Cracking open a couple . . .

Okay, so it was more of a gently releasing with the corkscrew, but you get the idea. :) I made the executive decision to open up two of my reserved bottles yesterday for Thanksgiving dinner. One was my last bottle of my original batch of JAO, and the second was my last bottle of Cranberry melomel (my second batch of mead). I can only say one thing:

Wow.

I mean, Wow.
I mean . . .did I mention, Wow?

My dad liked it.  I mean he really liked it.  And I could say, well, the stuff you had before was prolly bad commercial stuff, whereas homebrew is GOOD.  Especially the JAO.  OMG.  I almost feel like squirrelling away the bottles I just bottled for another year to let other people enjoy them tasting like that!  I am so glad I have enough now that I can tuck a few bottles away to age nicely.  Maybe as long as five years.

As far as how it tasted (other than WOW): The JAO smelled pleasant, has some nice legs, and the taste?  Well, it is just what my mind comes up with when I say "honeywine".  A perfect fusion of the sweet honey and the burn of alcohol.  Although the burn had largely aged out until it was just the pleasant warmth of alcohol.  Words cannot describe it accurately.  I shall wait longer to drink my brews.  This is just over a year old and has proven to me the worth of aging.

The Cranberry is not as good (my mom thought it was the better one, though, so this is just personal taste), but still wonderful.  It has a beautiful red color, and tastes a little crisp still, like a cranberry.  It doesn't taste like cranberry juice at all, though.  More like wine, definitely, it just has the "crispness" (not quite tart, but close) of a cranberry.  I am very glad I have a couple of bags of cranberries in the freezer and several pounds of honey in the alcohol closet.  I will be making more of this.

Oh, but they were both good.