#Cyser

[thewelllitweenie]

Say hello to my spooky Halloween cider made with apples scrumped on Halloween from a local old as hell graveyard that hasn't had a burial in a couple hundred years. Their apples are real nice and sweet. It's been fermenting since then and is now conditioning with a butt load of extra honey. Give it a couple more months and this should drink super dangerously.

[rylielthefae]

I have used alchemy to make some Christmas gifts

[bakedbakermom]

started another mead last night, which will probably be the last one for a while as i now have 3 gallons going... which is a LOT. for me anyway.

this one is a cyser - a mead made with juice or cider instead of water. used fresh pressed apple cider from a local farm, and added 3lbs of roasted sugar pumpkin from my garden. honey is a wildflower variety from another local farm.

looks like a swamp but smells amazing.

once primary is finished i will flavor it with pumpkin spices (cinnamon ginger nutmeg clove) in secondary until it tastes right, and possibly backsweeten with brown sugar for a more robust fall flavor.

my absolute favorite part of this whole process is when i pitch the yeast in the evening and then come down in the morning to find it bubbling away. it's aliiiiiive!

[clatterbane]

And, my next little project in line: trying a little different approach to some easy ginger cyser, using cheapo apple juice from concentrate and some of that basic wildflower honey.

I picked up that different Croatian brand of ginger and lemongrass tea a while back, and it's pretty good. Not much lemongrass aroma, but the ginger is nice. So, it seemed worthwhile to try brewing some strong tea and reconstituting the juice with that. Add some honey for the extra flavor and sugars. I can ramp up the ginger flavor later on if it needs it.

This is another quick batch that I'm mostly throwing in to reuse the yeast cake from the last cider-adjacent batch that got bottled this afternoon. Saves having to wash that jug right now, too.

[joyandella-123]

The Best Unknown Mead of New England: HoneyBound Meadery's Award-Winning Creations

In the heart of New England, a hidden gem is gaining recognition and accolades among aficionados of mead, a beverage with a rich history that dates back thousands of years. HoneyBound Meadery, a name you might not have heard of yet, has been crafting exceptional meads since 2020, and their creations have been turning heads and earning prestigious awards on both local and international stages.

A Medley of Excellence: HoneyBound Meadery's Impressive Accolades

HoneyBound Meadery takes pride in its dedication to crafting distinct mead varieties that stand out in both flavor and quality. Their commitment to excellence has not gone unnoticed, as evidenced by the remarkable collection of awards they've garnered since their inception.

Since 2020, HoneyBound Meadery's meads have collectively earned a staggering total of twenty medals from various competitions. These accolades span across Local, National, and International contests, cementing their reputation as a rising star in the world of mead-making.

The Crown Jewel: Red Bamboo Mead

One standout from HoneyBound Meadery's impressive portfolio is the Red Bamboo mead. This exquisite creation has achieved the remarkable feat of securing four Gold Medals and one Silver Medal at the prestigious Mazer Cup International, one of the most esteemed competitions in the mead industry. Such recognition is a testament to the exceptional craftsmanship that goes into every bottle of Red Bamboo.

But the journey doesn't end there for Red Bamboo. At the 2023 edition of The Big E Fair in Springfield, Massachusetts, this mead earned the coveted title of "Best Mead in Massachusetts." This accolade further solidifies its status as a hidden treasure of New England's mead scene.

Knot Your Average Plum: A Gold-Silver Marvel

Another jewel in the crown of HoneyBound Meadery is their Knot Your Average Plum mead. This delightful concoction has notched both Gold and Silver recognitions at the esteemed Mazer Cup International competition. Its harmonious blend of flavors and quality craftsmanship make it a must-try for any mead enthusiast.

An Array of Award-Winning Meads

HoneyBound Meadery's commitment to excellence doesn't stop at Red Bamboo and Knot Your Average Plum. They proudly offer a range of other medal-winning meads, each with its own unique character and flavor profile. These include Cyser, Honey and Spice, Blueberry X2, and Rip Currant, all crafted with the same dedication to quality and innovation.

Explore Excellence: Discover HoneyBound Meadery's Meads

Now is the perfect time to discover the exceptional craftsmanship and award-winning flavors of HoneyBound Meadery's meads. Their dedication to quality and innovation in mead-making shines through in every sip. Explore their product category to embark on a journey of flavor and tradition, with each bottle of mead reflecting their unwavering commitment to excellence.

As the best unknown mead of New England, HoneyBound Meadery is destined to become a cherished name among mead enthusiasts. Experience the taste of excellence and be part of their remarkable journey in redefining the world of mead, one award-winning bottle at a time. Cheers to the hidden treasures of New England!

