottles.  You can probably tell from this picture, but this bottling tree is fantastic: at the top is a spring loaded shooter that sanitizes the inside of the bottles quickly and easily, then they can drip drain on each of the pegs.  The tray at the bottom catches all of the drips!  Again, just in case you don't have this equipment, the directions at the bottom of the post will be for using a 2 liter bottle.

The bottling tree is filling up!  By the way, I should make mention when using glass bottles, there is always a risk of the bottles exploding (yes, I speak from experience).  If you are worried about it, a safer option would be to use clean 2 liter bottles.

Now, to begin; into the bottling bucket (or 2 liter bottle): water, yeast, sugar and the root beer extract. 

Doesn't the root beer extract look neat?

Then, start stirring!

I also like to use this stirring wand that attaches to a drill - as you can tell, it really gets the mixture moving!  It is important to get all of the sugar dissolved. 

And now, time to fill!  Make sure the end of your bottling wand is sanitized.  Grab your sanitized bottles and start filling!  If you have a bottling wand, just press the tip to the bottom of the bottle for flow and release the tip and the flow stops.  Release the flow just as the root beer gets to the top of the bottle - this way, when you remove the wand you will have the perfect amount of head space.  If you went with the 2 liter bottle option, don't worry about this step!

Look at all those bottles of deliciousness! 

 

Homemade Root Beer (To Fill A 2 Liter Bottle)

(note: if you have the brewing equipment and would like to make the root beer as I did in the pictures, please feel free to!  I used the whole bottle of extract which made about 4 gallons of root beer)

• 1 tablespoon root beer extract (more or less to taste)
• 1 cup white table sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon yeast
• water to fill 2 liter bottle

Assemble your equipment: a clean 2 liter bottle with cap and funnel.  Place the funnel in the plastic bottle.  Add the sugar, the yeast, and the root beer extract.  Add fresh, cool (filtered if you have soft water) water to the bottle, making sure to leave about 1 inch of head space.  Remove funnel and cap.  Shake the bottle thoroughly to dissolve the sugar and yeast.

Place the bottle at room temperature for three to four days.  Check the bottle every day - you are looking for it to feel quite hard (think grocery store pop bottles).  After the bottle feels quite hard to you, move it to a cool place that is below 65 degrees, or, if you feel nervous about an explosion, just move the bottle to the refrigerator - there is no danger of this root beer exploding in the refrigerator (again, I am speaking from experience!).

Note #1: Before you drink it, make sure to thoroughly chill the root beer - overnight in the refrigerator is a good idea.  Open the cap slowly to release the pressure, and enjoy!

Note #2: When pouring the root beer, take note that there is a bit of sediment of yeast at the bottom of the bottle.  It will look a bit cloudy.  It certainly won't hurt a person, but I prefer to decant the root beer carefully to avoid the sentiment getting into my glass.

Note #3: Home made root beer makes great root beer floats, especially if you use your own home made vanilla ice cream.

Iced Coffee Drink

Do you remember that I promised you our ice coffee recipe?  Well, here it is (finally!)!

For a recap regarding how to make coffee concentrate, you start with a bunch of ground coffee (we grind our own using this lovely grinder from Charlie's mom - as you can see it fits on any wide-mouth canning jar - so handy!).

Mix the coffee grinds with an equal amount of water, and let the mixture sit for about 24 hours.  Then you drain the mixture and collect the coffee concentrate.  We use our Aeropress to extract as much coffee as possible.

To make your iced coffee drink: fill a glass (or canning jar) with ice.  Here I am using a wide mouth pint jar.  Add 1.5 to 2 ounces of the coffee concentrate.

Next, add 1.5 to 2 ounces of water,  three ounces of milk, and sweetening of your choice: options are sugar, honey, sweetener or sweetened condensed milk.  We like the sweetened condensed milk the best, but it is a little more challenging to mix in well.  

Done!

If you are feeling generous, you can even share your delicious iced coffee with that special someone in your life....

Easy Iced Coffee

• 1.5-2 ounces coffee concentrate 
• 1.5 to 2 ounces water
• 2 -3 ounces milk or half and half or both
• sweetener of choice, to taste (sugar, honey, sweetener or sweetened condensed milk)

Fill a glass with ice.  Add coffee concentrate, water, milk and sweetener to taste.  Add a straw and enjoy! 

Of course, there are so many ways to make iced coffee.  How do you make yours?

Coffee Concentrate for Ice Coffee

Iced coffee in the summer is awesome.  I know it is simple to go to your favorite local coffee shop for an iced coffee treat, but did you know it is quite easy to make your own special iced coffee drink at home - and a lot less expensive? 

First, place some ground coffee in a container.  As you can see, I have 1 1/4 cups of coffee grounds here. You can do as much or as little ground coffee as you'd like - depending on how much concentrate you want.

Then, add an equal amount of water.  Cover with saran wrap and let sit on the counter for about 24 hours.

