Beer money and mead...

I'm still holding the line in my financial and mental tug-o-war. No new purchases. Not on Friday. Not even last night during the Phillies game. I've passed up invitations to more than one outing. Its been tough. As my daughter says. "Yay me!"

I am running low on beer though. I have a chile pepper beer in my basement fridge, but, I don't think I'm goin after that one.

By the way we tasted our one gallon batch of Joe's Ancient Orange Cinnamon Clove mead last night. It was much better than I expected. It was also sweet and somewhat harsh. Some harsh hot alcohol and lots of orange and spices. I can't quite figure out what would improve this one yet. Maybe less clove or less orange peel. Of course much of that harshness could be from the yeast. So, has this inspired me to make more mead? Not sure. The yeast seems to be the sticking point. If I change it from the bread yeast, it will take longer to make.

So for the record it was surprisingly good due to the spices and sweetness. I probably wouldn't want to make the same exact recipe. Too sweet to cover up the harshness.