mead recipe help

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.

david83

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
Messages
305
Reaction score
8
Location
Tolland County CT
so im looking to do a mead with strawberries i was thinking 1 gallon of water 4lbs of honey and 2lbs of strawberries im looking to sweeter rather than dry what do you guys think? and was thinking of using montrachet yeast.
 
too much honey.

don't start with more than 3lbs per gallon of mead or you'll have such a high gravity the yeast will have a problem getting started, even with a starter sometimes. Start with less, then feed more honey after a week or two.

I've not done a strawberry mead but i hear strawberry flavor tends to come out light, and often more tart than sweet.

yeast selection is fine. I do recommend staggered nutrient additions and degassing the first week of primary for happy, healthy yeasties.
 
ok thanks for the insight,is there any way to have the strawberry more sweet than tart by say adding honey down the road at some point,and could you tell me more of staggering nutrients please or direct me toward a thread. sorry for the newbie questions but it is my first mead.
thanks dave
 
so im looking to do a mead with strawberries i was thinking 1 gallon of water 4lbs of honey and 2lbs of strawberries im looking to sweeter rather than dry what do you guys think? and was thinking of using montrachet yeast.

I would do less honey and Far more strawberries, I have a Juicer, and i love it for doing stuff like this, but strawberries come out a very light taste.
 
ok so i wasnt paying attention that well while making this,i bought 2 2lb jars and put all 4 lbs in i know this will effect the abv but will this produce a drier mead and also i used 2 lbs of strawberries and was now thinking if the taste is weak i could secondary this on more strawberries,would you guys recomend letting it ferment all the way or rack onto strawberries before the fermentation is over? also if this is going to be on the drier side could i back sweeten with more honey? if so how much and when during the process? thanks and again sorry for all the q's
 
Put the Strawberries in the secondary or you are going to end up with an explosion and rocket fuel down the line. I recomend about 4 pounds of strawberries should be fine, but In the secodary. I would also reserve 2 pounds of honey for backsweetening after you stabalize it.

How to Stablaize: Add Potasium Sorbate and possibly a campden tablet crushed. I think for a galon you would need 1/2 teaspoon of potasium sorbate. Then let sit for a day and mix up your honey water, about 1/2 water 1/2 honey mix.

The strawberries, I personally puree and put in a mesh bag. then take the bag out and let drain back into my brew bucket for a bit as the puree will abosorb a bunch of your liquid.

This will take a few racking, From Primary to fruit in secondary, off of the fruit onto the stablizing, Then backsweetening, THen sparkloid/oak or what every you wish for fining. Last racking it should be nearly clear. Wait till a nice pink clearness that you can read print through before bottling.

At least that is how I would do it. Good Luck

Matrix
 
will 4 lbs of strawberries in secondary give it a strong strawberry taste?and also when do you stabilize a mead after it reaches its fg?
 
will 4 lbs of strawberries in secondary give it a strong strawberry taste?and also when do you stabilize a mead after it reaches its fg?

I did a 5 galon batch in the primary and got a good strawberry flavor, I did 14 pounds of strawberries. So for 1 gallon, 4 lbs in the secondary should give a good strong strawberry flavor. As far as when to stabilize:

You can do so at any time, I typically wait until after I rack to the secondary, about a couple of weeks.

Here is what I do:

1. Rack to secondary when the fermentation slows to almost imperceptable, like 1 bubble every 15 seconds or so.

2. wait 2 weeks to a month.

3. I rack and stablize at the same time but you don't need to. Just mixing in and stiring it in would be fine.

4. Give at least one more day if not 2 for stablization to take place.

5. rack onto your strawberries and fresh honey (1/2 honey and / 1/2 water mix as your toping up or backsweetening agent. At this time you can test how sweet it is, usually hydrometers are helpful.

6. rack off of strawberries after 2 weeks to a month, usually on lightly toasted oak for 2 weeks.

7. remove oak, possibly rack into some hot mix sparkloid or other clearing agent. This is not neccessary if you are more patient.

8. rack one final time when clear for bulk aging or what I do is rack to my brew bucket and bottle at this time

9. age about 8 months to a year.

10. Chill and enjoy. It will only get better over the next few years.

That is the process that I recomend. Some of the other mead brewers may chime in on timing or specific techniques but this is for me at it's most basic.

Hope it turns out well.
 
update i bought a wine theif cause i want to be able to taste brews and meads has they age,well after a month the strawberry mead im making already tastes GREAT strawberry is very strong in flavor and def not overly sweet.
 
