Jack's Apricot Vanilla Mead

This is a really simple, but delicious Mead I came up with a couple of months ago. It's pretty drinkable right after it clears, and makes a great dessert style wine. Here's the recipe as I made it:

3 lbs. Wild Mountain Honey (Wild Mountain is a brand. Not sure what varietal. Wildflower, I would assume?)
1 cup Quartered Dried Apricots
½ Vanilla Bean (Split in half)
1 tbsp. Fleishmann’s Bread Yeast (activated in shot glass with sugar and water)
Water to fill to 1 gal.

-Just combine everything, and shake it up really well.

O.G. 1.100

When it started out (first 10 days or so), I popped off the cap to smell it, and man, it smelled like crap. I was thinking I'd have to throw it out, but I let it keep going. Eventually, it began to clear, and smell better, so I transferred it to secondary. It cleared further, and I took a sample. I was blown away at how good it was. I let it go for about another week in secondary, and bottled it (didn't degas it, but would likely be a good idea to avoid bottle bombs in case fermentation decides to kick back up). Get's better every time I taste it (the smell is significantly improved as well).

My Girlfriend is a pretty picky wine drinker, and she absolutely loves this stuff, so do I. I've got a new batch going, the only difference being that I used a full vanilla bean per gallon, added yeast nutrient, pectic enzyme, and I used Lalvin D47 (Which I imagine is going to make it much drier, so I'll likely need to backsweeten). We'll see how that turns out.

Give it a shot, and let me know what you think!

Cheers!

Nice! I think I might have to try this.
I wonder if an addition of a little buckwheat honey would really round out the vanilla flavor......

MNSmitty said:

Nice! I think I might have to try this.
I wonder if an addition of a little buckwheat honey would really round out the vanilla flavor......

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Give it a try! I would be really curious to find out what the best type of honey for this would be. All I know is that Honey, Apricot, and Vanilla go VERY well together. My D47 Batch is in secondary now, and it is much drier than the bread yeast batch (expected that), but it's still good. Next time I do this, I think I'm going to stick with bread yeast. Please let me know how it works out if you do end up doing this!

Cheers

Sweet! I'm trying this one! I used 6 blanched fresh apricots instead of dried, I hope it's enough. Did adding the yeast nutrient help? I've got some on hand I might add later. This will be my second mead

wingedshadowwolf said:

Sweet! I'm trying this one! I used 6 blanched fresh apricots instead of dried, I hope it's enough. Did adding the yeast nutrient help? I've got some on hand I might add later. This will be my second mead

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You know, I can't say for sure whether it helped or not. All I know is that honey is very nutrient deficient, and you need to add something to keep the yeast healthy and happy. I didn't use any in the original recipe, and it came out awesome! I would imagine that was because of the apricots providing the necessary nutrients. It can't hurt to add it, so I say go for it. Let me know how it turns out!

I was looking to buy dried apricots for this, but all the ones I've seen so far seem to be jacked full of preservatives.

Any shot in the dark as to what the likely weight of fresh fruit would be? I've got an empty 3 gallon carboy that's begging to be full of this stuff

madwilliamflint said:

I was looking to buy dried apricots for this, but all the ones I've seen so far seem to be jacked full of preservatives.

Any shot in the dark as to what the likely weight of fresh fruit would be? I've got an empty 3 gallon carboy that's begging to be full of this stuff

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Well, I did some calculating, not sure how close it really is. I used approximately (2) 6oz. Packages of dried apricots per gallon, so for 3 gallons that would be 2.25 lbs. dried fruit. Then I read somewhere that apricots lose about 50% of their weight from dehydration , so 2.25 * 2 = about 4.5 lbs. of fresh fruit. That's about the best I can figure.

SinginChef said:

Well, I did some calculating, not sure how close it really is. I used approximately (2) 6oz. Packages of dried apricots per gallon, so for 3 gallons that would be 2.25 lbs. dried fruit. Then I read somewhere that apricots lose about 50% of their weight from dehydration , so 2.25 * 2 = about 4.5 lbs. of fresh fruit. That's about the best I can figure.

