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My newest endeavor when it comes to the fermentation of beverages has been the use of Honey. I realize that Jeff has been using honey for quite some time for the priming sugar. Which seems like a really good idea to me. As far as retaining a lot of the honey aroma and flavor that are apparently lost in a long boil. I was thinking of making a heather Mead with, while not boiling but just bringing the must to a sanitizing temperature at around 170 F. and adding another pound or two in with the secondary to maybe push the fermentation as far as it can go. Also I was considering experimenting with the different kinds of honey, more specifically using buckwheat honey for a darker more flavorful end product. Also I'm making a saison soon so I was thinking that as an additional sugar adding honey and maybe brown sugar with kent goldings and fuggles.
I haven't really started any of these, but the saison starter is going to be made tonight and the actual beer maybe on Tuesday or Wednesday. Sounds like fun to me! Let me know what you think about ideas for changing mead or mead and beer combinations... Braggot as it were.
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4 comments:
You know what would be sweet? Someday making an "Imperial Mead." You know, you could use like 7 different types of honey and imbue it with the power of Valhalla. But seriously, I loved your last mead, The Bees Knees. I'd be interested in how the addition of heather or other floral ingredients (is heather floral?) would add some complexity and balance to the dry/earthy honey flavor.
By the way, what the hell makes a saison a saison?
not a half bad idea about the imperial mead. I think you can push it to as far as around 19% or so with the addition of champagne yeast in the secondary and also some very impressive aeration techniques with a buttload of nutrients.
Heather is supposed to be a floral, sweet, mellow aroma that smells a bit like honey so I'm thinking it might offset the aroma lost in pasteurization.
Also a Saison is really just a beer made with belgian yeast and floral spices.... frankly I think it's a lot like a belgian ale.
Do "very impressive aeration techniques" happen to include heroic feats of strength as well as figure skating and cacti? Because that would be TOTALLY worthwhile.
If the saison is pretty much a belgian, I suggest trying one cup of honey (heather honey sounds good) with one minute and half left in the boil. i think that would taste really good! I added a cup of clover honey with 1 minute 40 secs. left in the boil with the Cape of Good Hops and I think the honey really comes in nicely within aftertaste in a most excellent and balancing way. I'm going to do the same thing with my next beer.
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