Daybreaker

Retrospective

Process Improvement

• I messed up some of my planning calculations pretty badly to be honest, and I'm surprised that when I sorted them out I was only off my actual target by about 7 points (originally intended to hit 1.140 OG on this). I'm a little new to using fruit and trying to account for both the sugars and the water they add. Juice and puree both have the major advantage of being completely mixable into the must in advance, allowing you to accurately measure their impact on the must. But for fruit, the impact must be calculated, since the water and sugars they contain won't all get out into the must at once.

• I may also need to be more flexible, and not be afraid to push brews back a few days if I unexpectedly have to change plans (such as when Costco runs out of the berry blend you actually wanted to pick up). I tried to adjust on the fly too quickly and I think I made some mistakes that could've been avoided if I'd waited and chewed over my plans longer.

Recipe Improvements

• This is pretty hot right now, but I think that's just the lack of age. After finishing at nearly 15% ABV, I wouldn't expect a mead to come in young after just a couple months. And aside from the heat, I quite like the flavor profile so far!

• It mostly tastes like peaches, so it's potentially a cheap way to do a "peach" mead, but not great if you were hoping for the multiple fruits in this frozen bag blend to come through.

• It's unlikely this will receive further updates for a while, as I expect it will taste much better after it has been given a year or so to calm down.

Tasting Notes

02/02/2021

This is the first tasting since bottling this mead back in September. Personally, I'm still getting overwhelmingly peach in both the nose and the palate. The young alcohol burn is beginning to fade, but totally still present. I believe my original estimation that it would start to shine after about a year was probably accurate, given how much smoother it has become in the last ~4 months or so.

If I were to make this again, based on this tasting, I would want to bring the honey more forward. Perhaps a slightly lower OG, and then backsweetening a little bit, so that some of the honey flavor would be unfermented.

The wife says it smells exactly like a strawberry Nutrigrain bar. The roommate agreed, and also says the peach vanishes and turns into pineapple as soon as she swallows. With the pineapple pointed out to me, I think I can detect small traces of it here and there, making the mead feel slightly tropical. Perhaps QA23 could be used next time? If memory serves, it brings out tropical aromas.