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Excellent. That sounds about right. So it's about in line with other fruit wines and such as far as weight/gallon then.

Thanks o7 I'll get this started tonight then I think.

madwilliamflint said:

Excellent. That sounds about right. So it's about in line with other fruit wines and such as far as weight/gallon then.

Thanks o7 I'll get this started tonight then I think.

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Awesome! Please be sure to let me know how it turns out, I'd be really curious to compare it with the dried fruit version.

Okay, so here's what I did:

- 10 pounds of Apricots, pitted and quartered.
- 10 pounds of Orange Blossom honey
- 1 tsp pectic enzyme (1/10 per pound of fruit, per package)
- 1 tsp active dry baking yeast (I bake a lot of bread and buy this by the pound.)
- 2 vanilla beans, split down the middle.
- Water to fill 3 gallons.

I activated the yeast in a separate container with a little water and some granular sugar.

10 pounds seems like it might be a bit much for the fruit (by volume), BUT I found the apricots not to be so aromatic, so I think it'll be fine. Worst case scenario I'll transfer it to a 5 gallon jar and add honey and water. But I don't think I'll need to.

So we'll see

UPDATE: I just re-read your estimates on how much fresh fruit that equated to. This is the problem with shopping without a list. So I apparently doubled the fruit. Ah well. Let's see what happens. (Measure twice, cut once.)

madwilliamflint said:

Okay, so here's what I did:

- 10 pounds of Apricots, pitted and quartered.
- 10 pounds of Orange Blossom honey
- 1 tsp pectic enzyme (1/10 per pound of fruit, per package)
- 1 tsp active dry baking yeast (I bake a lot of bread and buy this by the pound.)
- 2 vanilla beans, split down the middle.
- Water to fill 3 gallons.

I activated the yeast in a separate container with a little water and some granular sugar.

10 pounds seems like it might be a bit much for the fruit (by volume), BUT I found the apricots not to be so aromatic, so I think it'll be fine. Worst case scenario I'll transfer it to a 5 gallon jar and add honey and water. But I don't think I'll need to.

So we'll see

UPDATE: I just re-read your estimates on how much fresh fruit that equated to. This is the problem with shopping without a list. So I apparently doubled the fruit. Ah well. Let's see what happens. (Measure twice, cut once.)

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Sounds good! In response to your update, I actually wanted to add some more apricots for my next batch. The original is more of a light apricot flavor, and I think it would be really good if there was more of it. I think you made a good mistake, honestly. It might be a bit on the sweet side though, so you might want to top up with water when you rack it. Taste it and see! Thanks for the update!

SinginChef said:

Sounds good! In response to your update, I actually wanted to add some more apricots for my next batch. The original is more of a light apricot flavor, and I think it would be really good if there was more of it. I think you made a good mistake, honestly. It might be a bit on the sweet side though, so you might want to top up with water when you rack it. Taste it and see! Thanks for the update!

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I racked it off the fruit yesterday. 10 pounds of fruit is a lot of volume for this kind of thing. I haven't topped it off though.

I'm very glad you mentioned the initial smell because...wow, yeah. It's not ready yet .

I should probably do that kind of initial fermentation in a bucket or something, rather than stuffing all that fruit into a carboy and beating myself over the head when trying to clean it all out later.

madwilliamflint said:

I racked it off the fruit yesterday. 10 pounds of fruit is a lot of volume for this kind of thing. I haven't topped it off though.

I'm very glad you mentioned the initial smell because...wow, yeah. It's not ready yet .

I should probably do that kind of initial fermentation in a bucket or something, rather than stuffing all that fruit into a carboy and beating myself over the head when trying to clean it all out later.

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Haha, yeah, it's not a very pleasant smelling one in the beginning. It gets much much better though.

Make sure you taste it so you can decide whether to top it up or not. Its not going to taste good yet, but I'd imagine this one is going to be pretty sweet, so you might want to cut it down with a little water.