 Honeybound Meadery invites you to come try our award winning Meads. Try our mead chilled, warmed or room temperature. Enjoy our mead as a standalone or create your favorite drink recipe (which will be required to be shared with us). Take the Honeybound adventure to make our own history!

[thistavernservesmead]

Decided to rack it first and give it another week.

The blueberry melomel (that's been sitting for about 2 months) is fairly clear and very tasty. Bottling this this week.

The apple cyser (that has been sitting for 6 months, cracked my 6 gallon carboy from thermal shock-I thought it was cooler than it was, and has been a general headache) is cloudy as the day it started and tastes mostly of yeast :/

I think I'll focus on some metheglins next. Forever chasing a good Nordic blend homebrew

So... War of the Wings approaches. Guess it's time to bottle that mead I've left sitting. It never really cleared like I hoped it would, but hopefully it's tasty

[dcviated]

mun meme

𝐆𝐄𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐔𝐍!

★  NAME:  Bear/Will

★  PRONOUNS:  hee/hoo him

★  BEST EXPERIENCE: I think you can get a variety of experiences at a variety of places and each of them will be 'good' or 'cool' in some way. Most of my writing at this point is related to stuff I've done in tumblr, but I don't resent or detest the platforms I used of yore. Avatar games were cool. Discord/IM isn't the worst thing. But I think the best part of writing here is the shared experience for those invested? Easier to see things go down? 

★  PREFERENCE OF COMMUNICATION: Discord, easily. I mean I'm definitely reachable on tumblr IM but once we start getting into plotting I'd really rather move to something... functional. Searchable! And palatable. Tumblr IM is none of these things... it just kinda(kinda) works. So y'know.

Now that said, with the communication... I don't need a ton? You don't have to message me every day? I know I sure as hell don't message everyone everyday... I'm more of a reactive sort. Once you hit me up I'll chat away. But I can be silent for days or weeks on end otherwise. Trying to fix that...

★  MOST ACTIVE MUSE: Wylan is always able to come out and shitpost a little bit here and there. But writing his long posts can actually be a little more taxing. I'd say... Raguna and Eira are definitely the ones buzzing around more? I did a whole variety of drafts today, if you noticed. That said my roster isn't exactly the largest. And most of my public muses aren't the hardest to start a fire under outside of say... Armstrong. He's usually my weakest muse.

★  EXPERIENCE / HOW MANY YEARS: I first got into RP as a result of an ex, but I spring boarded from there into way more things than I started with. I'd say my first writing came about... 2005 or 2006? Hard to pinpoint exactly. So yeah it's been a good 18 years at this point. That said, I was on a huge writing sabbatical between 2009 and 2015, so I can't technically count it all. 2009 is when I dropped WoW (and writing in there) and 2015 is when I gave tumblr rp a shot out of a need to do more creative writing. 😩

★  RP PET PEEVES:  

So here's a few ... I'm grumpy. And specific with my hobby time.

Not meeting halfway with plotting. I get it, sometimes ideas are hard to come by. But if you're coming to someone wanting interactions you can't treat your RP partner like a vending machine rolling out thing after thing for you to clap over. It's important to share the burden (as plotting can sometimes be) and provide some insight. The best plots are a back and forth of "yes, and-" or "no, but-".

Sub-point to this one, but I think most of the onus does fall on you if you're dropping threads to kick off ideas for new ones. Even after a hiatus! It's what I've been doing!

Excessive commentary blogging. Before it was just a lot of dash commentary that had me going 'eh'. But in recent years it's gone past that. I've become disenchanted with blogs that become largely commentary for whatever it is they're doing on discord. All power to those discord groups doing what they do! But it reaches a point for me that I don't really see them as indie, and it can feel insurmountable trying to interact with them if you're not entangled with their zig-zagging plotlines.

And of course~!!!

Blog hoppers. Because for a slow burner and long hauler like myself, they're the most impossible people to write with! Which is a shame, because a lot of the hoppers I come across do seem to have some writing talent to them!!!

★   PLOTS OR MEMES: I.... really don't mind either at this point! It swells my soul when people approach me for plotting or interactions to begin with. I sometimes lament how flexible I can be because it makes getting some things off the ground difficult, but that's beyond inspiring to get something going that someone else made the effort. Just... as long as they keep it going past the greetings. :') See pet peeve point 1.

But anyone wanting to randomly jump into my inbox? More than welcome too!