Then, drain the coffee.  I use our Aeropress to extract the coffee, but you could easily place a few layers of cheesecloth in a strainer, stir it around and press the grounds with a spoon.

The finished product.  As you can see, 1 1/4 cups of ground coffee with an equal part water ended up to be just under two cups of concentrate.  This will keep in the refrigerator (tightly covered) for at least a month.   You can make as much or as little concentrate at a time as you would like!  Now, time for an iced coffee drink - recipes coming soon!

Blueberry Beer

I love fruity beers, and one of my favorites is Wild Blue - a blueberry lager.  I decided to try to make my own blueberry ale (we aren't getting into making the lagers very much yet).  So, to start I used the Raspberry Wheat Beer recipe I've made before from Northern Brewer (which turned out great) and decided to change the fruit to blueberry.  This is an extract batch.  Here is the boiling wort:

The beer racked into the carboy.

The finished blueberry beer!  It was very good - crisp and fruity. 

 

 

Blueberry Beer

2.5 gallons filtered water

6.3 pounds Wheat Malt Syrup

1 ounce Hersbrucker hops

Wyeast #3333 German Wheat

2 cups fresh blueberries

1 four ounce container blueberry extract

If kegging, 64 ounces of blueberry juice

So, to make beer you need a basic brewing setup.

To start, smack the yeast pack and let it start puffing up.  You will want to do this about three hours before you are ready to start brewing. 

Bring 2.5 gallons of water to boil in large 5 gallon pot.  Remove the kettle from the burner and stir in the 6.3 pounds of Wheat malt syrup.  Put the kettle back on the burner and bring the mixture to a boil.  The mixture is now called "wort" - the brewers term for unfermented beer.  When the wort is at a nice rolling boil, add 1 ounce Hersbrucker hops and boil for 60 minutes.  Watch closely to prevent boil overs!

When the 60 minutes is up, cool the wort to about 100 degrees F as quickly as possible.  We use a wort chiller that Charlie made, but you can put the kettle in an ice bath in your sink. 

While the wort cools, sanitize your fermenting equipment (carboy, vessel to collect water, airlock, funnel, pair of scissors) and yeast pack. 

Fill sanitized primary fermenter with two gallons of cold water using the sanitized vessel.  Using the funnel, pour in the cooled wort into the carboy, leaving any thick sludge in the bottom of the kettle.  Add more cold water as needed to bring the volume up to five gallons.

Seal the fermenter and rock back and forth to splash the liquid for a few minutes, or use an aeration system and diffusion stone. 

I recommend measuring the specific gravity of the wort with a hydrometer and record.  It should be 1.045.

Add the yeast when the temperature of the wort is 78 degrees F or lower.  Use the sanitized scissors to cut off a corner of the yeast pack, and carefully pour the yeast into the primary fermenter.  Seal your fermenter with your airlock that is filled with about 1 tablespoon sanitized water.  Move to a warm, dark and quiet spot.  If it isn't dark, cover the carboy with a tee shirt or something (it is important to keep the light off of the fermenting beer).

Active fermenting should begin within 24-48 hours of pitching the yeast.  You will see bubbles coming through the fermentation lock, and a cap of foam will be on the surface of the beer.  Approximately 1-2 weeks after brewing, the active fermentation will end: you will know this when the cap of foam falls back into the new beer, and the bubbling in the airlock slows down or stops.  At this time, transfer the beer to a sanitized secondary fermenter using sanitized siphoning equipment.  Allow the beer to condition in the secondary fermenter for 2-4 weeks.  Timing is now somewhat flexible.

Now, it is time to either bottle or keg the beer.  We keg the beer and have a CO2 tank to carbonate the beer.  We graduated to this after years of bottling (bottling is a lot more work).

Since I kegged the beer, I was able to add most of a 64 ounce container of blueberry juice, just to up the fruity-juiciness of the beer.  To do this, rack your beer into the sanitized keg.  Add the blueberry extract to taste (I used all 4 ounces) and top it off with as much as you can of the blueberry juice.  Close it up and rock back and forth to mix.  Proceed as usual, making sure to refrigerate your keg (this will stop the fermentation that the blueberry juice probably would have started). 

However, if you are going to bottle this beer, you cannot add the blueberry juice.  To do so would restart fermentation in an uncontrolled manner (maybe you could add the juice somehow, but I haven't experimented with it enough to figure out how to do it without blowing up your bottles).  Maybe just add a little extra blueberry extract!  To bottle, sanitize siphoning and bottling equipment.  Mix a priming solution of 2/3 cup priming sugar in 16 ounces of water.  Bring the solution to a boil and pour into the bottling bucket.  Siphon the beer into bottling bucket and add blueberry extract to taste.  Stir gently to mix: don't splash.  Fill and cap bottles.  Condition the bottles at room temperature for 1-2 weeks.  After this point, the bottles can be stored cool or cold.  To serve, pour into a clean glass, being careful to leave the layer of sediment at the bottom of the bottle. 

Enjoy!  Please feel free to ask questions and I will try to help!