Yeah, a fermentation bucket would work great for melomels or anything that you're adding fruit to. It is a damn nightmare getting those things out once they swell up from being in the liquid!

I just tasted my D47 batch again, it's got a weird buttery taste that I'm not fond of and it's much much drier. I'm definitely going to stick with the bread yeast from now on.

SinginChef said:

Haha, yeah, it's not a very pleasant smelling one in the beginning. It gets much much better though.

Make sure you taste it so you can decide whether to top it up or not. Its not going to taste good yet, but I'd imagine this one is going to be pretty sweet, so you might want to cut it down with a little water.

Yeah, a fermentation bucket would work great for melomels or anything that you're adding fruit to. It is a damn nightmare getting those things out once they swell up from being in the liquid!

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You're not kidding. 18 pounds of strawberries in my strawberry wine was a special kind of fun. I've got a 3 gallon of the "ancient orange" pinned at the top of the forum as well.

I just tasted my D47 batch again, it's got a weird buttery taste that I'm not fond of and it's much much drier. I'm definitely going to stick with the bread yeast from now on.

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I just ordered 4 one-gallon jugs (bringing me to 6), a few extra airlocks, and a couple of the more popular yeast strains. (D-47, Red Star Champagne and a couple others.) It's time for me to do a true side-by-side-by-side of them all just so I know what I'm getting in to. I'll try and find a "minimal number of variables" mead recipe and just duplicate it 6 times with different yeasts.

madwilliamflint said:

You're not kidding. 18 pounds of strawberries in my strawberry wine was a special kind of fun. I've got a 3 gallon of the "ancient orange" pinned at the top of the forum as well.


I just ordered 4 one-gallon jugs (bringing me to 6), a few extra airlocks, and a couple of the more popular yeast strains. (D-47, Red Star Champagne and a couple others.) It's time for me to do a true side-by-side-by-side of them all just so I know what I'm getting in to. I'll try and find a "minimal number of variables" mead recipe and just duplicate it 6 times with different yeasts.

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I've always wanted to try that to really get a feel for the different characteristics each yeast gives the wine. I've heard a lot of people say that they don't like d47 for mead unless you keep the temperature pretty low, I guess it produces a lot of fusels at higher temps or something like that. Plus it ferments really really dry, and gives you friggin rocket fuel if your OG is in the 1.100's.

You know, I've actually been buying Carlo Rossi Paisano in the 1 gallon jugs, and they work great as carboys, plus you get wine. They're only 8.99 around here, and the Paisano is pretty tasty if you're into red wine. It's a good deal for wine drinker/homebrewers. I've got 10-15 of them and always have some experimental batches going. Cheap and fun.

I've been wondering if that was true; glass being cheaper with contents than on their own. Makes me crazy.

I don't feel so bad 'cause I "needed" them now. But I'll definitely start accumulating them that way as well.

Just a quick question. Mine has been in primary for about 3 weeks now, and I'm not sure if it has gone flat or not. There is a "blup" every 8-10 seconds or so, but the mead never really foamed above 2 cm when it was working the most. The colour is beautiful deep yellow, and there is just a little white on top that could be called foam by now.

I am rather inexperienced, this is my second batch after a banana wine going bad.

The smell is pleasant, though I used white wine yeast as that is what I had around.

Thank you in advance for your reply.

Zelmor said:

Just a quick question. Mine has been in primary for about 3 weeks now, and I'm not sure if it has gone flat or not. There is a "blup" every 8-10 seconds or so, but the mead never really foamed above 2 cm when it was working the most. The colour is beautiful deep yellow, and there is just a little white on top that could be called foam by now.

I am rather inexperienced, this is my second batch after a banana wine going bad.

The smell is pleasant, though I used white wine yeast as that is what I had around.

Thank you in advance for your reply.

