mead

We had even more quinces so decided to do a second batch of mead with the poaching liquid.

This batch we also added honey from our hives in order to target a higher ABV.

I'm also switching from Lalvin 71B to Lalvin K1V-1116

We harvested around 100lbs of quinces from our trees the other day and my wife processed them into quince paste. The first major step of making quince paste is poaching them, which my wife does in a spiced water. As a result, after 50lbs or so we were left with 3qts of concentrated quince juice, sugar, and spices. It tasted quite good, and had a decent amount of sugar, so we decided to make it into a mead.

It's been almost 7 years since I last made a mead that was higher than 6%, so this is also about remembering how to do so.

This is a simple bochet hydromel I made with honey from my hives, ale yeast, and nutrients.

The honey was heated on the stove until it turned almost black and the flavor profile was toasted marshmallows.

This is a basic hydromel I made with honey from my hives, kveik yeast, and nutrients.

This is also an experiment to see about the use of really old farmhouse yeasts for mead.

This is a quick mead using kveik yeast

This is a quick bochet using kveik yeast

I decided to make a traditional cyser using local fresh-pressed apple cider and honey from my own hives.