2025-01-18 Set honey bottle in warm water, started fermaid o in a cup of warm water, added yeast to cup of water when temp was low enough.
Added ½ gallon of water, mint and honey to fermenter. Stirred/aerated for about 6 minutes total. Checked temperature of must to make sure it was safe for yeast. Added hydrated yeast-fermaid o to must. Added water to a gallon. Stirred for another couple of minutes. Checked temperature of must: 77.7. Took gravity reading: 1.120spg.
Put must under airlock, placed fermenter in warmish corner and blocked light from the glass part.
Today I was able to release Silver and Bailey back into the colony. The video clip shows Cookies (as yet unfixed, I’ll get her!) eating when I huff & puff up to the feeding station and startle her away. Then Silver and Bailey race past the camera. It was a challenge getting Silver into the cat carrier, but Bailey was pretty easy. I’m sure their family will be glad to see them again. Tini and the three kittens remain inside for the time being. The kittens are too small still for fixing and Tini being a girl needs longer recovery time. Plus I don’t want her kittens to be stressed by the separation.
Cookies having a snack, followed by Silver and Bailey running away from me.
This was one of my experimental brews so it’s a micro-batch. It will not be repeated, but I may use it as inspiration to make something less complicated. I considered calling this the kitchen sink brew
Full list of ingredients in order of addition:
342g quick oats
7g powdered cinnamon
700ml water
300ml water
100ml maple syrup
75ml barley malt
200ml water
1/2tsp fermaid o
1/2 packet k1-v1116 yeast
125ml water
31g chopped dates
20g honey
1/4cup water
1/4tsp fermaid o
50g honey
100ml warm water
1/4cup maple syrup
1/4tsp vanilla
Yes, I did switch back and forth between metric and imperial, I tend to go with whichever measurement is most exact or easiest to manage at the time.
oat milk mead startoat particles fallen from suspension
2024-04-22 Mix oats, cinnamon & water; soak for 24 hours
2024-04-23 add water, puree, strain until I get tired of messing with it. Mix ‘oat milk’, maple syrup, barley malt, water, yeast and fermaid o together and put under airlock
2024-04-24 added in a little more water & swirlled it
2024-05-02 rough racked must into new fermenter on top of chopped dates, honey and more water, put back under airlock
2024-05-08 took a small sip, definitely alcohol, texture is noticably different than other meads, probably due to the oats, very dry
2024-05-09 added honey & warm water
2024-05-20 airlock pressure still positive, but brew is clearing
2024-05-21 racked to another jar and put in fridge to cold crash
2024-05-24 took it out of fridge, sniffed it, it smells like booze, stuck it in the cabinet to age
2024-06-01 racked, added maple syrup and vanilla, tastes good, put back under airlock
2024-06-04 airlock still showed pressure, but I racked it into a 1 liter bottle
I briefly tried to make Moon-specific meads. This was the one for May. My original plan included rose petals, to be added in conditioning to keep the infusion of rose flavor to a minimum. But strong winds stripped all the rose petals from my friend’s rose bushes. heh Maybe next year! However, my pottery instructor had some oregano that had gone to flower and I thought, why not!?
2024-05-21 prepared oregano flower tea: steeped tea for 20 minutes, strained into 2 quart mason jars, each with 800ml fluid, this will be the liquid base for the mead
2024-05-26 Mixed tea 1400ml, water 500ml, 1lb honey, 1/4tsp fermaid o, & 1/2 packet kv yeast. Put under airlock in half-gallon fermenter
2024-06-05 3tbsp hibiscus flowers
2024-06-12 removed hibiscus
2024-06-17 clearing
2024-06-21 tasted it, added 4 oz of honey, stirred the lees up and honey, put back under airlock
Silver, Bailey & Tini are off to get fixed/vaxed. I only got hurt a little when Silver bit through the leather gloves. The other 2 let me scoop them up in a towel, Silver I had to corner & shove into the trap. The 3 babies are too small for fixing, so we’ll hold on to them until they’re big enough
