2014 batch 1: Cyser (9) - Which chili was used for the Capsi-Cyser

I finally found out which chili I have been using for my CapsiCyser. It is an asian chili type called Birds Eye of the genus Capsicum Annuum.

As it turns out the chilies are known to be very pungent, which means that you can actually smell the fruit even though only a little has been added.

The chilies are quite strong. On the Scoville scale they are 100,000 to 225,000 which is in the bottom og the range of the strongest commercial chili - the habanero which has a Scoville strength up to 350,000.

Because of that I only add 1/2 chili without seeds for 500 ml of mead. Using only the red chilies I thought it looked a bit more appealing. 

And it still tastes great. I think it is going to be repeated next year :o)

MellaNova Meadery

As the time has gone by I have often thought of starting a commercial mead production. I must say that I have been very inspired by following meaderies in US, and also by reading the American Mead Maker magazine (which by the way is free on Issuu - HERE).

Well I am not in a hurry, and I am not expecting to have an actual sale within at least the next two years, so I am not going to quit my day job. But as a start I have set up my own web-page at mellanova.dk (HERE). I was very surprised how easy it is to build a web page. I use the web hotel unoeuro (HERE) because they are quite cheap - yes, you guessed it: about 1 euro/month. As a guide how to set up a web page I recommend webdesigner (HERE). The guides are very easy and straight forward and in danish.

I have also associated a facebook page (HERE) and also a twitter acount (@MellaNova_Mead) so at least now the name is acquired at the most relevant sites :o)

The sites are not fully updated yet but I hope that the pages will be presentable within the start of the new year. Any tips tricks and ideas are very welcome

Why MellaNova? As most mead makers would know, "mell" means honey in latin. "Mella" means "honey-water" which is the essence of mead. The use of the term "Nova" (New) indicates that the mead I make is NOT according ancient recipes but made under the best conditions that are available today, with innovative use of known and new ingredients. Put in another way, I wish to associate mead with a modern exclusive product and not with Viking drinking orgies. Finally, MellaNova is just very easy to say and remember.

Picture 1: CapsiCyser anno 2014: Samples for tasting - very unprofessional picture but a start :o)

Everybody should know great mead!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2014 batch 3: Bochet (7) - Back sweetening (continued)

Gravity after back sweetening with late summer honey:

Oe: 24-25 degrees :o) just perfect

The only issues was that I changed between and old and a new fermenter of different brands. I think the volume scales on the side are a bit different because I get bigger fluctuations from the calculated values when changing between fermenters of different brand than when I am changing between 2 of the same brand. Still +-1 degree Oechsle is within acceptable uncertainties.

2014 batch 3: Bochet (7) - Back sweetening

Now that the black berries had been removed I racked the bochet mead today. I started with 21 L and had to stop racking with 2 L left because of lots of yeast and residual mushy berries. The volume is now reduced to 19 L but hopefully it will only be 0.5 L losses per racking from now on.

As mentioned in my last post about my bochet I measured Oe to 16 degrees. I would like to back sweeten it to 25 degrees, and using my Honey-Oechsle equations for addition of honey I can calculate that I need to add 542 g of honey. (see HERE). Using 550 g as target I still ended up adding 558 g to a kitchen bowl - well within the uncertainty of the calculation with is +- 30 g. I use my late summer honey for sweetening since I am out of spring and summer honey. Amazing how fast you can use 50 kg of honey :o)

The honey was stirred gently with about 800 ml of the bochet mead to slowly dissolve the honey. The kitchen bowl was emptied into the new fermenter and a second portion of about 800 ml was added to the bowl to rinse out the rest of the honey. This portion was also poured into the fermenter, which was then closed and the air lock attached.

I will wait until tomorrow to to check the gravity just to let the honey dissolve fully.

2014 batch 2: Currant mead (10) - Removing oak chips

After tasting the currant mead I decided to remove the oak chips today (15th dec) The taste had not changed during the last week, so I do not think I will much more out of the chips for now.

The taste is quite good. I am very surprised about how well the oak combine the acidic currents with the sweetness of honey. It has really rounded the mead off. It is also quite interesting that after fermentation I could pretty much only taste the red current with high acidity. Now, after oaking, the black current taste is much more present - almost overpowering the red current.

