First Mead and a Sticky Kitchen

Started a blueberry mead yesterday (5.5gal). That has to be the stickiest day of my life... Here's my recipe:

2lb 4oz Blueberries
12lb Clover Honey
3tsp Yeast Nutrient
Red Star Pasteur Red

Its fermenting nicely so I guess its just a waiting game now.

cool.. you use frozen blueberries? IDK... I thought I was gonna have a super sticky mess for my meads but it actually went off without a hitch. Some stuff had a little goop on them but it cleans up super easy with water.

I used fresh blueberries (a sweet deal at costco). It cleaned up pretty easy, it's just hard to clean off a 6.5 gal carboy in a small sink like that...

Update on the mead... a year on. Bottled it about a month ago. Didn't end up using a secondary or anything, just let it sit. It has a beautiful dark pink color, and incredible smell and, best of all, a great smooth almost sweet tasting (though it is completely fermented) flavor that goes back realllllyyyy easy. Almost too easy for a verrrrryyyyy high ABV . I ended up with 22 bottles including 3 magnums and they are going fast with the friends and family. I also made my first label for this batch so Ill post it here when I get to my other computer.

In any case, I strongly recommend this brew!

awesome update. thx! the problem with meads are they take so long and few come back to report.

thx!

I can see why... I almost forgot that I had posted on it in the first place after six months without internet.

And AZ IPA I'm curious to hear about your Moose Drool clone too. I live in Missoula where the brewery is and never thought to clone it. Didn't even know it got out as far as AZ.

Anyways here is the label:
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rustang64 said:

I can see why... I almost forgot that I had posted on it in the first place after six months without internet.

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well, us meadsters are glad that you did (oh boy - I'm calling myself a "meadster" now - send the cops! I'm by no way insulting summersoltice, flyweed, BigKahuna, and others.....who have actually tasted their well aged products!)

rustang64 said:

And AZ IPA I'm curious to hear about your Moose Drool clone too. I live in Missoula where the brewery is and never thought to clone it. Didn't even know it got out as far as AZ.

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My roomie found a bar in our little town (~4500 people) that has it on tap since then I've enjoyed it I've found their trout slayer ale very tasty as well....

I did some searching and found some various recipes for Moose Drool and here's what I brewed: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f5/moose-drool-big-sky-brewery-81007/index3.html

nice label by the way...

Oooh trout slayer... touchy subject. they stole (bought) the name out from under another local brewery who had been using it for years. Theirs was better. They have to call it dancing trout now...

My usual rule of thumb for fruit meads is 2 lb fruit/gallon of mead, so with that little blueberries it must have a really lovely delicate flavor. Did you use lowbush (small, sour, from the northeast) or highbush (big, sweet, probably from Minnesota) berries?

stpierre said:

Did you use lowbush (small, sour, from the northeast) or highbush (big, sweet, probably from Minnesota) berries?

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On a semi-related note, for the sake of contrariness, I used a half and half mixture of local highbush cultivated and lowbush wild when I made up my field berry batch last month. Technically, I guess it has four types of berries in it, with the two blues, the straw and the rasps.

If only I'd remembered this past fall about the huge blackberries my friend's parents have growing in their back yard. Perhaps next year, I'll sneak over there some evening in late July to steal their berries.

Fresh fruit used to make me think of fruit salad. Now I think "What can I brew with that?"