Blueberry Mead

Just bottled a batch of Mead (it may not technically be considered Mead). It came out pretty good so I figured it was post-worthy.

12 Pounds Clover Honey
4 Gallons water (I used tap)
1 Gallon Blueberry Juice
5 tsp DAP (at the start, one week and two weeks)
Wyeast 4632 Dry Mead
About 5 pounds of Blueberries (I used frozen)

Bring the water to a boil and then let it cool to around 170 F. Stir in honey and keep the temp around 170 F. Add nutrients. After half an hour or so, let it cool (or use a wort chiller if you have one). Pour the water/honey mix into your primary and add the Juice. The juice I used was pasteurized, so it was ok to just pour in.

It took about a month in primary. I added more DAP at one week and two weeks. After racking to secondary I added the blueberries. Just to be on the safe side, I soaked them in a sorbate/sulfite bath for a day before adding them. I was planning to kill the yeast at this point anyway, so I just dumped the whole blueberry sorbate/sulfite mess in together. I left the blueberries in for a couple weeks, and then racked off of them.

I racked it a couple more times over the course of eight months to clear it up. Before bottling I back sweetened with about a half pound of clover honey.

It came out petty good. I probably would have benefited from more blueberries in secondary, because the fruit taste and smell is very subtle.

Here's the final product:

Mersh said:

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Very pretty! Great clarity! Well done!

I've been noticing that blueberry has a very mild flavor addition anyway.

Atek said:

I've been noticing that blueberry has a very mild flavor addition anyway.

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I have a mead going right now where it is overwhelming. I think people just need to use more in the secondary to get good results. Mine are also fresh. The batch I did with concentrate came out very dark, but the taste is not as overwhelming as the fresh batch. Using blueberry juice in the secondary is probably why the posted mead is low on the blueberry taste side.

Thats a good point, I've always used frozen blueberries as well... I'll have to try fresh next year...

I actually compared some frozen blueberries and some fresh blueberries from the store (safeway), and found that the frozen ones had a lot more flavor. I know that a lot of commercial fruit is picked slightly too soon and then ripened during/after transport, so that may have been why.

The blueberry juice in primary pretty much lost all it's fruit taste. Before I put the frozen berries in, it had kind of a red wine taste to it.

I made a blueberry mead a few years ago and it turned out very good. Didn't use the juice; just frozen blueberries. I bet yours will be very good too.