I highly recommend the use of oak but also to take a sample of the mead before oaking, so that you can always taste the difference BEFORE the mead becomes too oaked. I am not kidding, at first I don't really notice a significant oak taste but when tasting the starting sample, the change is huge. If adding much more oak you would really taste the oak and it would be the first thing noticed. This was definitely not my intentions, so I will stop here. The alternative was just to add another "package" of oak chips if I was not satisfied. 

Measurements

Oe: 25 (Perfect)

pH: 3.42 (Still low)

It is quite interesting that pH is still 3.4 whereas the the taste is much more smooth. Before oaking the acid was stinging in the mouth, but now it is not that pronounced.

2014 batch 3: Bochet (6) - ....and removal of blackberries

Today (monday the 15th of december) I removed the berries from the mead again. They have now been extracted for a good week. The small chucks of berries now look pale and mushy, so I do not think I will get much more fruit taste extracted into the mead.

The taste is quite interesting. You can taste the berries but not so much the burned honey, except in the aftertaste. It does have some acidity due to the berries but it is not bad - just not really smooth. But this one thing long term storage will do for you :o)

The fermentation appeared to have completely stopped, and the mead was clearing, but after removing the berries the fermenter started to pressurize and the airlock began to bubble (?). I think disturbing the mead it started to degas rather than restarting to ferment.

Measurements are as follows
Oe: 16
pH: 3.64 (could very well be over-saturated with CO2)

The Oechsle value is a bit low and I would like to back sweeten the mead to 20-25 degrees. pH is low but still OK. I think it will go up a bit if the fermenter is degassing, and then it should be perfect.

2014 batch 3: Bochet (5) - Addition of blackberries

This Sunday (7/12) I measured the Oe of my Bochet to 18 degrees. The bubbling had slowed significantly, so I figured than now was the time to add the blackberries. I have saved 2 kg (2 bags of 1 kg) very ripe blackberries in our garden and store them in our freezer.

Basically I just put the frozen berries into a clean fermenter, added about 3 L of the bochet must and left it for a while to thaw while occasionally stirring and hacking with a spatula :o)

Once the berries were reasonably thawed I mashed them like you would with mash potato to increase the surface area a bit for exaction. Then I just transferred the rest of the bochet to the new fermenter leaving behind as much yeast and unwanted "chunks" as possible.

Actually, the thick layer of foam had almost completely been fermented and only a little residue was floating on the surface.

I measured the temperature shortly after I closed the new fermenter to about 14-15 C. Since the extraction had just started it did not make sense to measure Oe. next day the fermentation was running again and Oe was about 20 degree. The total volume was reduced by approximately 1.5 L but the berries corresponded to about the same volume, so no significant change - not until I remove the berries at least :o) This would means the the must had been diluted about 8%. If ABV was about 14%, then it was now about 13% and the yeast now have a little more work to do.

Oxalic acid treatment of the bees

Its been a season with lots of varoa mites, and I have been treating my hive twice with formic acid already. Now it is time to do the oxalic acid treatment.

Oxalic acid works well on mites on the active bees in the hive, but it does not work on mites in the closed breading cells. Therfore oxalic acid should be used after be bees goes into the winter cluster and are no longer breading.

This weekend we had a bit of good weather Saturday (6/12), so I went to check the hive.

Yes, the bees were sitting in a small cluster and they were very inactive.

Oxalic acid treatment is quite simple. The solution used is

75g oxalic acid dihydrate
1 kg of sugar
1 L of water

Fortunately I could pick up some from my bee association, so I did not have to mix it myself. Anyway, of this solution 35 ml is used for one hive of consisting of 10 frames (12x10). The solution is added drop wise on the the bees allowing them to move around before dripping again. The bees do not really take notice of the treatment, so it is easy to do it quickly and close up the hive again before too much heat is lost.

Now I will just leave them undisturbed until spring and hope that they get well through the winter.

2014 batch 1: Cyser (8) - Capsi-Cyser: The taste....

After 12 hours extraction, I removed the chili and served the CapsiCyser trial as a shot at a X-mas party

CapsiCyser is a go!!

The amount of chili needs some adjustments though. The chili taste was way to sharp, so it might be more adequate to add one chili to 1 L (10x dilution) AND removing the seed. The idea is to store the bottle with the chili inside, so it does not matter if the extraction time is longer.