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I'm not really sure what your question is, but what you described sounds normal to me. I would wait until the bubbling has completely stopped before racking it to secondary. Just a tip: depending on what strain of wine yeast you used, the mead could turn out very dry, and require significant aging to mellow out the alcohol "heat". In addition to that, you may end up needing to backsweeten the mead to get a more desirable wine. There is lots of information regarding backsweetening on the internet, and in this forum, if you are not sure what it is, or how to do it. As I stated in my initial recipe post, I did a batch of this using Lalvin D47 wine yeast, and it turned out very dry, and has a much different flavor than the batch I did with bread yeast. Not necessarily bad or anything, just different. Let me know if you have any other questions!

I tend to be surprised how much carbonation is generally preserved, especially when I think the batch has gone flat. Seems to me like you should be just fine.

Thank you singin, I'll wait with the racking until the carbonation comes to a stop. Am I to expect much lees from mead?

Zelmor said:

Thank you singin, I'll wait with the racking until the carbonation comes to a stop. Am I to expect much lees from mead?

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No problem. There will definitely be some lees, especially since some of the apricots will fall apart, and it will sink to the bottom. It should clear out after the first racking, but if it doesn't, go ahead and rack it again after a month or so.

Oh.
My.
God.

Wanting to reclaim a carboy, I just poured this (which I'd racked once or twice before, and was sediment free) into 4 2-liter bottles (I'll bottle it proper tomorrow night.) I had a very little more than 4 bottles worth so I poured it in to a cup as a goof.

It's REALLY tasty. It's sweet and fruity. Most of my other mead experiments are dry and strong in a very "well... I'll put it in the cellar for a couple years. We'll see."

But THIS!?! I clearly need to go out and buy 25 pounds of apricots to do a 6 gallon batch right away.

I didn't expect to have enough of an experience to comment on the flavor development. But I have to say next time I'll either double the vanilla or add it late in the process, because while I'm sure the flavor was there someplace, I couldn't really taste it.

An excellent easy recipe resulting in my first knock-down drag out success.

I did my first racking last weekend. Mine turned out dry with much body. It is extremely tasty, too. Fermentation seems to have stopped though, not much coming through the airlock. It has also cleared up real nice. I've made sure to save the yeast from the bottom of the demijohn, as I've found a thread here about making my own starter culture.

If all turns out well, my second batch will be made by using that starter. I will post after 2nd racking. I will also have to get bigger demijohns, 5 litre will not cut it.

madwilliamflint said:

Oh.
My.
God.

Wanting to reclaim a carboy, I just poured this (which I'd racked once or twice before, and was sediment free) into 4 2-liter bottles (I'll bottle it proper tomorrow night.) I had a very little more than 4 bottles worth so I poured it in to a cup as a goof.

It's REALLY tasty. It's sweet and fruity. Most of my other mead experiments are dry and strong in a very "well... I'll put it in the cellar for a couple years. We'll see."

But THIS!?! I clearly need to go out and buy 25 pounds of apricots to do a 6 gallon batch right away.

I didn't expect to have enough of an experience to comment on the flavor development. But I have to say next time I'll either double the vanilla or add it late in the process, because while I'm sure the flavor was there someplace, I couldn't really taste it.

An excellent easy recipe resulting in my first knock-down drag out success.

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Nice! Glad it worked out. Now I want to try it with the extra fruit like you did!

Zelmor said:

I did my first racking last weekend. Mine turned out dry with much body. It is extremely tasty, too. Fermentation seems to have stopped though, not much coming through the airlock. It has also cleared up real nice. I've made sure to save the yeast from the bottom of the demijohn, as I've found a thread here about making my own starter culture.

If all turns out well, my second batch will be made by using that starter. I will post after 2nd racking. I will also have to get bigger demijohns, 5 litre will not cut it.

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Good deal! Figured it would turn out that way with using the wine yeast. I've never tried reusing yeast before, but I've always wanted to. Please post some pics if you get a chance too!

SinginChef said:

Nice! Glad it worked out. Now I want to try it with the extra fruit like you did!

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It's VERY fruity and sweeter than I expected. Not a complaint by any means. But I'd be inclined to split the difference.

