Mulled Mead

To celebrate the first chill of autumn (and the fact that we'd been married 10,000 days!) James and I decided to try Mulled Mead using some of our own homemade Mead. We adapted this recipe we found online. 

We started by heating up the Mead in a saucepan, and then added two cinnamon sticks, a few whole cloves, a couple of whole peppercorns, a whole nutmeg (cut in half), a pinch of ground ginger, a dash of cardamom, and a splash of Triple Sec, we let the concoction boil, and then let it simmer for about 25 minutes. We removed the whole spices with a strainer and poured the Mead into two glasses along with a shot of Amaretto and a tablespoon of honey.

A great celebratory drink!

ChardParfait

After a couple of years of making beers and ales (which we continue to do), we started making wine earlier this year. While thirty bottles of Barolo are aging in our basement, a giant carboy of Chardonnay is coming together in our kitchen. After fermentation, we began a process of finishing, which removes cloudiness from the wine. We did the same thing with our red wine, but the effect was difficult to discern as it progressed.

This week we are noticing that the clarification takes place very gradually and evenly from the top down, once again validating the theory of gravity! With this white wine, the effect is easily visible. It really looks like wine at the top, and the bottom is a sludge of expired yeast almost two inches thick. In between is the layer awaiting clarification.