I bottled a lot of mead over the weekend: my first five-gallon batch, the gallon I made for the upcoming Heartland Pagan Festival, and the batch my magical group helped me start last Midsummer.
The five-gallon batch is my second/third attempt at pomegranate mead. The first was fantastic – my best to date. The second I started (but which I won’t bottle until October) was for Samhain. This one I started in December and bottled last Thursday. It’s not as good as the first batch, but it’s very, very tasty.
Ingredients:
12 lb honey (used Sweatheart honey this time from my brew store)
4x32oz. pomegranate juice (I favor the Odwalla brand over Pom)
juice of 1 lemon, 1 orange
1 1/2 tsp tannen
2 1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
5 tsp yeast energizer
I ultimately added another 60 or so ounces of pomegranate juice as I racked the mead. The color and the flavor weren’t strong enough for my taste. The ultimate outcome, for some reason, was never as bold and red as the first, or as richly flavored. Maybe the Pom brand juice is dyed and therefore contributed a stronger color (disturbingly likely and all the more reason not to use it again). We’ll see how the flavor develops in the bottle, it might be just as good as the first batch in another few months.
This is the label I made:
The colors label didn’t scan very well, I’m afraid, but it looks good on the bottle. I’m very pleased to say that, uncolored and without any kind of label, my mother – who is not a witch of any stripe or even much of an antiquarian – was able to identify the figure as Persephone.