Dry Carrot Blosom Meadowfoam traditional

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seth8530

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So here is how it all started. I purchased a lb of carrot blossom and fireweed honey.

And I started thinking about making a mead. Because that is what honey does to you.

The carrot blossom honey that I purchased has a nice dark powerful floral flavor profile. So im thinking it would make a good body honey for my mead.


So I figured, I did not want a mono-toned mead ( no matter how nice of a tone that is) and decided something creamy would be nice with the carrot blossom...

Enter Meadow-foam.. a magical and mystical honey known best for having a curios marshmallow ish flavor.

So here is the recipie as of now.

18 lbs of carrot blossom honey
18lb meadowfoam honey
RC212 yeast
4-5 oz of heavy-toast french oak cubes.
Fermaid K for nutrients
Hydrate the yeast in goferm..
Follow a rigorous fermentation schedule
Ferment around 65F if possible.

Add water untill sg hits 1.116 and hope that it will ferment dry.

Any thoughts or opinions
 
Is this for 10 gal. ? I would be interested in more info about this " meadow-foam " honey. Sounds tasty! What blossoms is it made from?
 
This is a planned 12 gallon batch. meadowfoam is talked alot about on the gotmead forums because of its vanilla marshmallow like flavors. Im really interested in trying it for myself.

Here is a sells pitch on meadowfoam which pretty much goes along with what I have heard before. Im pretty sure it is made from the meadowfoam flower.. However I might be incorrect... I think I have heard rapeseed in the past.. Dont quote me though.

http://www.flyingbeeranch.net/
 
The technical name for Meadowfoam is Limnanthes Alba. It is an oilseed that is mostly used in high end lubricants and soaps/shampoos. Fantastic flavor to the honey. I just got 1/2 gallon of a wildflower-Meadowfoam mix that has the vanilla flavor of the Meadowfoam but also has the floral flavor from local wildflower.
 
Nice info macachoin. I plan on keeping this thread up to date as long as it keeps peoples internist. As of right now I am debating between using kv1116 or the RC 212... Thoughts or opinions?
 
Alright used 18 lbs meadowfoam
18 lbs carrotblossom
10 grams of fermaidk
10grams RC212 dehydrated in go ferm
10grams Chestnut tannins
and enough water to take our OG to 1.113.

I plan on racking the mead onto 4.5 oz's of heavytoast french oak cubes once it has fermented dry.

I will add 10 grams of fermaid K once the SG reaches 1.0754 (1/3 sugarbreak)
and 10 more grams of fermaid K once the SG reached 1.0378 (2/3 sugarbreak)

Am I correct in saying that the sugar breaks are calculated by using OG-FG/3 is the ammount of sugar drop in a 1/3 break. So I can then subtract that from the OG to get the 1/3 sugar break and subtract that once more to get the 2/3 sugar break?
 
Ok fermentation has clearly started with a couple inch thick foam cap on top. The mead smells slightly fruity strawberry ess smell to it. No sulfur or off smells yet. I added 12 grams fermaid K

Current gravity is around 1.110
 
Sg was 1.090 on 10/30/2012. I added 6 oz's of Heavy toast french oak into the primary inside of 2 separate pantyhose's

Once primary is done I will put one pantyhose of oak into each carboy.

I am considering adding some tea into one of the carboys. Anythoughts?
 
11/5/12

Added the remainder of the 80 grams of fermaid K as well as a few tablespoons of boiled bread yeast.

SG 1.040
 
I am considering adding some tea into one of the carboys. Anythoughts?

I love adding tea to sweet meads. If you plan on a gravity of 1.02 or higher then I like to cold steep tea from 5 - 10 tea bags per gallon directly in the must. I have been wanting to try the sleepy time tea from celestial seasonings but not had a chance. Earl Grey is a fan favorite but any herbal tea that fits your fancy would do nice. You can add it now and it should compliment nicely.
 
