Another varietal batch with honey brought back from our spring road trip through the South, this one from Atlanta. Like batch 202, its name comes from some of my favorite lyrics in a Jane Austen Argument song, When the End of the World Came.

When the end of the world came, it passed like an awkward remark.
No light for believers, no scientists left in the dark.
No-one proved right, and no-one was wrong.
We weren’t left alone, and we didn’t belong.
When the end of the world came, it passed like an awkward remark.

Same confession as for batch 201: The Wyeast mead and cider yeast I used in batches 201, 202, and 203 was a full 3 years out of date, which means we must have moved it across the country from California with us. We just never got around to using it. It took a bit longer than usual to get started, but it wound up fermenting like a champ after a couple of days. If that's not a seal of quality, I don't know what is.

Ingredients in this batch

  • 35.5 oz palmetto honey from Sweetwater Creek Honey Farm in Winston, GA
  • 3/8 tsp Fermaid K
  • 3/8 tsp Fermaid O
  • 1/3 batch of catastrophically expired (see above) Wyeast 4632 dry mead and cider yeast, reactivated with the included smack pack and left to come to room temp

Process

Tossed everything in a carboy, agitated, and pitched. SG was once again around 1.076. All three of these batches had a longer-than-normal lag period, but all began fermenting after 2-3 days and were still going a week and a half later.

I bottled this batch on 8/15. I didn't take a final gravity reading; all of these batches are around 12% to 13%. This batch is pleasant but not terribly distinct so far.