Monday, October 25, 2010

Bottling Day (10-23-10)!

I bottled The Aphrodisiac and the 2010 Cactus Blossom on Saturday.  Here is a summary of my thoughts on bottling:

The Aphrodisiac - While this mead was solely an experiment to see how chocolate would work in a mead, it has made me realize a couple things.  First, chocolate is a very subtle flavor apparently...the maple syrup added in secondary really masks the chocolate flavor, but it is still there!  Second, I really like experimenting!!  Overall, I am pretty pleased with this first attempt...I WILL be tweaking this recipe and trying again!  Flavor is maple up front with hints of chocolate lingering behind...we will see what age does to it.

2010 Cactus Blossom - Three gallons of this may have been a bit much!  While it still tastes really nice, it didn't dry out as much as last year's one gallon batch...nothing was done differently, other than the size.  I may have added less honey than I thought last year, or added too much this year...who knows.  I will probably get more honey and make it again...I still like the flavor!  Perhaps tone it down a little bit to about 2.75 pounds per gallon and see if that helps...also, not having crystallized honey would probably help with my accuracy!!  Flavor is all honey...no hot alcohols or anything off.  Like I said, it tastes good, just a little sweet...

So, overall these two were successful, but there are changes to be made to make them better.  Going to start The Aphrodisiac (version 2.0) soon...

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