This stuff had better be worth it

Last week I started my version of 1 gallon Lord Rhys Chocolate Mead. After I mixed up the must I realized I had adjusted everything except for the Cocoa Powder from the recipe. I hadn't pitched the yeast yet so I just bottled everything in a gallon jar and put it in a cool spot to plan how to adjust it.

I had thought on using my 6 gal carboy and up the recipe. The drawback is that would take 6 quarts of Lin Honey. I did not want to use that much since I can get $15 a quart for it. This week I had a chance to drive to the HB shop and they had a 3 gal carboy so I got it.

Here is my final recipe.
3 Quarts of Lin Honey
3 vanilla beans split.
3/4 tsp yeast energizer
3 tsp yeast nutrient
2 3/4 cup of Organic Cocoa Powder
1 packet of Red Star Cote Des Blancs

I brought about 3 quarts of my good well water up to a steam stage.
Mixed in the honey and cocoa.
I added about 8 quarts of water and let it cool. After the mix cooled I checked the SG (it was 1.125), put the must in the carboy, added the rest of the ingrediants, and pitched the yeast.

After the ferment slows down I will add mor water to reduce the head space in the carboy.

So far this 3 gallon batch has cost me;
$45 that I could have sold the honey for.
$15 for the Organic Cocoa
$4.35 for the Vanilla beans
$26 for the carboy I hadn't planned on getting
for a total of $90.35

If I bottle 3 gallons of mead, which I doubt, that would cost me a little over $6 a bottle.

About a month ago I sold 3 cases of quart jars of Lin honey to a produce shop in North Carolina. Just after that a local produce store owner stopped in the NC store and bought a lot of this honey that I had sold him and brought it back here to sell

Keep us updated, seems like a ton of cocoa powder... I'm curious to see what it looks, smells, and tastes like.

I'm just wondering about "Lin" honey. I mean, what the hell is "Lin", or is that referring to linseed a.k.a. flax seed ?

The Lin Tree is also known as Linden, Basswood or honey tree. The honey from the flowers is light yellow, has a slight minty taste. It is very highly saught after honey by honey connoisseur.

Here is a google link with pictures and information on the tree.
http://www.google.com/search?q="linden+tree"&hl=en&num=10&lr=&ft=i&cr=&safe=images&tbs=

[ame="http://youtu.be/qhNnX3frLrw"]http://youtu.be/qhNnX3frLrw[/ame]

After 2 days the bubbling had slowed down.

Nice. I was not expecting it to be almost black... figured it would look more like chocolate milk, like those chocolate wines.

The honey/water/chocolate mixture sure tasted good before I added the rest of the ingredients .

I checked the progress of the mead last night. It has been a week since I started and the heavy foaming has settled down. There was a film of chocolate on the upper shoulders of the carboy. Since it obstructed looking at the mead I did a light swirling of the carboy to wash it down.

Sweet, I'm pretty excited to hear how this turns out

kc_in_wv said:

So far this 3 gallon batch has cost me;
$45 that I could have sold the honey for.
$15 for the Organic Cocoa
$4.35 for the Vanilla beans
$26 for the carboy I hadn't planned on getting
for a total of $90.35

If I bottle 3 gallons of mead, which I doubt, that would cost me a little over $6 a bottle.

Click to expand...

How big are the bottles? This should be more like 3$ or 4$ for 12 oz bottles, shouldn't it? As well, the carboy is reuseable, so it's not like you can really include that in the cost of the mead; it's a separate entity entirely.

If you remove the carboy cost, and we assume only 2.5 gal of mead due to cocoa displacement, you're paying less than 2.50$ a 12 oz bottle for a ~14% ABV cocoa-mead.

mccann51 said:

How big are the bottles? This should be more like 3$ or 4$ for 12 oz bottles, shouldn't it? As well, the carboy is reuseable, so it's not like you can really include that in the cost of the mead; it's a separate entity entirely.

If you remove the carboy cost, and we assume only 2.5 gal of mead due to cocoa displacement, you're paying less than 2.50$ a 12 oz bottle for a ~14% ABV cocoa-mead.

Click to expand...

I agree that the carboy is reusable but I had not been planning on buying another carboy at the present. It just seemed like it was the best route to take and not waste some great honey. Most of my bottles are 750 ml wine bottles with a few few 375ml stuck in.

Here are my calculations
3 gal converts to 11356 ml/750=15.14 bottles.
$90.35/15=$6.02 per bottle

Would you suggest that I use smaller bottles?

but even the crappiest mead you can find in the US is roughly $10... I have a very similar batch sitting in my basement as well.. it's been about 2 weeks for me. Mine is also black (didn't expect that) but it smells incredible. I can't wait

I checked my brew today. The sg is down to about 1.05. It looks like muddy water that has settled some. I am going to top it off with some honey/water and wait about a year.

Last night I checked the SG of this mead. It is 1.01 which I think puts it to about 15%.

I tasted to see what it was like. Under the CO2 bite there was a pleasant slight chocolate taste.

I then added about 1 quart of water to top it up. This started a lot of CO2 coming to the top.

The next time I check it I am going to stir up the chocolate etc that has settled to the bottom.

kc_in_wv said:

Last night I checked the SG of this mead. It is 1.01 which I think puts it to about 15%.

I tasted to see what it was like. Under the CO2 bite there was a pleasant slight chocolate taste.

I then added about 1 quart of water to top it up. This started a lot of CO2 coming to the top.

The next time I check it I am going to stir up the chocolate etc that has settled to the bottom.

Click to expand...

Ha ha! yes, that's one thing that often gets missed on recommendations. Always give it a gentle stir before adding anything. Some stuff can cause it to foam out like a fountain, making stuff very messy indeed......

Other than stirring this mead once to possibly increase the flavor, I have let it sit in the basement since last year untouched. I filled the airlock when needed.

This past Saturday I did the first racking off of the lees and added a stablizer. The SG was 1.00. It still taste's like chocolate but I think the minty flavor of the honey is gone.

The mead has a hot bite to it. I hope this will mellow out as it ages.

I also think it will need to be sweetened later on.

kc_in_wv said:

If I bottle 3 gallons of mead, which I doubt, that would cost me a little over $6 a bottle.

Click to expand...

I don't know if this is a UK thing, but $6 a bottle still sounds pretty good value to me! $6 is the bare minimum I could hope to pay for a truly horrible shop-bought wine, and I don't get a fermentation vessel included in the price!
Got to love duties and VAT...

It sounds good, I'm trying to make something similar. I think Lord Rys says it needs to be racked at a year and then left to age another year before bottling, then possibly another year in the bottles? It sounds really good the, cough, end result. It smells amazing while mixing up the must that's for sure.

I pulled the Chocolate Mead out to check today. I like the looks and I will give it a sample here soon.