New Spiced Pumpkin Mead with Ale Yeast

Hello all! Today is my B-day and I am making a new mead. I had two others planned but I am still growing the ingredients for one and the other requires a lot more honey and I am not in the mood to spend that much money. So today I am making a lowish ABV pumpkin pie mead in hopes for drinkability in 7 – 8 months. Here is the recipe:

2 gallon batch

4lb 9oz Oklahoma Honey
200 fluid oz of S. Pellegrino mineral water
29oz of 100% pure Pumpkin puree from Libby’s
6 tea bags of Stash premium Chai Spice Black tea (Contains Black teas, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, clove & cardamom.)
½ tsp. ginger
½ tsp. allspice
1 clove
½ cinnamon stick
2 tsp. of LD Carlson Yeast Nutrients
Yeast (Wyeast Smack pack 1968 London ESB) ABV tolerance = 9% & Very high Flocculation

Here is what I did:

Sanitize everything!

I smacked my pack of yeast and started to let it expand out and get ready to be pitched. (It went about 2 hours before I pitched)

I poured the 200 FL OZ of S. Pellegrino into a large pot and added 4 tea bags to make a tea. I let it get to a rapid boil and then cooled over the following 30 min.

Measured the 4lb 6oz honey & poured into fermenting container. I have 5lb but wanted to start a bit lower, check gravity and add more if needed.

Added the tea and shook the container for a minute or two.

I then added the Ginger, Allspice, Clove, Cinnamon stick & began to shake again for 1 to 2 min.

Next I added 29oz of the Pumpkin Puree & shook the container again for another 1 to 2 min.

I topped off with Brita filtered water & added the remaining 2 tea bags.

The OG is at 1.080 so I added another 3oz and it is at 1.082 now. I am hoping the yeast poops out at somewhere between 1.016 – 1.010 which will give me an ABV of around 9.0% – 9.5% abv.
I pitched the yeast & added airlock. All looks good & I hope for good things with this one.

Holy Overblowing Krausen Batman!!!!!

My wife was woke up this morning with a loud noise but could not figure out what it was in the dark. When I went to check out this bad boy later in the morning there was pumpkin mead on the ceiling, walls, all over my other meads and other places I did not think this could go. All of my other meads have never been this active. It is the first time ever using DAP and also first time using an Ale yeast. The only up side is the kitchen smelled awsome!

Wow for the few meads I have done I guess I am still terrible about determining how fast a ferment will go. I checked the gravity today because at the 1/3 sugar break I wanted to add in some Nutriferm advance to keep the yeast happy. The gravity was reading at 1.01! so already at an ABV of 9.74% and past the suggested tolerance of the Ale yeast. I have thrown the mead in the fridge and cranked its temp to its coldest setting. So hopefully after tomorrow I can stabilize with Campden tablets and potassium sorbate and keep some residual sweetness.

Would others agree that for really healthy conditions would a lower ABV mead like mine normally be done fermenting to a semi sweet/dry gravity in only 3 days?

My Cucumber mead took 6 days to dry out completely at 3lb of honey per gallon.

But my JAOM, Bochet & Chamomile Metheglin all took 3 - 4 weeks with a little longer on the Metheglin to ferment as far as they would go.

Subscribed.

The brew is still in the fridge & I have not stabilized yet. But took a look at the amount of lees and I think there is about 2 inches of the stuff. Guess that is what happens when you have that much purée of pumpkin. I will probably let this sit for about 2 weeks then I will rack onto a 15oz can of pumpkin purée and then rack every 30 days from there till clear.

OK Two weeks have past and since day 3 this mead has been in the fridge. I racked into a new container and added 1tsp of potassium sorbate and two campden tablets crushed up. I also added 15oz of more pumpkin puree and two more packets of the Spiced Chai tea. Now to wait about a month in normal temps and see if it clears enough to rack again.

Oh man, this sounds awesome. Subscribed.

NineMilBill said:

Subscribed.

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You know if you look up towards the top right of this thread, there's a drop down called "thread tools"....with an option called "Subscribe".....just saying

also, I am interested in how this one turns out

dummkauf said:

You know if you look up towards the top right of this thread, there's a drop down called "thread tools"....with an option called "Subscribe".....just saying

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Understood, but by typing my subscription, it shows the OP that someone out there is interested in what they got to say, instead of seeing their thread with 350 views and 0 replies. Might also encourage them to give more updates on the status of their experiment. I for one think a spiced pumpkin mead sounds amazing, and want to know if this turns out any good and learn about its progress.