★  ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSE(S)?: I put a little bit of myself in all of my muses, and find some traits to relate to in all the canons I've added to my roster. But at this point most of the character writing I do comes from some degree of misdirection of my emotion or mindset. Wylan has a lot of my humor, is about all I can really pin down now for my OCs... I may have planted the seeds with facets of my personality but at this point they've all grown far past all that.

tagged by: @more-than-a-princess the old guard need to stick together!!! thanks for the tag <: tagging: @seawrought @darksails @pastballads @mielmoto @psychcdelica and whoever else or nobody whatever!

[nihilisticlinguistics]

home brewing shreds. it fucks. it rips. it knocks your socks off. can i eat the applesauce that happened in this mead or will i die

[maniculum]

Meadmaking

Hey all, Zoe here - the other half of this blog, and I decided to try my hand at posting - particularly my little mead-making project. Even though Mac is the medieval drinks expert, I just like mead as a drink and I feel like a potion-brewing witch when I make it. Beer was the more popular drink during the middle ages, as it was cheaper and more widely available, but I think it's nasty and who doesn't want to feel like Early English royalty?

As I dug into mead-making, I fell into a SUPER deep medieval-mead-making rabbit hole. I'm not a mead expert, and I'd highly recommend Susan Varberg's blog, Medieval Mead & Beer, for a very, very in-depth look at how to make medieval mead. HOWEVER, all that said, I did collect some research and played with it myself. Plus, I made some of my own recipes.

So. Mead. What is it? Fermented honey water, in its most basic form. Honey-wine, it can be called to those who aren't familiar. There's a lot of other names mead has when it's mixed with other things:

Mead – water, honey and yeast

Sack Mead – mead made with extra honey

Short Mead – low honey and low alcohol yeast to be drunk quickly

Hydromel – watered down mead (in period, another word for mead)

Braggot – (period) ale refermented with honey; (modern) malted mead

Melomel – mead made with fruit

Mulsum – mead made with fruit

Cyser – mead made with apples

Metheglin – mead with spices

Pyment, Clar – mead made with grape juice

Hippocras – spiced wine, sweetened (but not fermented) with honey

Botchet — caramelized honey mead

Really, though, when you see it on the shelf, a pumpkin melomel will be marketed as "Pumpkin Mead," so really only the brewmasters get into the weeds on the names. I was really curious as to how the ingredients were sourced in the middle ages - nowadays, brewers get really into where they source their ingredients (there's a bazillion different yeasts you can use!), but after doing some research, turns out the medievals were too!

Honey.

The medievals categorized honey in different ways. The best quality honey was called "life honey" and was the honey that dripped freely from the wax when pierced. Grades of honey diminished as the honey became harder to get out of the hive. The dregs of honey (collected by heating the frame in water to blend the honey but not melt the wax) was given to servants and was not preferred. Honey was also categorized by location - Egyptian honeys were very popular and expensive. Honey from different regions in Spain were considered of different quality - one merchant got particularly fussy when one of his batches was "spoiled" by mixing honey from a better region with that from a worse region. Finally, honey was categorized by flower type. One monetary requested honey made only from lavender. Since hives were highly mobile frames or skeps, it would have been possible for apiarists to move their hives to lavender fields.

Water.

Water is, well, water. Right? Not quite. Medieval recipes do specify using fine, spring water. The water and honey were often boiled together - likely to kill bacteria. However, the wording on "boille" is not super clear. Mead-masters knew that honey shouldn't be boiled (it kills natural yeast), so whether or not the must (the water/honey mix) was boiled in the modern sense or just warmed is unclear. Perhaps the need for "fine, spring, fresh water."

Yeast.

While modern brewers and vintners have a wide variety of yeasts to choose from, medieval brewmasters didn't have as many options. There were a few different options, however. Baking yeast (like a sourdough starter) was one option, while other recipes call for the leftover lees of wine/mead batches. Hops were also used. Of course, yeast is also naturally occurring, so brewers could fairly reliably rely on the natural yeast to kick-start itself.

I'll dump my own mead pics here and then get into the details of a Middle English mead recipe in part two, I guess. I'll talk a bit about the mead-making process, too. Mead is made by mixing honey and water into a must. Then, yeast is added. Modern mead-makers also add yeast nutrients and other additions to ensure their batch doesn't get infected.

A newly made bottle of mead. Notice the cloudy colour characteristic of new mead. As the yeast eats the sugars, they'll create a bottom layer of debris and the mead will clear, as seen below.

After the primary fermentation has occurred (you can tell when the bubbles of gas, telling you the yeast is eating, have stopped), mead-makers will re-reack their mead. This involves moving it from one jug to the next.

