Rhubarb Melomel (Mead) -- Part 3

Today we racked both the amarone wine and the rhubarb mead. For the amarone, which is a kit wine, we followed the directions. For the mead, we made up our own :)

The mead's specific gravity today was .998. .004 down from the first racking. Apparently this is good. (The amarone was also .004 down.)

No photos today, because, well--nothing looks different than last time. We racked the rhubarb mead into a fermenter, then Jim 'degassed' it by agitating it vigorously with an attachment to his drill. Meanwhile I'd mixed 1/2 teaspoon of potassium metabisulphite into 1/2 cup of cool water. We then mixed this thoroughly into the mead, then let it sit 20-30 minutes before re-racking it back into the glass carboy. (We understand the purpose of the PM to be making sure the fermentation is turned off, or complete.)

With fermentation locks in place, both carboys are now out in our mudroom (cooler than under the dining room table where they've been living until now!) with a garbage bag over each to keep them in the dark. And there they shall sit for 2-3 weeks until we do it all again.

Again, the taste tests on both were positive.

Middle Mountain Mead

While we were on vacation last week, we paid a visit to Middle Mountain Mead on Hornby Island.

It crosses our mind that adding value to the honey our bees (and the additional hives we expect to buy) will produce might be a good idea. In our area there is no shortage of places one can purchase local honey. There may well be room in the market for more; I haven't yet done the research to make an educated decision. But right now we're looking at options, and opening a meadery is one such option.



We called ahead for an appointment because Hornby Island isn't into its summer schedule yet in June, and with two ferries to catch to get there, we didn't want to make the side trip if seeing the meadery wasn't a possibility. We were greeted by this young gentleman, whose name I forgot to get. Bad me.



Their tasting room is charming, and adorned with vast swaths of drying lavender.



The mead display area is simply made to suit the setting.



A large deck off the tasting room offers comfort and a spectacular view.



Our guide willingly showed us around, answered all our questions and encouraged me to take photos. Here he and Jim are discussing the fermentation process.



Then we wandered through their gardens for awhile. These aren't show gardens, but rather bee gardens. The beauty of mead, in my opinion, is that the bees make honey out of your flowers and fruit blossoms, then you can use the fruit itself, added to the honey, to make mead. Seems like a good use of resources to me!



Anyone know what this flower is (below)? See the busy bee? :) (You might need to click on the photo to enlarge it in order to see the bee.)



So the grounds below the meadery/tasting room are filled with ingredients for honey and ingredients for mead.



Here's the view they have to suffer through every day. Ah, bliss...



And, yes, we tucked a few bottles of various flavors into the car for special occasions over the next while. An Olde Mead, Cranberry Lavender Mead, Cyser (apple mead), and Green Tea Elixir.

Rhubarb Melomel (Mead) -- Part 2

Last night we checked the specific gravity of the mead in the fermentation vessel. It was at 1.02, which is right where it should be.



I scooped out the majority of the rhubarb chunks, then we racked the mead. This basically means we siphoned it into a glass carboy, leaving behind the majority of the sediment and bits of fruit. You can see a vessel of amarone wine waiting for its turn to be racked.



Here's the carboy nearly full.



I forgot to take a photo once we'd put the fermentation lock on top. If you're not sure what that looks like, I found a photo here. You can see the mead is quite cloudy. Subsequent rackings should help with that, but if it doesn't clear, the taste isn't affected.

And I'm here to tell you that the sip of raw mead I had last night was quite good already, not nearly as astringent as the first taste of the plum wine we did in the fall of '07 at this stage. So far it is looking like this experiment will be a grand success :)

Rhubarb Melomel (Mead) -- Part 1

One of the reasons I want to get into beekeeping is to experiment with making meads, which are basically wines made with honey instead of sugar. You can make a grape mead, which is called a pyment, a fruit mead, which is called a melomel, or herbal or spice mead, called metheglin.

We own the book Making Wild Wines & Meads, but true to our form, the first one we wanted to try wasn't in the book: Rhubarb Mead. We hunted the internet and found this recipe, but the method didn't match up to the book. So, a blended method.

First, the list of ingredients:
18 cups chopped rhubarb
1 package champagne yeast
12 cups honey
48 cups water
1 lemon
1 tea bag

So here's what we've done so far, along with what we expect will happen over the next few months if all goes according to plan. Here's my rhubarb plant!



Eighteen cups of chopped rhubarb, coming right up.



It takes a long time to bring all that honey and half the water to boiling. Almost an hour. Then I boiled it for 20 minutes. As you can see, the waxy impurities floated to the top and needed to be skimmed off. (If you're buying pasteurized honey, this will already be done, but I bought mine from a local apiary's farm stand.)



Once the honey/water blend had been boiled and skimmed, I dumped in the chopped rhubarb and stirred.



Once it had cooled a bit, we poured the blend into the primary (large plastic tub) and added the remainder of the water, stirred well, and put the lid on it to sit for 24 hours. That was yesterday.

So this evening I juiced the lemon, warmed the juice to baby bottle temperature, and sprinkled the packet of champagne yeast over the top.



15 minutes later, I stirred it thoroughly. Then we added it to the rhubarb/honey/water blend in the primary along with one tea bag (I tossed in an Earl Grey) for the tannin. Stir well to distribute the yeast.



Here's what we expect to happen next:

Allow to ferment for ten days, during which the temperature needs to remain between 68-77 degrees and we need to stir several times a day.

Then transfer to an airlock carboy for three months, then rack. (This basically means the liquid is siphoned off and the solids discarded.) Rack again every month or two as needed to clarify.

Six months from now it can be bottled, and six months after THAT we'll have an idea if we'd ever make this kind again! We'll keep you updated as we go through the various steps.

Seeds are up!

And in other news, the snow is all gone and the rhubarb is peeking through.



Besides rhubarb crisp and rhubarb punch base, this year we're excited to try making some rhubarb mead. Looks like it won't be any week soon, though.