Yesterday my lovely apprentice Holly and her sweet man Tyson came over to rack the five batches of magical meads we had made along with Saturn on the threshold festival of Samhuinn. Saturn couldn’t make it as she’s still recovering from her back injury, but she did send us a few texts while we were racking to be part of the action. That is 38 gallons of mead on my counter in the pictures above. We racked the Moon, Sabbat, Aphrodisiac, Blessing, and Saturn meads into clean carboys with more honey –fireweed for most of them and dandelion honey for the Saturn and Monsterberry meads. Of course, while we were doing all of this, I had my Bee Oracle incense burning in the cauldron.
We had enough leftover mead from racking the Moon and Sabbat meads to make a one gallon Loki batch. I blended the meads into the small carboy (really an apple cider jug) with more honey, mango-orange-peach juice, and a blend of spices: lemongrass, nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, and peppercorns. It smells lovely and is very fruity –should be perfect for a summer sabbat. When the three of us had finished the racking, which only took six hours, we set ourselves to bottling.
First, Holly bottled her first batch of mead ever which is a lovely tasting apple mead. Afterward we all took turns bottling a batch of Salmonberry mead the three of us had made in May of 2009 after spending a day picking wild Salmonberries in the forest. It had finally died! Honestly though, we had to murder it. We finished it with a touch of Cointreau to add a rich smoothness to it as Salmonberries are watery and very mild in flavour. In 4-8 months it will be ready to drink!
But the mead making wasn’t over yet! In the morning I sanitized the rest of my bottles and set to work bottling my two gallons of Ginger-Lime mead and my one gallon of Huckleberry-Devil’s Club mead. My once empty mead rack has now been refilled – oh joyous sunny day! …And now to wait until I can drink all these new treasures *drums fingers impatiently*
gosh they look great!! spent some of satruday tasting a friends various meads.. the one with Kawakawa (new Zealand native plant, that is related to KavaKava with loads of healing properties) was quite peppery, and the one with apple juice and elderflower syrup.. gosh sweet..*grins*
this all looks so amazing I’m very Jealous. I hadn’t realized how colorful mead can be. thanks for sharing
Maaan, I want some! It all looks so yummy.
I’m patiently waiting for a paycheck to come my way and then I can finally get my mead making supplies!
Had a dream recently, where a small swarm of bees lead me to a flowering Hawthorn tree. Hawthorn blossom mead was the first thing that came to mind upon waking. Good for the heart!
Right now, my gallon of just plain old clover honey mead on the kitchen shelf is begging me to sample it. “Come on, Sara… just a little taste! You’re dying of curiosity. I know you are!”
A cousin used to brew and bottle wild-plum wine. We always used to joke about how long the blend would spend burbling, hissing, spitting, and generally being a malcontent. “Is (Bertha, Hortense, Gertrude…etc.) still foaming at the mouth today? You’re gonna have to put a bullet in her!”
He nearly always had to “kill” a few of the batches early, just so he could have -any- in a reasonable time. One continued to burp and ferment for something like two years!
This looks so delicious! I’ve never tried making my own mead, but want to soon, and have no idea where to start! >.<