Really enjoyed this! I hope you can post some more ideas as time goes on. I really enjoy how you talk through the decisions you made in your process, that's really helpful to think through things myself.
You have been one of the more reliable resources I have leaned on in my mead education. I did a variant of your blueberry cyser and that was my first experience with bentonite. I am a believer now on that brew tool. Clarity was quite beautiful. I digress, I will have to watch this video again to absorb the information you have provided.
one of my first meads was a 7 flower mead, all the flowers used have a medicinal use alone and I was a little overly ambitious lol. I did balance them in a tea before brewing but I missed that one of them became bitter in alcohol, oops . it is a beautiful mead with a nice purple color. and after a year of aging I found that the bitterness went away, but I was left with a pure floral taste and smell. The one saving grace is I made it very strong 16% abv and found when I added any amount of Fruit juice it became so utterly good I couldnt believe it. so far apple and cranberry are my favorite mixers with it and I am adding 1-2oz/ glass so just enough to make it work really. Flowers are fun and most of my meads have at least one in it as a back note. it has taken me a while but I finally found the amounts to use per gallon for the ones I like. but I will not try the 7 different flower batch again without a fruit in it as well lol.
Kudos for harvesting fresh roses! I was a little surprised that you dried the petals. What I did with my full-on rhodomel (rose petals and rose hips) I simply tossed the freshly harvested petals in a fermenter and tossed honey on top. Left it to macerate for several hours to allow for osmosis to extract as much flavour as possible, then added rose hip tea and water. Left it to ferment for 48 hours, removed the petals and tossed in more. Removed those after 48 hours and allowed fermentation to run its course. Finished it by adding a handful of freeze dried raspberries because it tasted a little flat. Racked and back sweetened after a week. It didn’t have a lot of rose character… but was crystal clear and tasted pretty nice. Around two months later I cracked a bottle and was hit by amazing rose aroma. Floral, fresh, mildly sweet and summery if consumed lightly chilled but deeper and mildly reminiscent of the Middle East when consumed at room temperature it’s one of my favourites. I believe the key to keeping a rhodomel from being cloying is to choose the right roses. Mine are heavily scented, but their perfume has an undertone that is reminiscent of citrus. Some roses have a more musky scent. That can really change the final outcome. Your version sounds really interesting. I might combine roses and ginger this year… I just wonder what I’ll chose as a bittering agent.
That's a good point! I forgot to mention it in the video, but the main reason we dried the rose petals is because all the recipes I could find were written assuming you would purchase rose petals (which pretty much always come dried). I did not think 5 oz of fresh petals would get me the same results as 5 oz dried petals and did not know how to convert between them. So I just dried mine lol Maybe I will try them fresh next time!
If you use floral ingredients, I find it's useful to boil them for about 15 minutes, then let them extract and cool for up to 4 hours, no less. Also, maybe my palette just isn't very sensitive, but I've never gotten any real appreciable flavor out of using rosehips.
it would be interesting to use crystalized honey and rose petals to make a rose infused honey like some of those syrup recipes. not quite sure how those work tho
I've also used rose water for a rhodomel and it turned out pretty well.
Best video so far...... How is she so smart??????
Gorgeous garden! Looks like you planned your mead a bit better than I did haha 😅 I'm so glad yours came out nicely!!!
What a beautiful garden you have!
Really enjoyed this! I hope you can post some more ideas as time goes on. I really enjoy how you talk through the decisions you made in your process, that's really helpful to think through things myself.
You have been one of the more reliable resources I have leaned on in my mead education. I did a variant of your blueberry cyser and that was my first experience with bentonite. I am a believer now on that brew tool. Clarity was quite beautiful. I digress, I will have to watch this video again to absorb the information you have provided.
one of my first meads was a 7 flower mead, all the flowers used have a medicinal use alone and I was a little overly ambitious lol. I did balance them in a tea before brewing but I missed that one of them became bitter in alcohol, oops . it is a beautiful mead with a nice purple color. and after a year of aging I found that the bitterness went away, but I was left with a pure floral taste and smell. The one saving grace is I made it very strong 16% abv and found when I added any amount of Fruit juice it became so utterly good I couldnt believe it. so far apple and cranberry are my favorite mixers with it and I am adding 1-2oz/ glass so just enough to make it work really. Flowers are fun and most of my meads have at least one in it as a back note. it has taken me a while but I finally found the amounts to use per gallon for the ones I like. but I will not try the 7 different flower batch again without a fruit in it as well lol.
Great to see a video from you! You took on this challenge in a pretty unique way.
Good job! I like idea of drying out the rose petals in the oven.
Wonderful process! Lovely mead!
Kudos for harvesting fresh roses! I was a little surprised that you dried the petals. What I did with my full-on rhodomel (rose petals and rose hips) I simply tossed the freshly harvested petals in a fermenter and tossed honey on top. Left it to macerate for several hours to allow for osmosis to extract as much flavour as possible, then added rose hip tea and water. Left it to ferment for 48 hours, removed the petals and tossed in more. Removed those after 48 hours and allowed fermentation to run its course. Finished it by adding a handful of freeze dried raspberries because it tasted a little flat. Racked and back sweetened after a week. It didn’t have a lot of rose character… but was crystal clear and tasted pretty nice. Around two months later I cracked a bottle and was hit by amazing rose aroma.
Floral, fresh, mildly sweet and summery if consumed lightly chilled but deeper and mildly reminiscent of the Middle East when consumed at room temperature it’s one of my favourites.
I believe the key to keeping a rhodomel from being cloying is to choose the right roses. Mine are heavily scented, but their perfume has an undertone that is reminiscent of citrus. Some roses have a more musky scent. That can really change the final outcome.
Your version sounds really interesting. I might combine roses and ginger this year… I just wonder what I’ll chose as a bittering agent.
That's a good point! I forgot to mention it in the video, but the main reason we dried the rose petals is because all the recipes I could find were written assuming you would purchase rose petals (which pretty much always come dried).
I did not think 5 oz of fresh petals would get me the same results as 5 oz dried petals and did not know how to convert between them. So I just dried mine lol
Maybe I will try them fresh next time!
@@ArrowtotheMead - It would eliminate one time-consuming step!
If you use floral ingredients, I find it's useful to boil them for about 15 minutes, then let them extract and cool for up to 4 hours, no less. Also, maybe my palette just isn't very sensitive, but I've never gotten any real appreciable flavor out of using rosehips.
:O Why didn't I get a notification that this was posted?
Having a challenge that asks for 3 flavor intense ingredients… adds even more flavor intense ingredients. Bold move! 😂
Fight fire with fire!
And it proved to be a good move as well!
it would be interesting to use crystalized honey and rose petals to make a rose infused honey like some of those syrup recipes. not quite sure how those work tho
Sine Qua Non, pronounced sinay qua non. Without which, not, as it is roughly translated from Latin.