The cider is mostly drank now, it wasn’t bad but could have done with being a bit more cidery. It was watery in places. I’m blaming the generic wine yeast for this one. It wasn’t the cheap apple juice or the fact it was only a month old! Honest!
The next cider batch is being lined up while I find a source of honey for the next batch of mead. Four demi’s of apple juice, two cloudy and two clear. One of each will be flavoured with cherry to make a cherry cider.
The mead is getting there, I hope to rack again towards the end of the week and then in to bottles for a bit of aging. Most of it really needs back sweetening with honey to bring out the honey flavour and offset some strong flavours from the ingredients.
- Chilli – Strong chille taste but the inital taste is a bit watery. Some sweetness would be good with the bit!
- Berry – A little sour but a nice berry taste off it, a bit too dry.
- Vanilla – Not sure what to do with this, the vanilla taste needs to be cleaner and stronger, may remove the pod for awhile and add vanilla concentrate
- Cherry – Just needs more cherry in it
I’ve added dried halapeno’s, chipotle’s and cacao nibs to my ingredient list to hopefully create some more nice tasting meads and hopefully a beer or two.