Blueberry mead

Ok just put the yeast in this so we will see how it goes.

7.5 lbs of blackberry honey
enough water to dissolve honey and top up to 2.5 gallons.
2 tsp of yeast nutrient
2 tsp of yeast energizer
1 pound to 1.5 pounds of blueberries fresh then frozen and mashed
2 packs of lalvin EC-1118 champagne yeast

notes: I only heated the honey enough to dissolve it into the water and then topped up with cold water to make 2.5 gallons with the blueberries. when i racked I got almost 2 gallons. I added about a pound more honey and topped to make 2 gallons.
og-1.12 @ 86f
fg- dont know yet.

going to let it sit for a month in the primary then put it in secondary hopefully.

Hoping it will be drinkable by Christmas or New Years!!!

I'll keep everyone posted.

That sounds great... I'm definitely interested to see how this one turns out, as I've been thinking of doing a mead with blueberry as well. What's your total batch size on this one, 3 gallons?

The total batch size was 2.5 gallons. I'll keep you posted. As off now it's sitting in a corner bubblng away quite happily.

Aren't recipes posted in the database supposed to be tried, tested, and proven to be good before they are posted?

reanime said:

Aren't recipes posted in the database supposed to be tried, tested, and proven to be good before they are posted?

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Yes- good call.

make sure you keep us updated on how this turns out!

Oops. I'm sorry. I will deffinatly keep yall posted though. It's still just bubbling away in the fermentor right now.

Ok to update the progress of this mead. It is now in tertiary. The last gravity reading I took was when I racked into the tertiary and it was .998. I tasted it and although it was a very hot mead it had a good dark berry flavor and a little bitterness on the back end with a hint of sweetness. I racked one gallon onto a pound of nectarines and one gallon onto a pound of rasberries fresh and a half of a nectarine with a half pound of honey for the one in with the rasberries and nectarine mix to top it up to a gallon with water. It has been about a week into the tertiary and I am going to let it sit for another 3 weeks then rack off the fruit and top up with a little honey and water. Both gallons are a deep red color and crystal clear.

this is gonna need some aging most likley. I calculate you at about 16% with a starting gravity of 1.12. Carful adding so much more honey because you may end up stalling out the yeast where it wont attenuate fully again. Sounds interesting though with the nectarines and im looking foreward to seeing how this turns out. Personally though after i bottle i wouldnt touch this for atleast a year and a half

Yea it will need some aging but my girlfriend and I think that it is going to be really good. I used the lalvin champagne yeast and it is rated up to 18 percent but I am trying to only put enough honey to get rid of any oxygen in the headroom. At first I was not going to put anymore fruit but I found some really good nectarines that had such a wonderful smell and taste as well as rasberries at the market and could not resist adding some. I think it will add good flavors to it.

Ok everyone, I just bottled this yesterday. The gallon with the rasberries and nectarines in it is just ouststanding! The rasberry flavor came through very well with a slight hint on the nectarine. Still needs to age as it is still pretty hot. The gallon with only nectarines had a dark berry flavor again with just a hint of nectarine but not nearly as good as the one with rasberries. final grabity was .996. Both bottles turned out crystal clear and a deep red almost purple color.

Lamminis said:

The total batch size was 2.5 gallons...

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I just noted this topic, but something's not quite right here...

Based on the recipe shown, adding 7.5 lbs of honey to 2½ gallons of water yeilds a must volume of 3.14 gallons - and that's not counting the volume displacement of 1 gallon of blueberries. Further, those proportions would create an OG of 1.085...

Hightest you are right. I'm sorry the water was not measured. The honey and blueberries proportions were correct and just enough water to make 2.5 gallons. I just wasn't thinking when I wrote down the recipe. I'll go back and correct the recipe when I get back to the notes and my computer.

I'm glad it is coming along right, I just read through the thread and I did have one WTF moment.
"og-1.12 @ 86f"
Wow, that is kind of warm.
Might explain some of the hot flavours your getting. I'm thinking ageing will mellow it out but you really do need to consider temperature control and pitching in that range.
In any case, this does sound like a very nice drink, just remember to save some for a good time just to see if and how it improves.

It was fermented at about 72 but that was just the temp when I pitched and took the gravity reading. The one with rasberries is very good the one without is ok. Things I would do different are: not putting the nectarines in. The berries drown them out. I would also put less blueberries in and only put the fruit in the secondary so I could have more control of the fruit flavor. I think I might try oaking some of it the next time I make it as well. It is the second mead I have made and I am happy how it turned out so far.

Ok edited, went back over my notes and corrected the errors in the post. Sorry bout that. The original post should be correct now.