Starthistle Honey Mead

10/18/2012 Starthistle Mead born.

Batch Size: 1gal
Honey Variety: Starthistle
S.G.: 1.125

Ingredients:
~2.9 lbs honey
water to gallon
Ec-1118 Yeast

Almost a month ago I made the batch, but according to my notes I had airlock activity relatively shortly after putting the airlock on (10-30mins iirc), suppose that's what re-hydrating your yeast does for you. For that whole first week or so the jug lived in my over sized cement sink, due to the fact that yeast made it up to the airlock and fermented up there even with a large space of air. Eventually they calmed down.

Nov.15th (As of this writing)

I racked the mead to a new jug, measured Gravity at 1.016 (Calculator says 14.31% abv?), then I topped it up with water so there was less airspace left in the jug. Should I have topped it with honey water or ?

Where are you in the world? Reason I ask is because wild yeast is very unpredictable. Over here in the states yeast can be good or make a rancid soup out of your expensive honey. Over the pond on the other side of the world there has been a much longer history of wine making. A common practice has been to take spent fruit skins after fermentation and spread them around the growing grapes, apples.... Which encouraged a specific strain of yeast to develope. If you are going set on collecting wild yeast my suggestion would be to go to an orchard or vineyard and take the skins from fresh picked fruit and try and cultivate a yeast colony from that.

What's a starthistle?

I brewed a 1 gallon batch of starthistle mead with EC-1118... best mead I've ever made. Good luck!

Arpolis said:

Where are you in the world? Reason I ask is because wild yeast is very unpredictable. Over here in the states yeast can be good or make a rancid soup out of your expensive honey. Over the pond on the other side of the world there has been a much longer history of wine making. A common practice has been to take spent fruit skins after fermentation and spread them around the growing grapes, apples.... Which encouraged a specific strain of yeast to develope. If you are going set on collecting wild yeast my suggestion would be to go to an orchard or vineyard and take the skins from fresh picked fruit and try and cultivate a yeast colony from that.

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I live in NorCal, kinda out in the mountains. East of Redding 20miles.

I'm not set on a wild yeast, but I find it pretty interesting to be able to use all stuff I can get myself.

Today it smells kinda bready. And they were just bubbles, no mold.

Subsailor said:

What's a starthistle?

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An invasive weed over here. Specifically: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaurea_solstitialis

Makes it nasty to wear shorts.

cinderbike said:

I brewed a 1 gallon batch of starthistle mead with EC-1118... best mead I've ever made. Good luck!

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What was your recipe?

So I threw out the wild yeast today. Smelled Bready, somewhat apple-y, and some vinegar.

I also made up a batch of JAOM in a sanitized plastic orange juice container. Bought a carboy and two airlocks today, so I might make use of the carboy and start something else here pretty quick.

I just came across this thread trying to google a recipe for star thistle mead, and noticed your location. I grew up in Shingletown myself. Small world.

Tidwellc said:

I just came across this thread trying to google a recipe for star thistle mead, and noticed your location. I grew up in Shingletown myself. Small world.

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Indeed. Figure anything out on your star thistle mead? I couldn't hardly find a recipe that suited me so I wound up making a JAOM, and a straight starthistle mead.


Not sure if anybody will notice this but, on the JAOM it seems pretty clear, especially compared to the straight mead I made. The oranges at the top don't look all that great anymore and I'm extremely tempted to rack it into a new jug. Its only been a month, and the recipe calls for two months before touching it. Is racking an acceptable variation, or do I just pretend I can't see the oranges and stick it out?

I'd let it sit another month still, bread yeast is very fine and will take a while to fully fall out of suspension. I racked my JAOM after 10 weeks and let it sit in secondary for another month or so before bottling to finish clearing. Others don't mind letting it sit for many months, in fact I think Chevette Girl has a couple JAOMs that are a year in primary at this point.

Bottled my JAOM last night, nice and clear just in time for Christmas.

Welp I decided to make another one now that I have an empty carboy with the extra carboy leftover for racking. So I started another one.

Peach Mead
12/20/2012

Goals:
-Peach-ee mead thats fairly sweet without sacrificing alcoholic content.

Batch Size: 1gal
Honey Variety: Starthistle
S.G.: 1.14 (? Hydrometer stops at 1.13 and left a large head-space to give extra room for large foam up.

Ingredients:
3.5 lbs honey
water to gallon (Left headspace, will top up after a few days)
Frozen Peach Slices, 1lb
D 47 Yeast

Sliced peaches from apple slice size into small cuts all along the flesh to allow more surface area. Dropped them into honey and filled 80% full, shook well for excessive amount of time. All while rehydrating the yeast; added a bit of the must to the rehydration in the middle of mixing just because it can't hurt.

Intentions:
-Leave in primary for 2weeks-1month depending on mood, possibly longer.
-Rack to secondary onto another 1lb, maybe 2lb of peaches.
-Rack as needed until clear.

To get an accurate ABV amount, I will have to check SG before and after I add the water to top up?

Attached a screenshot of the mead calculation I did to check numbers.