At this point, the mead can be put into a closet and age for a while. The best meads have high clarity - that is, they're clear! The example below is only about 2 months old. It has a way to go, but has good clarity already. Notably, the sagas state that the best, oldest, clearest meads were served to Odin and the gods.

Anyway - that's the basics of mead-making. I'll make a part two about older recipes! Sources:

Beekeeping in late medieval Europe: A survey of its ecological settings and social impacts. Llu.s SALES I FAVÀ, Alexandra SAPOZNIK y Mark WHELAN

Trade, taste and ecology: honey in late medieval Europe. Alexandra Sapoznik, Lluís Sales i Favà & Mark Whelan

Of Boyling and Seething: A re-evaluation of these common cooking terms in connection with brewing. Susan Verberg.

[thewelllitweenie]

Find horrible stinky ferments you both enjoy.

[sockeye-run]

I'm sure I've mentioned it before but I've been getting into mead making! It's simple and fun and helps me practice patience and long term time management lol. Plus it allows for so much creativity and is flexible with mistakes.

Anyway last night I bottled my second mead ever and started a third. My first ever batch was a basic hydromel, just orange blossom honey, water, and yeast. I used a beginners kit. Since then, I've bought more advanced tools and ingredients and have done more multimedia research. I made my second mead, a honeycrisp apple cyser, with fresh pressed apple juice. I bottled it yesterday and shared some of it with my DND group and they loved both batches so far! It's been so fun to share and experiment with.

I'm splitting all my batches in half, and aging half of them for six months to see how they change. One bottle of each is the control, unchanged from initial fermentation. The remaining bottles are back-sweetened with honey and water for a sweeter finish. I'm excited to see what happens!

Yesterday I made a stonefruit mead with peaches, plums, and dried apricots. I read that peach flavor gets lost in fermentation and that dried apricots have a peachy flavor and are a good support. I want to give this one a 'you are my peach, you are my plum's type name lol. I overfilled the carboy a bit, but I don't really mind. It's another lived experience in the process of learning. This morning the plug and airlock were forced out by the built up gases and it had leaked, but thankfully I've always been storing the meads in a large plastic storage bin on the floor for just this occasion. I cleaned it up and installed a larger air lock, and asked my husband to babysit it while I'm at work lol. The initial gravity reading was off the charts lol, so I expect this to be a strong one!

I don't know what I'm planning to do with all my meads and experiences from this point, if I'm just enjoying a hobby or trying to monetize it or what. But it's a good thing for now. 💙

[ourebottarchive]

Welcome to Our Ebott Archive!

@jaxxwrites4you & @justsamwich here! Together we've created 40 undertale aus, and as we've continued to develop them we decided they deserved their own blog to call home. Our Ebott Archive will be the central hub for all of our writings and artworks surrounding these AUs- and our askbox is always open! So feel free to ask away! Now then, it's about time we go ahead and tell you what all of these AUs are! Some of these are our own takes on pre-existing AUs (as well as our own take on the canon characters that we're including, lol) and some are all us from the ground up! Along with the AUs are names for each of the skeletons; since much of the UTAU fandom space is centralized around them, we named them separately to avoid any confusion.

