Blueberry mead

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Lamminis

Active Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2007
Messages
35
Reaction score
0
Location
Tri-Cities Wa
Ok just put the yeast in this so we will see how it goes. This is my first mead so wish me luck. I also posted the recipe in the recipe section. Cheers everyone!!!!!

7.5 lbs of blackberry honey
2.5 gallons water
2 tsp of yeast nutrient
2 tsp of yeast energizer
1 gallon of blueberries fresh then frozen and mashed
2 packs of lalvin EC-1118 champagne yeast

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
 
With only 7.5# of honey, you may be done slightly earlier than most meads as long as this is a 5g batch.

It won't be naturally degassed by then, so you may want to look at Brandon's easy cheap degasser.
 
Expect the mead to dry out completely. That is all the sugar to be converted to alc.
 
And with respect to degassing - in most cases, I wouldn't bother. Mead will take some time for all the flavors to integrate, especially if you fermented on the warm side and have some fusels in there to show for it. They take months of aging to mellow out. During that time, the mead will naturally de-gas, and the slow evolution of CO2 from the liquid will both provide a bit of protection against oxidation (by adding CO2 to the headspace in your carboy), and by coming out so slowly that it won't scrub volatile aromatics from the liquid. If you de-gas mechanically, you'll smell some good aromatics in the CO2 that you pull out -- that is stuff that could have added to the aromatic profile of the finished mead, now gone.

I have found it necessary to de-gas only in a very few special circumstances, and when I do, I use a simple MityVac hand pump attached to a piece of tubing inserted into a stopper. Pulling a gentle vacuum on the top of the carboy will pull most of the gas that you're trying to remove in an almost effortless manner.
 
Outstanding. Thanks for all the great info! I have another question though. I knew this was going to ferment out dry, which is fine, I prefer dry mead. But is this going to be too dry? Will I have to backsweeten? If so what is the best way to kill the yeast?
 
When fermentation has completely finished, rack off of the lees and give it an additional couple of months in a bulk carboy. Then taste, and only backsweeten if you think it is too dry at that point. Meads take some time for the flavors to integrate, and you'll notice an apparent increase in the perceived sweetness as some of the floral and fruity characteristics come more to the front.
 
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.:tank: 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.:rockin:
 
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.
 
Back
Top