Mead Update and Perry

My two meads finished primary fermentation about two weeks ago. Today I racked them to secondary to continue aging. I had a sneaky taste of them as well. The mead fermented with the ale yeast is the sweeter of the two. The samples I tasted had a lot of yeast still in them so that might not be the best indication of taste.

I made perry about four months ago using pears from my Dad's garden. I froze them and they were left in the freezer for a long time (a few months) which was probably too long. I eventually got round to juicing them. Juicing was a real pain and they didn't yield much juice so the 1 gallon demi-john had to be topped up using apple juice. I used Lalvin EC1118 yeast which I used in a cider before and it worked well. I got round to bottling the perry this evening. It smells a bit vinegary and tastes only a little bit better than it smells. I think maybe the pears introduced a bit of wild yeast or something. The new husband reckons we stash the bottles in the shed and go back to them in a few months to see if they are any better. I admire his optimism and hope that it gets better.

I used my new mini bottler for the first time this evening. It's a great little gadget. It's a tap and a wand with a valve at the end. You just put the wand in the bottle and the little valve moves up and fills your bottle. I think this will save lots of time and hassle while bottling beer.

4 Responses to "Mead Update and Perry" (Leave A Comment)

Thomas says
July 7, 2008 at 3:30 AM

That little bottler is dead handy. I could never go back to my old method.

I plan to do a mead in the Autumn because I think I have at last sourced some cheap honey. Where do you get your honey from?

Boak says
July 7, 2008 at 10:21 AM

We still manage to end up with a litre or two on the floor even with the bottler gadget...

Luke McKinney says
July 7, 2008 at 4:00 PM

Ironically, describing the hubby's willingness to "stick something in the shed for a couple of months then drink it" as optimistic is, in itself, optimistic.

Iamreddave says
July 14, 2008 at 5:22 AM

You admire my optimism? How about my rapier like wit and rugged good looks?