Traditional (weirdomel) part 3

Well the batch seems to have stopped bubbling, but without checking the gravity, I don't know whether it's still fermenting or not.

I have no idea about what this might come out tasting like, because unlike "Insomniac" over at Homebrewtalk, (he's the chap who located the honey in the first place and I went to the local branch of the same store and found it too), he made his batch up sooner than I did.

I just hope it doesn't taste too dusty/earthy, like the batch I made with "Italian Chestnut Honey". Which wasn't bad as just honey, but once it had been fermented there was a definite dusty/earthy taste to it - probably ok to use as part of a multi-honey batch, for a hint of the taste but not as a 100% batch.

I'll have to report back on how it's doing, because if the ferment has stopped, it will need to be racked off the lees, but at the moment it can stay where it is, with a nice protective layer of CO2 in the bucket.

I'm hoping that all the aeration I did and the staggered nutrient additions, it will have got to somewhere near the 16% ABV mark otherwise it might be too sweet - and if that is the case I'll probably just end up fortifying it with a brandy or whisky, then leaving it too age. I've still got half a jar of the original honey that was intended for back sweetening, but due to my cock up with the initial mixing of the must and it's high gravity (and wrong yeast......) I probably don't need to back sweeten - though hey!, many have reported yeasts exceeding their published alcohol tolerances. Which is fair enough, and entirely possible, given that the published data is for grape musts, which ferment differently and don't usually need much, if any, in the way of nutrition, unless the yeast is a "high maintenance" one that is prone to going stinky with out proper support.

We'll have to see eh !