I love adding tea to sweet meads. If you plan on a gravity of 1.02 or higher then I like to cold steep tea from 5 - 10 tea bags per gallon directly in the must. I have been wanting to try the sleepy time tea from celestial seasonings but not had a chance. Earl Grey is a fan favorite but any herbal tea that fits your fancy would do nice. You can add it now and it should compliment nicely.

Yeah, I was thinking of incorporating either blueberry tea or perhaps a pineapple for coulour and flavour contributions. My gravity target is currently somewhere between .992 and 1ish. However, I am glad to hear that you have experience doing this.
 
Yea my most recent tea mead was a spiced Chai mead that so far has been my absolute fovorite. I did a Bochet that had Rasspberry zinger steeped in it early this year and that one turned out well. Anything with Lemon grass though blows right out of the airlock. So lemon grass teas really need to be steeped after fermentation. That was in one of my first brews and there was very little flavor imparted. Blueberry tea sounds really nice. I have heard blueberry turns out well dry but never experienced that.
 
What exactly is raspberry zinger? Did any of these teas have a noticeable affect on the colour? In what way did the taste manage to carry through? With my mead I am going for a really rich and complex earthy creamy flavor profile not necessarily fruity.. However, a dry blue berry might add a certain note of complexity. Any ideas?
 
rasspberry zinger is a name from celestial seasonings. They have lots of crazy named teas. The color was not effeted much except for the raspberry one. It did seem to take on a more red hue. If you want an earthy creamy flavor then I might suggest chamomille tea. Possibly half of your blueberry tea and the other half chamomille will give you that soft earthy feel with a little added complexity from the blueberry tea. My Chamomille tea mead definatly had this soft earthy feel to it.
 
Hmm, I think I might take that suggestion to heart. The store where I buy tea is kind of expensive and they sell by weight not by bag.. But they have such a wild selection of flavors. It is an adventure every time you visit! So another question is whether or not I can do this cost effectively....
 
Yea I get tea from Teavana which is super expensive. The oolong spiced tea I get is like $12 an ounce. I will get like 6 ounces of that and then cut it with 2 ounce spiced chia tea from Walmart and 8 ounces of Lipton loose leaf black tea. And after I mix it up I let it sit a month in a sealed container and that stuff is still super good & very spicy. Total costs ends up being more like $4.90 an ounce after being cut.
 
seth8530 said:
Yep! That is the name of the place! I wonder if I could find it online for cheaper...

Great prices for Teavana on eBay....you have to be patient. I just grabbed two 3oz bags of their Pineapple Kona Pop for around $6 shipped. A great drinking tea, and it will be worked into a mead soon.
 
Great prices for Teavana on eBay....you have to be patient. I just grabbed two 3oz bags of their Pineapple Kona Pop for around $6 shipped. A great drinking tea, and it will be worked into a mead soon.

11/9/12 Sg 1.020.

Fermentation is slowing on down but is still moving at a moderate clip. Hopefully by the end of next week it will be ready for secondary.




Any idea how much and what method you will employ with this tea?
 
OK! Major developments!! Today the mead was racked into two separate 6 gallon carboys. Each received half of the original oak However, I was not able to completely fill up both carboys. In fact one of them was 1 and half gallons shy....

Thus this has developed into 2 sister meads. A tale of two meads.....

The first carboy has a current gravity of 1.005 and is as the original recipie entails. Current ABV 13.5%

The second carboy got topped off with a gallon and half of 100% pure cranberry juice ( the stuff is expensive) plus 16 oz's water.

It too originaly fermented down to 1.005. However the cranberry juice raised the sg up to 1.008. The current ABV is obtained from

13.5% X (6 gallons-1.5-.125) This gives us the total alcohol in the mead. This ends up being .59 gallons of pure alcohol.

(.59gallons/6 gallons)*100 gives us an abv of 9.84%
If this is to ferment dry down to .996 we get
.09 gallons of alcohol going from 1.008 to .996
add .09 to .59 divide by 6 gallons we get abv of 11.33%

Obviously I am hoping that the sg drops below .996

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