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I hope these frequent updates aren't boring to people, but currently have four wines going at the same time. This one is a maple mead (acerglyn) which I started three days after Christmas. It had two pounds of honey, one pound of maple syrup, and a whole vanilla bean.

This one is interesting for a couple of reasons. It's the first thing I brewed after getting a hydrometer, so I have a true reading of the starting gravity instead of just a guess. It also has mostly finished fermenting way quicker than the other meads, which took about 6 weeks, though it's stull bubbling a little bit. The starting gravity was 1.120 and it's currently 1.014, putting it at about 14.5% ABV. This pretty much rules out yeast as being the problem with the other meads stopping around 12%. It must have to do with the types/ratios of sugars, or some other factors. It would seem that this yeast "likes" maple syrup.

I gave it a taste while racking it, and it's got a nice maple flavor which I think the vanilla rounds out well. If it actually ferments completely dry I'll probably back-sweeten it with some more syrup which will bring the maple flavor forward even more. We'll see.

#homebrewing #fermentation #wine #mead #acerglyn #maple #maplesyrup