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If it's good for
ancient Druids,
runnin' nekkid through the wuids, Drinkin' strange fermented fluids,
it's good enough for me! - Pete Seeger The first annual Church of the Sacred Circle Community Mead - will be a semi-sweet strawberry melomel to be assembled communally on August 18, 2007.
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Clean and prep the 7.9 gallon (extra large) primary
- Scrub, rinse and then soak the plastic primary bucket/lid/airlock overnight using warm water and Five Star PBW®.
- Rinse the primary well, then use One Step® and some warm water in each, swish around and drain. Do not rinse again.
- Thaw the strawberries.
- Add 1 gallon of spring water to the primary.
- Add about 20 pounds of honey.
- Top off water to 5 gallons - mix well.
- Adjust honey/water ratio for an SG reading of about 1.130.
- Add strawberries to fermenter - mix well.
Aug 18, 2007 (Day 0) - Pitched.
Aug 19, 2007 (Day 1) - Bubbling and foaming through the blow-off tube I've affixed.
Aug 20, 2007 (Day 2) - Refitted the normal airlock.
Aug 23, 2007 (Day 5) - Bubbling happily. Beginning to smell like wine.
Aug 24, 2007 (Day 6) - The SG has reached 1.012 which puts the alcohol at 15.5% by volume. The taste is fairly dry so I added 3 lbs of honey.
Sep 13, 2007 (Day 26) - The smell is wonderful. I'll take a gravity reading and rack in a week or so.
Oct 5, 2007 (Day 48) - Racked onto a big bunch of chopped bananas. The smell is luscious.
Oct 19, 2007 (Day 66) - I've racked off the bananas after two weeks. It smells like strawberries. The taste is alcohol-hot and a bit acidic. Both will mellow with age. The color is a beautiful pink. I'm very happy with it's progress.
Nov 23, 2007 (Day 97) - The strawberry smell is really heady and beautiful. The taste is dry, perhaps too dry for most, but I'm reluctant to add more honey at this point - there's plenty of time. I suspect that the sugars will come forward and I don't want this to be too sweet.
Dec 26, 2007 (Day 130) - It smells fantastic, but the taste is still too dry.
Apr 20, 2007 (Day 246) - I'm no longer certain I want to add anything to this! Yes, it's perhaps on the drier side. But it's quaffable as it is. Very mild - all trace of astringency that I had thought might need to be hidden with honey is gone. The smell is wonderful.