The Strength Project
The purpose of this project is to develop a much higher alcohol
content in the meads. The first of the two available methods is to ice the
mead. (Place it in a large container --less than 1/2 full -- and allow it
to freeze [either outside or in the freezer]). The ice can then be strained
off. A second method is to distil the mead itself. This will have to be
tried but later will do.
Experiment #1 - Cherry Melomel - 19/11/92
Two litres of each of the cherry melomels were drawn off into 1 US gallon containers on 19/11/92 and placed
in the freezer. They have continued to clear and cool.
1/12/92 Moved to new house. Bottles placed outside in cupboard.
16/12/92 No freezing yet (with +3 Celsius this is no surprise) The mead, however is MUCH darker than the bottled counterparts.
10/1/93 Finally froze. I poured off the available liquid (getting 1 litre of each type). This left behind a dirty white ice.
As the volume was halved I would now estimate the alcohol content as 30-40%.
Also of note is that this product is much clearer with a majority of the particle
matter freezing out in the ice. A final note here is that the champagne is
now too strong for my taste while the white wine is actually a nice brandy
flavour.
20/9/93 These 1 litre bottles each produced almost
an inch of further sediment when I left them alone after they had been frozen.
I racked them off for PWXXII and took them with me. They are most definitely
not to everyone's taste but several people I offered it too were impressed.
A side note is that a "bottle" (300mL) drunk over the course of
a couple of hours was enough to give me a serious buzz. I believe that this
test batch constitutes a success and should lead to more experiments.