2014 batch 1: Cyser (7) - Capsi-Cyser experiment

I set up a little taste experiement - A Capsi-Cyser. Perhaps the taste will feels as good as pronouncing the name :o)

I used a small chili which I cut open on 3 sides. I did not remove the seed.

It is the compound Capsaicin which gives the burning sensation and it is not particularly water soluble. This means I cannot add it to my fermenter which is of plastic since the capsaicin will adsorb quickly to the inner surface of the fermenter. If I will add chilies/chili extracts it will have to be in the glass flasks - but first I will have to see if the taste is worth aiming for.

2014 batch 3: Bochet (4) - Fermentation progress

Well, I felt that the fermentation did not really take off as I had hoped. I had to wait somewhat longer for the first bubble than I did with my previous mead. It did not really feel like the yeast got off to a good start. The bubbling rate also seem significantly slower. The reason could very well be that I prepared the activator straight honey, and poured the activator into the bochet must. Then the yeast cells had to get accustomed to the new environment first. The activator was at least very much alive when I poured it in. The liquid surface was vibrating due to tiny bubbles of CO2.

The development so far looks like this

date       pH     Oe   Additions

29/11   4.45   114   Nutrient pack 1

30/11   3.90   110   Nutrient pack 2

1/12     3.69   100   Nutrient pack 3

3/12     3.68     62   Nutrient pack 4

5/12        -        30   -

As the data shows the pH drops to 3.7 after two days, and stays stable. This pH drop is due to generation of CO2. It is also interesting that the initial drop in Oe is so slow the first 2 days. Only 14 degrees in 2 days. 

After adding nutrient pack 3, I figures I would skip a day before adding the last pack, to avoid to high concentration of nutrients. As it turned out, this was a good call. Two days after Oe had dropped 38 degree so the fermentation had gotten up to full speed at this point. I expect a maximum drop in Oe of 110 for this yeast, so I estimate that 60 degrees corresponds to approximately 50% of the fermentable sugar. Additions should not be done when the fermentation is past this point according to Ken Schramm. I assume he has done his share of trials and errors on this point so no need to repeat them :o)

In graph it looks like this:

My honey won 2nd price

I send off my late summer honey for a competition in my bee association - NBV's Honey Sensory Competition. The entered honeys were split in two categories: crystalline (stirred) and un-treated. I entered My honey was untreated and still very fluent - basically just tapped from the bucket.

The judges statement: "A rounded and mellow, sweet honey with moderate acidity. Tones of wood vanilla and flower together with touch of fresh citrus. An interesting honey with good complexity"

Nothing is too god for my meads :o)

2014 batch 3: Bochet (3) - SNA scheme

My SNA scheme for the Bochet mead

Copy to "paint" and save as picture. This is easier to read than the scanned version but no hand written notes available. Hope it is readable.

I dare you to find calculation errors :o)



2014 batch 3: Bochet (2) - Fermentation start

Ingredients

Sweet Mead Wine Yeast (WLP 720)

144 g of spring honey

10.25 g of Fermaid K

18 g og MAP and 12 g of MAC

    (Corresponding to 10 g of DAP)

10 g of Potash (K2CO3)
and of cause the 19+ L of Bochet must :o)

Initially the yeast was taken out of the refrigerator so that it could warm up for minimum 3 hours before being used.

As you might have noticed I saved some of the honey used for the bochet. This was for an yeast activator to prepare for fermentation. The 144 g of honey was dissolved in 800 ml of boiled water and the solution was covered and cooled to room temperature in the refrigerator. When the yeast was ready, 0.25g og Fermaid K was added, and the beaker was placed om my magnetic stirrer. The yeast was then added, and the beaker was covered.

I set it up Friday night and planned spiking the starter/activator to the bochet must Saturday night. Friday was also the day I did the "burning" of the honey.

