Freshly picked Lilac flowers added to half of a plain mead, in progress. The other half became Pluto's Ploy. Lovely (March 25, 2004)
Ingredients:
Yeast notes: Red Star Pasteur Champagne yeast was rehydrated at brew time.
April 25, 2002 - Honey heated with water. Yeast energizer added. As temperature reached 160 F the must chiller was added, and the must kept hot for 15 minutes. Cooled, and poured into sanitized bucket. More water added, yeast pitched, stirred and stored with a bubble lock.
May 4, 2002 - We picked about 1/4 pound or 4+ quarts (loosely packed) of lilac flowers. Then we heated the smaller amount of honey with water. Added yeast nutrient. Heated to about 160 F and kept hot for 15 minutes. While the new must was heating we poured boiling water over the lilac flowers and let it steep in a separate kettle. The plain mead was racked into two carboys. In this half, the flower tea was added to the remaining must and cooled. Only a few flowers made it into the kettle with the must. While Rebecca was busy cooling the sweetened lilac tea, Marcia got busy putting too much water into the carboy. As a result about a gallon of tea/must wouldn't fit into the overfilled carboy. Too bad, very sad. This carboy was stored with a bubble lock.
June 6, 2002 - Racked
February 6, 2003 - boiled corn sugar with water and racked into the bucket with sugar water. Bottled.
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