I brewed up my first batch of mead last weekend. I based it on Charlie Papazian's red raspberry recipe, but used Costco ingredients and upped the quantity to use as much of them as possible.
22.4 lbs. clover honey (they come in 6 lb. jugs)
12 lbs. berries (frozen mix of red raspberries, blueberries and marionberries, in 4 lb. bags)
1 packet Montrachet yeast
yeast nutrient
Should yield 6 gallons.
Add honey and fruit to 1 gal. water. Heat to 140F and hold for 60 minutes. Fill each of two 6 gal. carboys with 1 gal cold water. Pour must into each carboy and top off to make two 3.5 gal. carboys. Rehydrate yeast and nutrient and pitch at 74F. Ferment for two weeks, then rack both carboys to one 6.5 gal carboy, leaving the fruit behind. Purge with CO2 and ferment at 74F until fermentation appears complete. Repeat racking procedure again and store at 74F until clear. Bottle.
Wow seems like a LOT of honey. What was your OG? one of my buddies runs a meadery and he always tells me to do about 3lbs of honey per gallon of water, for 6 that would only be 18 lbs of honey. I'm still new to meads, though and may be way off my rocker
__________________
~Phil
Fermenting: 10 gals Phil's Phlavorful Brown Ale, 5 gals pLambic in secondary
Kegged: Best Bitters, Peach Mead
Bottled: Pear Mead
Drinking: All of the above :)
Well, I'm actually making 7 gallons, and hoping to yield 6 once I rack off the fruit. The guidelines I read said 3-3.5 lbs./gallon, and this is about 3.7 for 6 gallons. Yeah, it's on the high end but it's supposed to be a sweet mead anyway. I have no idea what the OG was, I use a refractometer and all the berry bits would have skewed the reading so I didn't bother.
Just know that its likely to put a pretty heavy strain on the yeast, you may want to try and create a 1.030 honey starter for it over night to get the yeast kicking well... But, all those sugars w/ the fruit may get it healthy on its own and then the yeast can start working on those hard to eat honey sugars.
__________________
~Phil
Fermenting: 10 gals Phil's Phlavorful Brown Ale, 5 gals pLambic in secondary
Kegged: Best Bitters, Peach Mead
Bottled: Pear Mead
Drinking: All of the above :)
I made a strawberry mead last year and used 12 lbs of berries. It had a very weak flavor. My next batch will use 24 lbs. I suggest (for a 5-gallon batch) using 15 lbs of honey and 24 lbs of berries. Maybe use 12 lbs in the primary and the other 12 lbs in the secondary for more fruit flavor.
Yeah, it's really good! The honey and berries are very well balanced. The mead still tastes hot, but it's mellowing well. It's only been three months in the bottle.
Costco Mead
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