I'd guess that's one of the things that a lot of us forget david83 i.e. how much of the taste of a specific fruit is actually the taste of the natural sugars, and how much of the flavour is from the non-sugar part of the fruit......

It's one of the reasons why I don't make many fruit melomels etc etc, because I might like the fruit naturally, but once it's been through the fermenting processes, most, if not all, of the sugar has been metabolised into alcohol.

I'm guessing that the method/technique you've ended up with, presuming that you've gone with the "fermented base mead" then racking onto the fruit, is why you've got a good fruit flavour, because the yeast hasn't metabolised the natural sugars out of it, but the flavour of the fruit (sugars and all) have been extracted by the immersion in the mead and the action of the alcohol on it.

If it's tasting good, then well done. Just add to the info about how flavours can change a lot if they're fermented, rather that how they seem to retain more of the original taste (which is usually what attracts us to the fruit in the first place) of the fruit, when it's been soaked in the mead to your memory bank and you'll probably be producing good meads for years to come.

Oh, and steeping the fruit like that also retains more colour as well, because the fermentation process can cause some "bleaching" as well i.e. strawberries often make the mead straw coloured if they've been fermented, rather than having enough pigmentation to pass on the lovely bright/light red of the original fruit......
 
well ill update this thread i just moved into a house and put in the wine thief grabbed a little and wow its rocket fuel oh well i suppose lesson learned. no taste of strawberry and literally tastes like gabage down the drain it goes.
 
Wait dnt do that.... stabilize it then take sugar fruit water. Heat it up to a 150 for 1 hour strain ad to graduated cylinder. Sweeten to the gravity you like ....then add to your bulk....let set 6 more months and taste....
 
well ill update this thread i just moved into a house and put in the wine thief grabbed a little and wow its rocket fuel oh well i suppose lesson learned. no taste of strawberry and literally tastes like gabage down the drain it goes.

Don't do that! At the verry least you have some good marinade. Never throw away a bad batch.

Matrix
Also, I agree that if it's still in caroby it can be saved, just stablize, and backsweeten, maybe add some fruit.
 
Don't do that! At the verry least you have some good marinade. Never throw away a bad batch.

Matrix
Also, I agree that if it's still in caroby it can be saved, just stablize, and backsweeten, maybe add some fruit.

interested in this could you go into depth about the procedure what do u mean stabilize i assume just backsweeten with more honey right?
i havent dumped it yet lol havnt had time lol
 
Stabilize is a one word saying for:

Add a crushed up Camden tablet (potassium metabisulfate) per gallon AND 1/2 tsp of potassium sorbate per gallon to halt any further cell division of the yeast cells. "no more fermentation".

This way you can add honey to give you the level of sweetness you want. It is always good to to sweeten to just under what you like too because 6 months from now it will taste sweeter than it does now.

Depending on yeast and fermentation conditions it is possible to have very little fruit flavor if fruit was added to primary, especially if the mead has fermented dry and there is no residual sugar to bring out the fruity flavor.

Stabilize and then back sweeten a little with honey and rack onto some more strawberry. It will taste 100 times better in 6 months and even more a year from now.
 
interested in this could you go into depth about the procedure what do u mean stabilize i assume just backsweeten with more honey right?
i havent dumped it yet lol havnt had time lol

Yes, to Stablize the mead. That is stop fermentation from going again, Use some Potasium Sorbate. It is easily found in your HBS. For a 5 gal batch a tablespoon should do. I like to use a cup of water to disolve it into and then poor into the mead. You then mix it carefully so as not to introduce more oxygen. Then wait 2 days for it to slow down and stop the yeasties currently in the mead. At that point you can add more honey on a racking. Mix the honey 50% honey, 50% water. 4-6 pounds for a 5 gal batch should be plenty for a sweet mead. That will take it from dry to sweet. Some like to take a sample out and add the honey water mix to taste. This has some problems as some sweetness comes back with age.

Matrix
 
So I back sweetened with too much honey I guess cause all this time later I stumbled upon the 8 750s of this train wreck lol I cracked a bottle a few nights ago with a buddy and the rocket fuel is all but gone still a hint but def is way to sweet lol but is definitly drinkable and can smell a hint of the strawberries and barely taste it. But I will say this is clear has any wine I've ever seen. Just figured I'd update has its been about 3 1/2 years now since I made it....
 
Back
Top