EDIT:

Epilogue:

I bottled it on Tuesday and didn't like the clarity, so I uncorked all 14 bottles, poured them back into the carboy and gave it a good bentonite treatment. Saturday (yesterday) morning it was clear as a bell, really beautiful rich orange/red color.

I took 4 bottles of this (and several of other things) to a party yesterday afternoon and it was a raving hit. I had to hide one of the bottles for later in the evening so it wouldn't be consumed entirely by about 4:00. Around 8, when I finally pulled the last bottle out, people were angry that I'd kept it back.

As soon as I can find someplace that will sell me 20 pounds of apricots I'm going to start a 5 gallon batch. This is too good not to have on hand always.

I will add as an aside, that the vanilla was not identifiably present in the flavor. Next time I will probably wait to add it until later in the process, just to see if it makes a difference, and I may switch to a natural paste extract, rather than split beans.

This is so far the only mead attempt that's anything close to being drinkable. Every other one (9-10 attempts) has been "hot and dry" and just not consumable. Maybe (hopefully) it'll age and mellow out, but it sure seems like it has a LOOOONNG way to go. This is drinkable right out of the carboy.

WIN

Damn, after all the hype, I have to try making this now. Next thing you have to do is name it. ; )

Edit: I must have been buzzed when I made the comment about naming it. Duh!

madwilliamflint said:

It's VERY fruity and sweeter than I expected. Not a complaint by any means. But I'd be inclined to split the difference.

EDIT:

Epilogue:

I bottled it on Tuesday and didn't like the clarity, so I uncorked all 14 bottles, poured them back into the carboy and gave it a good bentonite treatment. Saturday (yesterday) morning it was clear as a bell, really beautiful rich orange/red color.

I took 4 bottles of this (and several of other things) to a party yesterday afternoon and it was a raving hit. I had to hide one of the bottles for later in the evening so it wouldn't be consumed entirely by about 4:00. Around 8, when I finally pulled the last bottle out, people were angry that I'd kept it back.

As soon as I can find someplace that will sell me 20 pounds of apricots I'm going to start a 5 gallon batch. This is too good not to have on hand always.

I will add as an aside, that the vanilla was not identifiably present in the flavor. Next time I will probably wait to add it until later in the process, just to see if it makes a difference, and I may switch to a natural paste extract, rather than split beans.

This is so far the only mead attempt that's anything close to being drinkable. Every other one (9-10 attempts) has been "hot and dry" and just not consumable. Maybe (hopefully) it'll age and mellow out, but it sure seems like it has a LOOOONNG way to go. This is drinkable right out of the carboy.

WIN

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That's awesome man! I'm wondering if maybe the extra fruit covered up the Vanilla? You can taste Vanilla in mine, but it is still definitely a subtle flavor. Yeah, the bread yeast makes a much more drinkable product right off the bat when it comes to mead. I'm gonna mess around with some more recipes and see what happens. Are you going to do the same amount of fruit in your next batch?

jak1010 said:

Damn, after all the hype, I have to try making this now. Next thing you have to do is name it. ; )

Edit: I must have been buzzed when I made the comment about naming it. Duh!

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Do it up! It's good stuff. JAVM is the name. I thought of it all by myself. Definitely didn't take it from someone on this site named Joe... lol

SinginChef said:

That's awesome man! I'm wondering if maybe the extra fruit covered up the Vanilla? You can taste Vanilla in mine, but it is still definitely a subtle flavor. Yeah, the bread yeast makes a much more drinkable product right off the bat when it comes to mead. I'm gonna mess around with some more recipes and see what happens. Are you going to do the same amount of fruit in your next batch?

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I'm going to split the difference. The fruit flavor is very strong. No one has complained about it, but I'd like a bit more subtlety.

As for vanilla: On one hand I want to try putting the vanilla in later in the process, to see if it can avoid being buried. But on the other, I'm not at all sure it's not in there, subtly balancing things out in a way that's something close to critical, that I can't overtly detect. So I'll probably just leave it as it is.

