Korean Yuzu Mead - Started

My first rain water mead!

  • 1kg Korean Honey-Yuzu Marmalade (Some added sugar unfortunately)
  • 600g Canadian Alfalfa Clover Honey 
  • 3L Processed Rain Water 
  • Baker's Yeast

My IG was 1.110 at 24.5 C. I plan to filter out the marmalade chunks in secondary, and add some fresh lemon and ginger.

 

Jos Louis Ice Cream

I'm hoping to do a few ice cream flavors in the near future centered around snack cakes. This was definitely a good first attempt but could still use some refinement. I started by making a fairly standard ice cream base. Unless I'm going for a custard like flavor, I tend not to use eggs. This was 1 L of table/coffee cream (17% butterfat) brought to just under a simmer, before pouring it over a half cup of corn syrup and a full cup of white sugar. Since this is an experimental recipe I was tasting and adjusting as I went, I did my best to record measurements but some of the units and measurements are a bit inconsistence. For example, I added probably 3 to 4 tablespoons of Dutch processed cocoa powder to achieve a desired pale chocolate color and flavor. Although next time I actually would have preferred regular cocoa powder for a more brick red color.

I then left this mixture cool in the fridge overnight. To not overfill my ice cream machine, I measured 1 L of this mixture with a little left over to stay in the fridge. I broke apart and vigorously mixed in one double-decker Jos Louis directly into the liquid base. It was returned to the fridge while three more Jos Louis cakes were cut up and put in the freezer. Once the cake pieces were slightly chilled, some milk chocolate was melted in the microwave with a drizzle of vegetable oil. Each chunk was coated and returned to a cooling rack to drain the excess chocolate, before everything was returned to the freezer. The point of adding the extra layer to the cake pieces is to prevent them from completely dissolving when being incorporated into the ice cream. Finally one cup of heavy whipping cream was mixed to stiff peaks with roughly a tablespoon of white sugar.

For the final assembly, the liquid ice cream base was churned in a machine for about 20 minutes before adding roughly half of the chocolate covered cake chunks. Once at a soft serve consistency the ice cream was poured into a dish, but with a layer of whipped cream between two layers of the flavored ice cream. This was to give the whole ice cream the look of a layered cake. Once it had frozen overnight it could be served. The flavor was quite good but could still use some adjustments. The whipped cream layer froze quite solid so definitely needs more sugar and/or corn syrup in the future. Overall though I would call this a success.

Egg Coffee Mead

For this coffee mead  I wanted to compare a medium and dark roast that I had on hand.

I started by measuring 8g of each coffee to proceed with a miniature assessment. I did a relatively coarse grind while preparing some boiling filtered water. The coffee grounds were steeped for about five minutes before smelling and tasting. Ultimately this was probably over complicated and I decided on a combination to balance the taste and aroma that I thought would pair best with honey.

For the full batch I measured 75g of each coffee. I did a slightly finer grind, although next time I would probably go even finer. For the infusion I'm using the Scandinavian technique of egg coffee. I ended up combining the grounds with a total of six eggs, this will clarify and mellow the resulting coffee. The mixture was combined with 3L of room temperature distilled water before being put on maximum heat. Once it reached boiling it was left for 10 minutes before turning the heat off and cooling with a splash of additional water. The egg coffee was filtered and topped off with some additional distilled water to reach a total of 3L again. It did end up being very mild but I think it will be a nice amount of coffee flavor for the mead, although I may attempt to make future batches slightly stronger.

After cooling in the fridge overnight I brought a small amount of coffee to a boil. This was to dissolve the  900g of honey. Once that had dissolved and cooled down I added it to the remaining coffee, and pitched the yeast.