Mead and meadish

[Glen Gilchrist]

I've just racked off my first mead...

3x 450g jars of local honey
2x tea bags
5x bags of mulled wine spice bags
1tsp wine yeast
2tsp nutrient

Made 2 pints of "tea" with all the bags
Added all the honey and allowed to cool to room temperature
Added to 1 gallon demijohn
Made to to neck and added yeast / nutrient.

Fermented for 1 week, racked into clean demijohn and cleared to a light golden yellow.

Bottled after another week.


So, now I was desperate to use my lavender flowers that are just being cut back. I did not have any honey, so I used golden syrup instead.

600g golden syrup and sugar to 1kg
3 cups of lavender flowers
2 tea bags
1 tsp yeast
2 tsp nutrient.

Made 2 pints of lavender infusion + tea bags. Infused for 20 minutes.
Added golden syrup and sugar.
Cooled to room temp
Transferred to Demijohn
Made up to 1 gallon
Yeast + nutrient.

It's now bubbling away.

As I could not really find any reference to wine making with golden syrup - my question is.... Will it work??

Cheers
G

[MKG]

I'm assuming that the golden syrup is Lyle's?

Yes, it will certainly work. It's a mixture of sucrose (normal sugar) and fructose, both of which are fermentable.

Strictly speaking, as there are no added flavourings it should have no effect on the taste of the final product. I'd be interested to hear if that's true or not.

Mike

[Glen Gilchrist]

Morrisons own ;-) found in the back of the cupboard along with some curry power. Syrup in date, curry powder, best before 2002!!

Will feedback when it's done.
G

[Glen Gilchrist]

Said I'd feed back.

Racked the mead-ish and just bottled off. Sampled a bottle and the feedback is mixed.

1) no residual flavour from the syrup
2) cleared perfectly to a light straw colour - from the tea
3) intense lavender bouquet - hard on the nose.
4) tastes better than it smells, with a subtle lavender aftertaste that lingers on the palate for a long time after you've swallowed.

Now to age it a bit.

I'll sample again after 1,3 and 12 months.

All in - I'd do it again.

G

[wabbit955]

i think i gave this a go just picked a load of lavender
cheers

[tisme]

Hi
Quick question, why the tea?

Pete

[MKG]

There's tannin in that there tea.

Mike

[wabbit955]

mine bubbling nicly now can not wait