Classics

Undertale - UT

Sans & Papyrus

Underfell - UF

Grunge & Baroque

Underswap - US

Ginger & Clove

Underswapfell - USF

Hickory & Mulberry

Mafia

Mafiatale - MT

Smoke & Mac

Mafiafell - MF

Whiskey & Saint

Mafiaswap - MS

Romeo & Lucky

Mafiaswapfell - MSF

Corona & Amaretto

Western

Westerntale - WT

Doc & Ranger

Westernfell - WF

Rusty & Diablo

Westernswap - WS

Ace & Rodeo

Westernswapfell - WSF

Maverick & Belvidere

Pirate

Piratetale - PT

Atlas & Cardinal

Piratefell - PF

Buck & Leviathan

Pirateswap - PS

Cutlass & Crow

Pirateswapfell - PSF

Nautilus & Zephyr

Circus

Circustale - CT

Stilts & Sabre

Circusfell - CF

Locke & Flint

Circusswap - CS

Tumble & Firefly

Circusswapfell - CSF

Ringer & Shill

Medieval

Medievaltale - MDT

Cassian & Chevalier

Medievalfell - MDF

Steele & Bastion

Medievalswap - MDS

Fennel & Shroud

Medievalswapfell - MDSF

Alm & Fletcher

Pantheon

Pantheontale - PNT

Quill & Halo

Pantheonfell - PNF

Clash & Nocturne

Pantheonswap - PNS

Concord & Cyser

Pantheonswapfell - PNSF

Puck & Nimbus

Outer

Outertale - OT

Comet & Nova

Outerfell - OF

Crux & Phoenix

Outerswap - OS

Altair & Astrophel

Outerswapfell - OSF

Orion & Vega

Steampunk

Steampunktale - ST

Flask & Rivet

Steampunkfell - SF

Arc & Spindle

Steampunkswap - SS

Cadet & Aether

Steampunkswapfell - SSF

Fuse & Meridian

Cyberpunk

Cyberpunktale - CPT

Latch & Wire

Cyberpunkfell - CPF

Diesel & Rogue

Cyberpunkswap - CPS

Zero & Chrome

Cyberpunkswapfell - CPSF

Blade & Trigger

-J & S

[dykefruit]

I finally tasted one of my first cysers (an apple and honey wine) after waiting like 2 years and I think 15% abv was a bit much with the other flavors being so subtle, and I probably need to adjust the acid balance for future brews but overall it turned out well! Now to wait for the sparkling hard cider…

[thewelllitweenie]

Pfft I'm making cyser with apples from ancient graveyard. Mine isn't even cursed.

[clatterbane]

Next grocery store Frankencider batch coming up!

(Vitamin D drops not included. I've just been keeping the bottle where I can see it, so I can hopefully remember to take them.)

That nectarine apple looked promising, so. I thought I would try it out in an easy cider-adjacent drink like I've been doing with most of the fruity drinks like that. I thought at first that this might just be apple juice flavored with nectarine, but it's got lower juice content plus some apple extract too. Another one that's mostly water and sugar.

Only, this time the other fruity stuff is not a concentrate to add into a base of apple juice, so I am basically trying the reverse approach and using concentrated apple juice to bring up the sugar content and flavor in the nectarine base. Also planning to use a little honey for the extra yeast fuel and flavor. Only aiming for around 8% ABV, so it shouldn't take very much honey as these things go.

The bit of brewed tea should double for adding a little tannins as usual, but also as a handy place to dissolve the honey in the hot liquid.

Also halfway planning to bottle carbonate this one when it's done. It's hard to go too wrong with sparkling Frankencider.

[joyandella-123]

Award Winning Mead in New England

Mead, an alcoholic drink crafted by fermenting a mixture of honey and water using yeast, boasts a long and storied history that stretches back to ancient civilizations. It is often regarded as the precursor to all other alcoholic beverages and held a special place in the hearts of various cultures. In ancient times, it was believed that partaking in mead would bestow upon individuals qualities such as health, virility, wisdom, immortality, and wit. Additionally, the tradition of giving a newlywed couple a supply of mead equivalent to one full moon's duration, known as the "Honeymoon," aimed to bless their marriage with good fortune.

In contemporary times, there exists a widespread interest in sourcing beverages from small, local brewers who utilize fresh, locally-sourced ingredients. Our approach to crafting mead aligns with this ethos. As dedicated beekeepers, Honeybound Meadery have the privilege of accessing exceptionally unique and captivating honey varieties, which imbue our meads with distinctive flavors and characteristics. Honeybound Meadery’s meticulous process involves the thoughtful selection of the most captivating honey, skillfully paired with complementary yeast strains. They then create an optimal fermentation environment, utilizing precise temperature control and modern techniques, resulting in a mead that promises enjoyment for all.

Starting in the year 2020, HoneyBound Meadery has taken great pride in the creation of ten unique mead varieties, amassing an impressive total of twenty medals from a diverse range of Local, National, and International competitions. One particularly notable achievement is our Red Bamboo mead, which has secured an impressive collection of 4 Gold Medals and a Silver Medal at the prestigious Mazer Cup International. Adding to the excitement, Red Bamboo was recently bestowed with the coveted title of "Best Mead in Massachusetts" at the 2023 edition of The Big E Fair in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Among the standout selections in Honeybound Meadery’s lineup, Knot your Average Plum has also garnered both Gold and Silver accolades at Mazer Cup International. Their unwavering commitment to achieving excellence extends to our other award-winning meads, which include Cyser, Honey and Spice, Blueberry X2, and Rip Currant.

Meads can be fermented with fruits, cider, and spices to name just a few options. The combinations are endless. Satisfying your palate is Honeybound Meadery’s goal. Honeybound Meadery invites you to come try their award winning Meads. Try their mead chilled, warmed or room temperature. Enjoy Honeybound Meadery’s mead as a standalone or create your favorite drink recipe (which will be required to be shared with us). Take the Honeybound adventure to make our own history!