Blueberry Mead Atempt

**muse435** · 08-09-2011, 05:37 AM

I was going to make a pyment, but then I realized SWMBO loves blueberries. I have half a gallon of blueberry juice in the cupboard and though why not make blueberry mead in stead. Will this recipe work/taste good?

1 gal batch
1/2 gal Blueberry juice (no preservatives)
2 lbs honey
Lalvin D-47
yeast nutrient
yeast energizer
Use water to fill to 1 gal

I have my first two batches of mead in the primary so I only know what i have read/heard about making mead. I have only found recipes using blueberries not the juice.

ExoticMeadMaker · 08-09-2011, 06:03 AM

sounds light on the honey, what was your OG?

ExoticMeadMaker · 08-09-2011, 06:12 AM

^disregard
just re-read your recipe and seen it was half juice.. Sounds like it will be good

**muse435** · 08-09-2011, 06:19 AM

I was told that the D-47 would give me a semi sweet mead, but that was based on honey alone. Will it leave any notes of blueberry or will all of the blueberry be fermented out?

**huesmann** · 08-09-2011, 12:42 PM

Is it 100% blueberry juice, or blueberry juice cocktail?

Vance71975 · 08-09-2011, 12:49 PM

It will Likely be very Merlot Like. But it should be very good!

commonsenseman · 08-09-2011, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by muse435

I was told that the D-47 would give me a semi sweet mead, but that was based on honey alone. Will it leave any notes of blueberry or will all of the blueberry be fermented out?

That depends on the SG of the blueberry juice. D-47 ferments to about 14% +/-2% so there's really no way of telling if it'll leave it semi-sweet or not. There's always the stabilize, then backsweeten method if it doesn't. If you want a lot of blueberry character, just backsweeten with blueberry juice. Only you can judge what's "blueberry enough" for you.

**muse435** · 08-09-2011, 03:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by huesmann

Is it 100% blueberry juice, or blueberry juice cocktail?

100% blueberry juice. Thanks guys.

tmeier45 · 08-09-2011, 04:08 PM

I was thinking of doing something similar since I have 5 freezer gallon bags of frozen blueberries. Would I need to do anything different if I juiced these for my blueberry juice?

Matrix4b · 08-09-2011, 04:33 PM

I have used blueberry juice in two batches not. Both fermented dry and I needed to stablize and backsweeten. Stablization was hard with this as the yeast love the blueberry juice.

I used 10 pounds of frozen blueberries in the secondary and I blenderized, ran through a screen and kept the pulp for cookies and pancakes and muffins. The pulp, after the blender, I did hit up with some Pectic enzyme to get all the juice out and help it. I then used a rubber spatula to run it through the siv. I got most of the pulp out of the juice and will have some in the lees. After racking to the secondary and putting in the juice it still is fermenting. I haven't stablized it yet but look forward to it.

This is also for a 5-6 gal batch (possibly larger due to backsweetening). 10 pounds should be fine. I think that should come close to your 5 1-gal bags of frozen.

Hope it turns out well. I expect that I will need to backsweeten mine a lot as I only used 12 pounds of honey, 10 pounds of blueberries (juiced), and 4 gal of water. I expect it to go completely dry like my other bacth that I did but once backsweetening and aging was complete, WOW the flavor.

Cheers
Matrix