I have fortified fig mead going and am going to oak it soon.
6 lbs meadowfoam honey
6 lbs buckwheat honey
6 lbs dried organic mission figs(chopped)
2 lbs dried organic Turkish apricots
Put the 3 lbs of each honey into fermentation bucket add water to 3 gallons. I mixed until all honey was dissolved. Added 3 lbs of figs and 3 campden tablets. 24 hours later the og was 1.083. I pitch 71b. At SG 1.075 I added .2 gallons of honey to bring sg up to 1.093. Then at Sg 1.05 I added .125 gallons of honey to bring the OG to 1.06. At Sg 1.005 I fortified 2.5 gallons of the mead that is just north of 14% abv with .5 gallons of aguadente to bring the mead up to an abv of just over 20%. 24 Hours later added 2 lbs of chopped mission figs and 2 lbs of Turkish apricots.
That’s where I am now. I plan on letting this sit on the fruit for about a week the racking and back sweating to around 1.03-1.04. I have med+ French oak and med+ Hungarian oak cubes and plan on using then in this mead. I am wondering how much oak taste people would go with in this. I was thinking of going a little heavy handed but I don’t want to ruin this. I do plan on letting this age a bit so I don’t know how much the taste I get now would reflect the taste after aging.
6 lbs meadowfoam honey
6 lbs buckwheat honey
6 lbs dried organic mission figs(chopped)
2 lbs dried organic Turkish apricots
Put the 3 lbs of each honey into fermentation bucket add water to 3 gallons. I mixed until all honey was dissolved. Added 3 lbs of figs and 3 campden tablets. 24 hours later the og was 1.083. I pitch 71b. At SG 1.075 I added .2 gallons of honey to bring sg up to 1.093. Then at Sg 1.05 I added .125 gallons of honey to bring the OG to 1.06. At Sg 1.005 I fortified 2.5 gallons of the mead that is just north of 14% abv with .5 gallons of aguadente to bring the mead up to an abv of just over 20%. 24 Hours later added 2 lbs of chopped mission figs and 2 lbs of Turkish apricots.
That’s where I am now. I plan on letting this sit on the fruit for about a week the racking and back sweating to around 1.03-1.04. I have med+ French oak and med+ Hungarian oak cubes and plan on using then in this mead. I am wondering how much oak taste people would go with in this. I was thinking of going a little heavy handed but I don’t want to ruin this. I do plan on letting this age a bit so I don’t know how much the taste I get now would reflect the taste after aging.