Peaches are famous for having a cloudy pectic haze so I would suggest getting some pectic enzyme and adding a dose now and in secondary to help clearing.

zav3nd said:

Welp I decided to make another one now that I have an empty carboy with the extra carboy leftover for racking. So I started another one.

Peach Mead
12/20/2012

Goals:
-Peach-ee mead thats fairly sweet without sacrificing alcoholic content.

Batch Size: 1gal
Honey Variety: Starthistle
S.G.: 1.14 (? Hydrometer stops at 1.13 and left a large head-space to give extra room for large foam up.

Ingredients:
3.5 lbs honey
water to gallon (Left headspace, will top up after a few days)
Frozen Peach Slices, 1lb
D 47 Yeast

Sliced peaches from apple slice size into small cuts all along the flesh to allow more surface area. Dropped them into honey and filled 80% full, shook well for excessive amount of time. All while rehydrating the yeast; added a bit of the must to the rehydration in the middle of mixing just because it can't hurt.

Intentions:
-Leave in primary for 2weeks-1month depending on mood, possibly longer.
-Rack to secondary onto another 1lb, maybe 2lb of peaches.
-Rack as needed until clear.

To get an accurate ABV amount, I will have to check SG before and after I add the water to top up?

Attached a screenshot of the mead calculation I did to check numbers.

Click to expand...

Peach Mead Update
1/9/2013 (20 Days Later)

Racked the peach mead into a new carboy, added a fresh 1 pound of peaches, and topped up the head space with water.

SG 1.059 before topping up. Putting it at ~10%. Didn't take one after topping up. But I've never expected my ABV's to be more exact... maybe eventually.

Next racking, when close to final gravity, add two lbs of peaches and let sit for some amount of time. Then rack and let sit and hope the peaches stick around. It'd probably benefit from carbonation but I don't have the stuff to force carbonate at the moment. And at some point I'll get pectic enzyme if I remember.

Will the pectin haze eventually fall out?

Looks like it dropped about an inch of lees between racking and today. Not something I expected to see.

That is to be expected especially with the addition of more sugar and nutrient to full batch of yeasties

The sugar and nutrient being the peach slices? I suppose that makes sense.

You are correct

2/5/2013
Peach Mead is now at 1.042 putting it right around 13% (12.86%). It certain ally doesn't taste dry. And it does seem kinda fruity. I may rack it off the fruit its on now and see what it does. Maybe cold crash.

Editing in a few minutes when I hydrometer the traditional originally posted about.

zav3nd said:

10/18/2012 Starthistle Mead born.
Batch Size: 1gal
Honey Variety: Starthistle
S.G.: 1.125

Ingredients:
~2.9 lbs honey
water to gallon
Ec-1118 Yeast

Click to expand...

Traditional is 1.003, pretty sure it was 1.004 last time. Might check again in a few days and bottle it because I need to rack a cider somewhere. It doesn't really have sweetness left over like the peach one, and almost seems like its just the base flavors of honey. i.e. "clover" honey is clover honey because of its base taste, and doesn't taste like starthistle honey when you get down to it. I'm not sure where it falls on the like scale atm. From memory it'd be at about the 4 month mark.

16% abv. I probably should've started with 3.5 lbs of honey to push it all the way to 18% but not too worried about it now. Might be something I put away for a while anyway.

2/5/2013, Peach mead at 1.038, racked it off the fruit.

How does it taste

jackfrost said:

How does it taste

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Sorry it took a bit, only just now got the chance to actually try it.

I don't know much of anything about how it should taste, so its more or less the "bar" for now (Only had a JAOM that used the same honey). And as far as describing it I'm probably lacking there too.

Smell: Similar to the Base Honey. Sweet. With some other smell I can't place.

Taste: Sweet when it first hits the tongue. But then a bitterness similar to orange zest. And it finishes with a bit of a bite, like a watered down whiskey.

Whats odd is it tastes very similar to the JAOM I made, at first. JAOM seems overpoweringly sweet and spicy in comparison.

How long has it been aging?

Peach mead has gone down to 1.004 as of right now (8/4/2013). Seems further than what it should've gone with the yeast.

Smells like everything else I've made. And tastes about the same too. I expected this one to be fairly sweet and after this amount of time not have all the alcoholic taste to it.

I might throw another pound or two of peaches in and see what happens.

Subsailor said:

What's a starthistle?

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is the brand of honey he used

Its not a brand, its a variety. Ford is a brand of car, trucks are a variety. OK, not the same as a natural product like honey, but its all I could think of after an 18 hr day.
Anyway, I never heard of it, thanks for bringing up a 10 year old thread, now I'll see if I can find any starthistle honey.
Edit:
Didn't take long to find it:
https://www.sleepingbearfarms.com/about-star-thistle-honey/I found several pro mead makers that use it, I guess its worth a try.....

This thread was 10 years old ...

madscientist451 said:

I found several pro mead makers that use it, I guess its worth a try.....

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It's one of the reasons that there are so many mead makers in Michigan. I've used it - it pairs well with Lalvin D21.