Blueberry Mead by Christmas???

Scripts · 10-25-2009, 09:01 PM

Well I've been procrastinating on the idea of making a light blueberry mead for the families Christmas dinner and am now revving up to get it going... With about two month's to go . If I got the batch going mid week (express order the yeast) could it be ready by Christmas? My goal was to have it lightly carbonated too if possible (could play with force carb'ing and bottling if necessary)...

**Poobah58** · 10-25-2009, 09:14 PM

Sorry, but it's not gonna be ready!

**jezter6** · 10-25-2009, 10:02 PM

Maybe if you made a semi-sweet hydromel you could get it done.

Look at using maybe 7-8# honey in a 5g batch and potentially backsweetening or using an ale yeast so that it doesn't dry out completely.

Look at homebrewer99's light lemonade mead, that can be done in about 2 months, just think of replacing the lemonade bit with blueberry.

EvilTOJ · 10-25-2009, 11:10 PM

Yea a real blueberry mead will be ready for christmas NEXT year.

huntsman · 10-25-2009, 11:18 PM

Ain't gonna happen. Sorry

Scripts · 10-25-2009, 11:57 PM

Hmmm.... Well I guess I will get it rolling regardless and let it take it's time so it will be ready for next year, lol.

KCWortHog · 10-26-2009, 12:45 AM

Seems you can do it. Per Curt Stock in "other fruit melomels" (a reading resource for the BJCP mead exam):

Quote:

There are two schools of thought (and plenty of debate) on when to add fruit to your mead. Many people believe that, to preserve the fruit character and aroma, fruit should be added to the secondary fermentation. This method works well but can have a couple of drawbacks. The fruit will have to steep in the secondary fermenter for many weeks or months to extract all the goodness the fruit has to offer. In addition, considerable aging will be needed to have the fruit and honey meld together into a great beverage. Renewed fermentation could also result from the sugar in the fruit. If primary fermentation was completed in part by the alcohol content reaching the yeast’s tolerance level, fruit added to the secondary will dilute the alcohol content (fruit is typically 70% water) allowing the yeast to reactivate.

After my first few batches I started fruit in the primary fermentation (FPF). There are many benefits to this technique. Fruit will provide many of the nutrients needed by the yeast during fermentation and help to regulate the pH of the fermenting mead must. FPF will typically take much less time than traditional mead fermentations. [I’ve won awards for meads that were six weeks out of the primary with this method.] Fermentation of mead with an original specific gravity up to 1.145 should be complete in three to four weeks in most cases.

(bold mine)

I recommend reading the entire article linked above, particularly pp4-5.

jcobbs · 10-26-2009, 03:35 AM

Some variation of Joe's Ancient Orange Mead could work. Joe Mattoli also has a quick grape juice mead (pyment, is that the term?) that is ready in just a few weeks. I have a blueberry wine that is a variation of JAOM that is only a few weeks old but is just about drinkable--easily ready for the holidays. You could probably come up with a blueberry quick mead that would do the trick.

**summersolstice** · 10-26-2009, 10:53 AM

In my experience, even the so-calle "quick meads" take a minimum of three months. Sure, you could make a drinkable beverage before Christmas but personally, I'd be ashamed to present it.

jdinger29 · 10-27-2009, 12:40 AM

I had the same thought with my Cranberry braggot, I wanted it for Thanksgiving. Well, I started it and now I just plan on letting it sit until next Thanksgiving. The pipe line has to start somewhere, and it might as well be here...