Growing grapes and making wine in Bellevue
Posted in colony collapse disorder, mead on Sep 13th, 2007
I last wrote about Colony Collapse Disorder back in May. That’s when I made the case that CCD would not squeeze honey supplies too much and cause a large price run up. With honey prices up about 10% since then, I think my analysis was about right. I’m still anxious to learn about the impact […]
Posted in mead on Sep 6th, 2007
As you can see in the photo above, I racked my cherry mead into two 1-gallon jugs, a magnum (1.5 liter) bottle, and an ordinary wine bottle. The 1-gallon jug on the left, that isn’t full and has a lighter more opaque color to it, is filled with slurry from the fermenter. I’ll let it […]
Posted in mead on Aug 28th, 2007
I pressed my cherry mead back in July, and looked in on it Saturday (8/25/07). I wanted to see if it had fermented out and if it was in danger of spoiling. To do that, I measured the specific gravity and the pH. An SG of 0.995 indicated that, yes, it was done fermenting. The […]
Posted in colony collapse disorder, mead on Aug 8th, 2007
Prices up 10%
Last month, and since the beginning of May, my local Costco sold 6 lb (about 2.7 kg) jugs of honey for $7.99. Those 6 lb jugs are now fetching $8.79, a 10% increase. I think Costco’s price for clover honey is a good indicator of honey prices in the US for three reasons: […]
Posted in DIY equipment, mead on Jul 26th, 2007
I didn’t intend to leave the cherry mead on the skins for three weeks, but there are other wines to fuss over, meadmaking questions to ponder, and even unfermentable things that a winemaker must attend to. Yesterday I poured the mead, skins, pits, pulp and all, into my homemade 3-bucket press. A bucket drilled with […]
Posted in mead on Jul 23rd, 2007
Adjusting acidity is critical
Acidity can make or break a mead. Too much and you will have a harsh undrinkable mead, but too little will leave your mead flabby and unpleasant. Winemakers deal with this by measuring the acidity of there wine or must and adjusting it according to the type of wine they are making. […]
Country wine, second wine, and melomel
Cherry mead, often called “cherry melomel”, is usually made like a country wine. You make a country wine with small amount of fruit, 2-6 lb, per gallon of water (250-750 g/L) with enough sugar to bring the alcohol up to 12% and acid to balance. You would do something similar […]
Posted in colony collapse disorder, mead on Jul 2nd, 2007
My cherry wine is fermenting nicely. I plan to press it soon, and use the pomace to make a cherry mead. The good price on the cherries worked out really well, but it did leave me with a dilemma about the honey. Use the wildflower that I have? It would be much better in the […]
Posted in cherry wine, mead on Jun 28th, 2007
An opportunity needs to be siezed
Safeway is having a sale, cherries for $1.49/lb, and that got me thinking about honey varietals. Let me back up a little. About this time last year, I bought 40 lb of cherries, some from Safeway, and made cherry wine. After I pressed the wine, I made cherry mead in […]
Posted in apple wine, mead, tasting on Jun 21st, 2007
I bottled four 1-gallon batches, three meads and an apple wine, yesterday.
2005 Apple Wine
I harvested 13 lb of Liberty apples from my backyard, in 2005, and turned them, along with a gallon of Trader Joe’s Gravestein apple juice, into a batch of apple wine. It’s got a rich golden color, a wonderful aroma, and it’s […]