Beorn's Maple Cyser Mead

urbanmyth · 12-10-2011, 06:32 AM

Tomorrow is mead day! I am trying out my first mead recipe, which is of my own creation, with knowledge gathered from here and other places on the interwebs. Take what I have to offer with a grain of salt, as it will probably end up tasting like goat piss.

Ingredients
1 Bottle of Homebrew
2# Pure Wisconsin Honey
1.5 Cups Pure Wisconsin Maple Syrup
2 Earl Grey tea bags steeped in
1.5 Cups Water
Enough Musselman's Apple Cider to 1 gallon
1/2 tsp Yeast Nutrient
1/2 tsp Pectin Enzyme (Cider is unfiltered and rather cloudy)
1 vial White Labs Sweet Mead/Wine Yeast

Procedure
Open 1 bottle of Homebrew, enjoy.
Boil 1.5 cups water in microwave, remove and add tea bags to steep.
Heat honey and syrup only until pourable.
Pour honey and syrup into sanitized growler.
Add Yeast Nutrient and Pectin Enzyme to growler.
Pour concentrated tea solution into growler.
Pour cider up to one gallon.
Shake the bejeezus out of growler to properly mix and aerate.
Pitch yeast.
Once again shake the bejeezus out of growler.
Attach blow off tube and place in basement (~63* at this time of year)
Finish Homebrew.

That's all I can think of for now. Any input before tomorrow after noon is greatly appreciated, as I am an utter novice at this whole mead thing.

Mead Calculator says this should be around 1.130 OG, which gives a potential of around 16.5%. Not too sure it will make it that far, as the yeast is only rated to 15%. This should leave me with a medium-sweet mead. I am still toying with the idea of adding apples once in the growler.

**fatbloke** · 12-10-2011, 08:05 AM

Ok, so two points jumped straight to mind.

1. Don't heat the honey and other fermentables, just blitz it with room temp water in a food processor.

2. Use 71B instead, as you're using/making a cyser and the 71B helps as it metabolises some of the malic acid.

The yeast that you've mentioned as "only rated to 15%" is no indication of it's flavour profile, which would be hard to come by as even with all the data that Lalvin produce for their yeasts, the info is for grape wines, not meads. White Labs don't seem to produce as much data, so any "guesstimate" is gonna be sketchy.

I'd just mix the must up (as mentioned above) and then hit it with the pectic enzyme for a couple of days.

Plus, I'd be thinking of using the "Gotmead NewBee techniques" in respect of SNA etc (if you don't have or can't get GoFerm, then just rehydrating the yeast with water and then pitching it and letting it do it's thing until the lag phase is over).

urbanmyth · 12-11-2011, 05:13 AM

Okay, I forwent the heating of the fermentables in favor of blending with lukewarm water. Do not have access to any Lalvin yeasts around me (weird, I know, but the nearest HBS doesn't carry it). The OG was spot on at 1.030, so I funneled all in a 1 gallon growler and attached a blow off tube. Just waiting now for my first signs of fermentation (probably will wake up to a full blow tube).

Thanks for the suggestions, and I will be sure to try 71B next mead I brew!

**fatbloke** · 12-11-2011, 08:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by urbanmyth

Okay, I forwent the heating of the fermentables in favor of blending with lukewarm water. Do not have access to any Lalvin yeasts around me (weird, I know, but the nearest HBS doesn't carry it). The OG was spot on at 1.030, so I funneled all in a 1 gallon growler and attached a blow off tube. Just waiting now for my first signs of fermentation (probably will wake up to a full blow tube).

Thanks for the suggestions, and I will be sure to try 71B next mead I brew!

Are you sure that 1.030 is correct ? as that's very low and would make for a low alcohol dry mead.......

urbanmyth · 12-11-2011, 01:19 PM

1.130*

**fatbloke** · 12-11-2011, 06:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by urbanmyth

1.130*

Ah, that's sounding more like it........

Well, I'm thinking that you should read the gotmead newbie guide then, for any ferment management techniques you need.

A drop of 100 points of gravity is (from memory) about 13.5% ABV, so correct management should drop it further, possibly even to the 15% tolerance and still leave some residual sweetness.

You just have to keep it aerated, at least once a day, especially during the first few days so you don't end up with any eruptions of foam....

urbanmyth · 12-12-2011, 05:16 AM

I have been going down and shaking it every few hours. No real strong activity yet, but each time I shake it, I have to rush to put the blow tube back on so it can vent foam safely. Should be chugging along nicely by morning.

urbanmyth · 12-21-2011, 04:45 AM

After ten days this is chugging away and shows no sign of stopping soon. Still very cloudy. Blow off tube replaced with airlock. Smells great!

urbanmyth · 02-11-2012, 04:22 PM

After two months, this has dropped from 1.130 to 1.034, and I can still see bubbles developing and traveling up the sides of the jug. The hydrometer samples taste awesome. If the finished mead has the same blend of apple, maple and honey flavors, I will be a very happy man.

Atek · 02-11-2012, 06:10 PM

Sweet! Keep us updated on your progress :-)