Strawberry 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.

ScottM

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2009
Messages
71
Reaction score
0
A couple weeks from now we'll be picking strawberries for jam and to freeze for pie. Since the fruit is in season, I'm looking to start a strawberry mead as well. It will be a 1 gal batch. I could go with 3 lbs of either wildflower or clover honey, since I've got ready access to either. Strawberry blossom would be ideal, but I haven't seen it locally, and I'm not really interested in mail order.

I'm looking for opinions on these two questions:
1) Should the strawberries be added into the primary or the secondary?
2) What quantity would be good for a 1 gal batch? I'm looking to add flavor and color, not necessarily boost alcohol content.
 
You'll get more of the strawberry flavor by adding them to the secondary, however I do both. What not try 2 lbs of berries in the primary and two more in the secondary?
 
That sounds like a good idea. Running Hightest's spread sheet in the FAQ section, I saw that up to 2 cups of juice had almost no effect on the final ABV. Of course that's at a default OG, and field ripened stawberries should have a good deal of sugar in them.

I do like the idea of berries in both the primary and the secondary.
 
I have only done one Strawberry Mead and racked the honey and water on top of the cut up strawberries in my bottling bucket. Once its Strawberry season again (or whenever I get a free carboy), I may try doing that recipe with 3/4ths of the Strawberries in the primary and another 1/4th of them in the secondary. I thought it turned out great for being my second mead. I posted the recipe in another post in this forum, but can give it to you if you would like.
 
This one here:
Strawberry Melomel

Ingredients:

9 lbs orange blossom Honey
1 lb clover honey
12 lb strawberries
Sweet Mead Yeast (White labs)

Procedure:

Clean and hull the strawberries; chop into a few pieces. (Don't crush
them or you'll have an impossible mess at racking.) Put them into a
sanitized plastic-pail primary.

Bring 2 gallons of water to a full boil. Remove from heat and
immediately add the honey; stir thoroughly. (This will sterilize the
honey without cooking the flavor out of it.) Cool to about 150-160F,
pour over the berries in the primary fermenter with 2 gallons more of cold water. Cool to pitching temperature (below 80F) and add yeast starter. Stir thoroughly to mix and aerate.

After 5 days, push the floating mass of strawberries down into the
fermenting mead (the equivalent of a winemaker's "punching down the
cap").

After the strawberries have become very pale--probably ten days or more-
- strain out as much of the strawberry mass as possible, then rack into
a glass carboy. Be prepared for the racking tube to clog. (A stainless
"Chore Boy" over the bottom end of the tube will help.)

Looks like a good recipe. I've got a straight Orange Blossom Honey Mead working right now, so I'd like to try something different as far as the honey goes, but we'll see. I appreciate the detail in the procedures though.
 
This one here:

Looks like a good recipe. I've got a straight Orange Blossom Honey Mead working right now, so I'd like to try something different as far as the honey goes, but we'll see. I appreciate the detail in the procedures though.

Yep that is it. This stuff lasted 1 year because everyone seemed to love it!
 
Back
Top