I've already got a couple more 1 gallon runs using bread yeast to see what I come up with.

Uncorked a bottle of this yesterday and it sounded like I'd popped a champagne cork. I poured a bit and it was so carbed up it had a full on head.

Far too sweet for me still. I'm considering pouring it back in a carboy with some water to dilute it a bit.

madwilliamflint said:

Uncorked a bottle of this yesterday and it sounded like I'd popped a champagne cork. I poured a bit and it was so carbed up it had a full on head.

Far too sweet for me still. I'm considering pouring it back in a carboy with some water to dilute it a bit.

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Haha yeah, might want to stabilize it with potassium metabisulfite and potassium sorbate if you decide to cut it with water. Otherwise if fermentation decides to kick back up, you might be dealing with bottle bombs, and that's no fun. Just be careful about oxidizing it or you'll end up with mead vinegar lol.

SinginChef said:

Haha yeah, might want to stabilize it with potassium metabisulfite and potassium sorbate if you decide to cut it with water. Otherwise if fermentation decides to kick back up, you might be dealing with bottle bombs, and that's no fun. Just be careful about oxidizing it or you'll end up with mead vinegar lol.

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Oh if I dilute it it'll be to fill the carboy and let it sit again with an airlock on it. The amount of apricot in there is, a month later, pretty overpowering. So I think it could benefit from a little dilution. If that brings me up to 3 gallons then great.

I'll noodle around with it and see what happens. I'm still at the stage where I assume anything I do is going to end up getting tossed out.

If I end up making apricot honey vinegar then, meh. So be it.

madwilliamflint said:

Oh if I dilute it it'll be to fill the carboy and let it sit again with an airlock on it. The amount of apricot in there is, a month later, pretty overpowering. So I think it could benefit from a little dilution. If that brings me up to 3 gallons then great.

I'll noodle around with it and see what happens. I'm still at the stage where I assume anything I do is going to end up getting tossed out.

If I end up making apricot honey vinegar then, meh. So be it.

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That'd probably make a killer vinaigrette if it did turn lol.

SinginChef said:

That'd probably make a killer vinaigrette if it did turn lol.

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Yeah it's hard to see the downside

I tried a bottle two weeks ago, I think, and the alcohol level was way too overpowering. The mead is dry, as if all the sugar broke down completely. I might try another one in a couple weeks, but I don't know if the alcohol levels will lower over time while the mead is bottled. What are your experiences with that?

Zelmor said:

I tried a bottle two weeks ago, I think, and the alcohol level was way too overpowering. The mead is dry, as if all the sugar broke down completely. I might try another one in a couple weeks, but I don't know if the alcohol levels will lower over time while the mead is bottled. What are your experiences with that?

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Odd. What kind of yeast did you use? Mine is cloyingly sweet.

The alcohol level isn't going to just drop, but the flavor's going to mature and mellow a bit. How long has it been in the bottle?

Zelmor said:

I tried a bottle two weeks ago, I think, and the alcohol level was way too overpowering. The mead is dry, as if all the sugar broke down completely. I might try another one in a couple weeks, but I don't know if the alcohol levels will lower over time while the mead is bottled. What are your experiences with that?

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Yep, that's what can happen with a wine yeast. Bread yeast is not as tolerant to high alcohol content, so the yeast will die off and leave unfermented sugars behind. Give it another shot using the exact recipe I posted, especially the bread yeast. I promise you won't be disappointed. The yeast strain makes all the difference in the world.

Zelmor said:

I tried a bottle two weeks ago, I think, and the alcohol level was way too overpowering. The mead is dry, as if all the sugar broke down completely. I might try another one in a couple weeks, but I don't know if the alcohol levels will lower over time while the mead is bottled. What are your experiences with that?

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The alcohol level won't go down but, the flavor should mellow with some age. Just like a high ABV mead or beer.

Just started a batch of this tonight, I look forward to trying this in a month or two after it has fully finished..