With a rival brewer having a batch ready, and a BYOB birthday party to go to, mead batch three got bottled on the 23rd of March. After last year's "Avo Beta", which was meant to celebrate the beta release of Titan V6 but ended up preceding it by weeks, I decided to race this one against the beta.
This week should see it sail into the software office for the return of
+Oliver Waits and
+Mark Daniel , days before they build the V7 beta, although I'm hoping it might get there mere hours before.
This is my first batch if mead I've done a proper label for - Avo Beta had some fancy (read made from LX tape) packaging but for this one I broke out the InDesign. Unfortunately the printer my flatmate gave me doesn't do yellow (yet- watch this space), so they came our blue.
Preliminary taste tests were good, again sweet and subtly spiced - I was hoping for a stronger hit of nutmeg and cinnamon, but it didn't happen. As for the mead off opinions were split - Terence's mead was drier than mine, which is a matter of personal preference, but also had a yeasty aftertaste. Definitely a good first brew.
As for the new batch I went completely spiceless this time, instead using maple syrup to give it something special. The recipe was simply 4 jars of Tesco (Everyday) Value honey and two bottles of Finest maple syrup, chosen as it came in bigger bottles than their normal maple syrup at very little extra cost.
I'm hoping that this batch will come out a little drier than the last, but still fairly sweet. Whether the maple will be noticeable has yet to be seen but, just like that ant, I have high hopes. Shame I have to wait until July to find out...
