Date Mead? I hardly know her

Based on a recipe created by Bruce Brode

Ingredients:
15lbs Wildflower honey
1000 gm of Date Syrup

Yeast:
Red Star Cotes d'Blanc (2 packets made into a starter with 10 grams of GO-ferm and 3/4 cup of water @110 F) let rest for 30 min.

Steps:
Heated 1.5 gallons of water to a boil and let sit, covered. Add Honey and date syrup, rinsing containers with water from the brew pot. Add 4.5 grams of Fermaid-K to the pot ( I should of added 4.5 grams of DAP but didn't have any)

Add 1 gallon of sanitized chilled water to plastic fermentor, then added must which put it at just over 5 gallons.

Airrated must with vigorous stirring with stainless steel spoon then added yeast. Gave the must 3 blast of Oxygen for 2 seconds each.

24 hrs later. Added 2.8 grams of Fermaid-K (should have added 2.8 grams of DAP put didn't have any) Gave the must a vigorous stir and blasted 3 more two seconds of Oxygen. 3-5 bubbles for every 5 sec. out of the airlock. It just chugged along at this pace for the next three weeks

Wanted to add 1.8 grams Fermaid-K and 1.8 grams DAP at midpoint but the specific gravity was already to 1.050 by the 7th day.

22 days later specific gravity is at 1.001. Transferred to glass. An occasional bubble trickles up but no real bubbling in the airlock.


Let rest for 6 months then add 1/2 oz. lightly toasted Hungarian oak cubes for 3-5 weeks.

I will add 5 tsp. Sorbistat K at bottling.

Sampled on week three when it went into glass

Appearance is very hazy pecan brown that is pretty dense.

Smell is soft fruity aroma with a faint hint of dates and a slight yeasty hint.

Taste is dark fruity note with some date qualities and an alcohol warmth that fills the mouth and burns the back of the throat just a touch, but no fusel heat. It has some dry white wine qualities behind the other flavors and is pretty easy to drink but a bit chaotic. It will be interesting to see what a bit of age and oak do to this.

I'm making some date concoctions, just curious if you have tried yours again now that it has aged a little bit.

I just tried it last night. It has some good honey notes, from the back sweetening but not a lot of date flavors. It still is pretty hot so I think another 6 months will help. I'm going to enter it in a competition in March to have someone with a better nose for mead help me out and I will post the feedback.

So after a little over a year later, how'd it turn out?
Regards, GF.

I will have to open a bottle this weekend. I sent it off to a competition to get some feedback so I will have to post that aswell.

Sent this to a competition on Oct. 8th 2011 and it scored a 31.3 some of the comments are mixed below:

Aroma: mild honey and level dates, alcohol warmth in nose; soft honey and dates in balance with tart hint

Flavor: semi dry moderately acidic, vinous warmth, low honey characteristic; soft honey then lots of date flavor, strong in alcohol flavor and warmth light honey notes; fruity honey flavor, some tannins and high alcohol warmth.

many of the overall impressions were not enough honey flavor to much alcohol.

Tasted 2/19/2012:
The picture doesn't show it but it is really clear.

I thought it had a nice honey aroma with a cork or wood hint maybe some oxidation and a soft alcohol heat in the finish. There was just a faint pssst when I opened the bottle but it wasn't carbonated at all.

The taste had a nice sweetness that balanced with an alcohol warmth in the finish and a touch of fruity dates in the finish. There was a nice alcohol warmth on the exhale and it seemed to have a bit more body than last time I tried one.

Overall I thought it had a bit more sweetness and would consider it more of a semi-sweet mead than a dry mead and the flavors have really melded together to make it much more enjoyable to drink. Thanks for the prodding GF.

Glad it turned out tasty, looks great too. If I can find a deal on dates, I'll have to give this a try.
Regards, GF.