Viking's Fuzzy Navel Uber Sack Mead

Happy Mead Day!

Viking's Fuzzy Navel Uber Sack Mead
5 gallon batch

I'm making a large batch of uber high gravity sack mead for Mead Day. I've thought about this recipe a lot and I am basing a lot off of the extremely tasty "Bigboy Pants" mead I made years ago. Here, I try to improve an already impressive mead by blending the unique Acacia honey into the mix.

In addition, Mead Day is designed to bring awareness to mead and mead making techniques. I'm hoping this recipe serves as a guideline to folks who want to make an uber gravity mead. WARNING! THIS MEAD IS NOT FOR BEGINNERS! You need to get basic techniques down before you attempt a mead this big and expensive!

I'm using a Fast Ferment system for the first time. I sealed all joints with Teflon tape, then sanitized the entire setup with 3 gallons of Star San for 30 minutes just to be sure of sanitation.

No leaks. Airtight when inverted (aside from the airlock, of course). Good to go. The stand could be a bit higher, but it's functional.

I closed the bottom valve for honey mixing purposes. I plan to open around half sugar break to avoid oxidation. OK! Let's make some Mead Day Madness!

Viking's Fuzzy Navel Uber Sack Mead

Added the following:
-8.4 lbs Ames Farms Honey (Lemony Notes)
-6.3 lbs Orange Blossom Honey (Floral Citrus)
-5.8 lbs Acacia Honey (Complex, Body)
-Added 4 cups of strongly brewed Assam tea. (I'm trying to extract tannins here. Added 4 bags of tea in 4 cups of off boil water; allowed tea to cool with bags still in liquid. Added liquid only to fermenter when cool to touch.)
-Ozarka Spring water to 5 gallons.
-1/2 tsp of K2CO3.
-2 tsp DAP + 1 tsp of Fermaid K. I will add this again at 1.12, 1.08, and 1.04. A big mead needs a bit more nutrition to push through.

SG = 1.16!? Big ol' damn sack mead (as they say in Texas).
Expected FG ~ 1.03 (17.6% ABV)

Mixed everything with a sanitized, drill powered stirrer.

Pitched 30 g of GoFerm rehydrated DV10. (It was 30 grams of GoFerm in 1 cup of water.)

I will degas this with a drill powered stirrer (carefully) 2-3 times a day until 1/3 sugar break while adding nutrients at appropriate points. I'll also be looking for any sulfur smells that indicate lack of DAP. A mead this big requires you to stay on top of it to baby it into existence. Unless you want rocket fuel or stalled ferments. I expect 10 point drops per day until it gets towards the end. If it takes longer than two days to drop 10 points, I go into damage control. Check pH to determine if more K2CO3 buffering is needed and degas heavily to get things moving along.

Post Ferment Plan (may change)
-If needed, step feed with Ames Farm honey.
-Add medium toast American oak with astringency removed by soaking in Everclear.
-Bottle with 8 ml of peach extract per liter.

Day 1

Gravity 1.14. Degassed 3 times throughout the day. Smells wonderful!

Day 2
Gravity 1.12. Degassed twice so far today and added nutrients.

Day 3
Gravity 1.10. Degassed twice so far. Stole a taste off the paddle blade...mmmmm. This is going to be special!

Day 4
Gravity 1.082. Added nutrients. Degassed twice today.

Day 9
Gravity 1.048 and still chugging. Since this could end at 1.04 or 1.02, I added 1 TBSP of Fermaid O to be sure the nitrogen is useable.

I've been degassing several times a day. Today is the last degassing. Now I wait and see where it stabilizes.

Sounds awesome, interested to see how this turns out.

Day 11
Gravity 1.038. This is where my previous mead stopped and it was delicious. This one appears to be still going. According to calculations, 1.026 is 18% ABV. I don't think it will exceed that.

Sounds awesome and I'd like to see how it turns out. I do more beer than anything, but my cousin made rind of excellent mead years ago

Someone at Gotmead asked a question that sparked this answer. I thought it maybe useful to others here. I follow a set of rules for uber high gravity meads:
1. Extremely robust yeast.
2. Pitch a vicious amount of rehydrated yeast (>4 grams per gallon).
3. Buffer pH upfront (K2CO3) and monitor if it needs more.
4. Degas multiple times per day. You have to be sure you are present to do this. The ferment will get very sluggish if you don't. More important than given credit for!
5. An extra addition of SNA. Usually I do 3 additions, but uber Gravity meads need more so I add 4. I find the DAP+Fermaid K additions are better than Fermaid O for these type meads in the beginning. The D+K combo is easer for the yeast to use, so less stress. I use Fermaid O for the last addition because of the uncertain FG. DAP tasting mead is bad.

Basically, you have to stay on top of the ferment. If it doesn't drop at least 10 points a day in the beginning, Something is wrong! You have to fix it immediately before it stalls. Once it stalls, it is a much deeper pit to climb out of.

Day 16
Gravity 1.034. I tasted a bit fully expecting rocket fuel. Instead, I got a wonderful blend of flavor that was exactly what I was going for. Surprisingly, there are barely any fusels at all. More time is needed for the flavors to meld, but it's off to a promising start!

Month 2ish

I removed the collection tube that contained the gross lees. Sampling at that time was ok, but had some fusel bite to it that was unpleasant.

Month 3
Sampling today yields a wonderful mead without fusels. I was very surprised at how perfectly my honey mixture achieved everything I wanted for this mead. As a bonus surprise, this mead tastes like peaches before I've added any flavoring! In fact, it may not need it because it already has the flavor profile I was going for. At 1 year of age, I predict this mead will be amazing.