Again I will use a SNA scheme to spike the nutrients. Though, I changed the SNA to 4 days instead of 5 because my currant mead had fermented so fast that I did not get to add the fifth aliquot. (See HERE and HERE). Otherwise the setup was pretty much the same:

1) Initially high addition of Fermaid K and slow decrease

2) Initially low addition MAC/MAP and then increasing

3) Initially low addion of potash (base) and then increasing as CO2 levels (acid) go up 

In total I am adding:

281 ppm YAN

283 ppm Potassium

(See scheme in the next post)

Saturday night I did the standard measurements on the bochet must. It had an unpleasant thick dark foam covering the surface that has to be scraped aside to do the measurements:

Oe: 1.114 degree - bit low compared to expected 1.120 degreee

pH: 4.45 (no nutrients added) - bit low due to caramelization

Temp: 23C - super

Pink solution is the reference - pH 4.0. SNA aliquots in vial with blue lid. Beautiful color of the Bochet mead to the right :o)

All ready to go. I added the first aliquot of my SNA scheme, then the yeast activator and gave the fermentor a great big stir before sealing it.

I use the sieve to catch the stirrer magnet

When will I hear the first bubble in the airlock.......can't wait.

2014 batch 3: Bochet (1) - Burning the honey

For a long time I have been wanting to try to make a bochet mead. From the internet it seemed not the be the easiest. Also, various people claim that the used kitchen ware was not possible to clean. So I have been hesitating and reading a lot to kind of being prepared. As it turned out it was not so difficult.

Here we go....

For 20L Bochet:
7.4 kg honey (water content 15%)
Biggest pot I have (15 L)

I had put aside 7.4 kg of spring honey from this year for the purpose. Of this 7.25 kg (~5 L) was poured into my biggest pot which holds 15 L. I had read that the honey would expand a lot and that I needed a pot which were 4 times the volume of the honey. I figure 3 times would be enough. As it turned out this was a super critical bit of information!!!!

I had also read several statements about the temperature of the burnt honey, some extremely high. To shed some light on this I bought a thermometer which could measure up to 250C. I prepared a holder for the temperature probe which I made out of a cheap wire hanger (see pic below). And I was ready to go.

As the temperature was rising the first I noticed was a dramatic drop in viscosity shortly after I reached 40C. Also, the honey became very unclear.

At about 110C the honey started to foam. This was expected since the boiling temperature of water is 100C and the honey contains about 15% of water. When the temperature hit 115C, the mead started to foam like crazy, and the foam level kept rising almost to the top of the pot. Fortunately it did not overflow - It would have taken forever to clean the kitchen. I turned down the heat to slow down the foaming, still keeping the temperature at 115C.

Since water is evaporating the temperature will not change if the heat is turned up. Instead more water will evaporate at the same time and the foam would have increased. As the water evaporates the honey will heat up slowly but it will never reach excessive temperatures as long as the sugar is mixed with water.

Now here is the interesting thing. Shortly after the foaming started the honey also started to brown. This means than the honey is not being burnt but is actually boiled.

The temperature slowly went up to 125C (give and take 5C) and never got above 130C throughout the heating. During the entire boiling time I was stirring the pot to ensure that the honey did not stick to the bottom at any time - then 1½ hour is a looong time

From homebrewtalk (HERE) I found this great picture that is worth showing again. It is a picture by Sharkman20 (credit where credit is due).

With reference to familiar terms from the roasting of malt, I figured I will use the following definitions

30-60 min: Mild-mel

75-90 min: Cara-mel

105-up: Choco-mel

:o)

I am actually not all that fond of a strong burnt taste, so I decided to stop when I reached a cara-mel. Using the same set-up, I followed my progress. 

Times from the top left the time was: 45min, 60min, 70min, 85min, and just before cooling 90min

The smell and taste of caramel was really strong with a light bitter aftertaste. I think this mead will taste like nothing I ever tasted before.

For cooling I filled my kitchen sink with cold water and slowly lowered the pot into the water. Then I poured cold water into the honey bit by bit until I could no longer hear the hissing of evaporating water. The pot was then removed from the sink because the honey started to clod on the sides, but with a bit of stirring the cloding melted again. Then I just added cold water to about 10 L, checked the temperature (about 60C) and poured the content into a sanitized fermenter. I rinsed the pot twice with cold water which was then also added to the fermenter. Finally I filled the fermenter to somewhere above the 19 L mark, put the lid on and left it to cool down. And best of all. No burnt black honey and a pot that was very easy to clean.

So in conclusion: With a pot large enough to hold 3-4 times the volume of honey and with good temperature control of the stove, it is not difficult to "burn" honey for a bochet mead in a controlled manner.