Ok this mead looks really clear now. I think after I rack one more time and a little more aging to make sure all sediment is gone and I can bottle from there. But here is a quick question. Since I used this pumpkin puree there is a LOT of sediment. From the primary and secondary combined I estimate 4-5 inches of sediment. If I only siphon the clear liquid I am going from two gallons to more like 1.25gal or less. Would it be beneficial to strane the sediment through a cheese cloth to try and get more liquid or should I just call this good and not use loose puree next time?

I think it depends on how patient you want to be. I used a blackberry puree and it made an ungodly unsiphonable mess. I tried pouring through various filters and screening paraphernalia. I even tried filtering my racking cane. It all clogged up and stopped any flow of free liquid. I can't imagine pumpkin wouldn't behave the same way. So I recommend you try, but just be prepared to mourn the loss of some mead.

Worst case, you just siphon off the liquid, i.e. keep the tip of your racking cane above the settled solids, then pour the rest of the fermentation vessel through a sieve. Then let whatever liquid went through the sieve settle out again.

huesmann said:

Worst case, you just siphon off the liquid, i.e. keep the tip of your racking cane above the settled solids, then pour the rest of the fermentation vessel through a sieve. Then let whatever liquid went through the sieve settle out again.

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That is my plan so far. I did not do this with the first racking and have lost a lot of liquid already. So to all following. 1st is that if you use puree then either one try and filter it out at racking which will make the clearing process 3 times longer or just be ok with loosing volume. The better idea is to use fresh chunks of pumpkin that have been frozen/thawed/frozen/thawed. I will let you know how the filtering goes.

I WANT PUMPKIN SPICED MEAD.!!!
I also have a huge pumpkin patch that should be ready for harvesting within a month I WANT PUMPKIN SPICED MEAD

Some of this new stuff scares me. Can I just use lalvin ec-1118 yeast?

Ive used a dozen assorted yeasts to make meads over the years you can use whatever but out effects the abv of the mead. So check what levels of alcohol the yeast stops being active at and decide if you want a mead at that strength

How can u tell the levels of alcohol
The yeast stops
At?

Every yeast has a point it goes to sleep I can't remember the term atm I'm at my point of sleep. You can probably google it. I have a chart somewhere. If check white labs website I bet they have the info there. I like to use ale yeast for dry meads and sweet mead yeast for just that.

Well I have not posted on this in a while but sine the thread was brought back to life..... It is ready to bottle but after I taste it I am disappointed in the level of flavor. Very mild with only small hints of pumpkin and the spice was not all there. I have just been bulk aging this for a bit now. I really wanted something more festive and lively in a drink for the holidays. I am contemplating doing a half gallon hard cider with some Lalvin-71B yeast cake off my skeeter pee and blending the two. Anyone think that's ok or just throw in a clove and cinnamon stick for a couple weeks and try it again?

Arpolis said:

Well I have not posted on this in a while but sine the thread was brought back to life..... It is ready to bottle but after I taste it I am disappointed in the level of flavor. Very mild with only small hints of pumpkin and the spice was not all there. I have just been bulk aging this for a bit now. I really wanted something more festive and lively in a drink for the holidays. I am contemplating doing a half gallon hard cider with some Lalvin-71B yeast cake off my skeeter pee and blending the two. Anyone think that's ok or just throw in a clove and cinnamon stick for a couple weeks and try it again?

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This is typically what I find with pumpkin batches. I have heard people have had better results with Sweet Potatoes. Yes it sounds odd but it has more pumpkiny flavor than actual pumpkins. I also would not use Jack-o-Lanterns. Those typically don't have much flavor. Now I have heard people use as carboys a wax sealed pumpkin. That does generate a little flavor. But overall I wouldn't expect much. Many people get a good pumpkin taste from just the spices found in pumpkin pie. Me, I plan on trying a pumpkin/sweet potatoe mix using pumpkin pie pumpkins. They are smaller but have more flavor than jack-o-lanterns. I figure 1/2 and 1/2 mix would be good.

I wonder if you can make a pumpkin extract to use. Hmmm.

Matrix

I may try the sweet potato 1/2 and 1/2 too or at least some. But when using real pumpkins how much pumpkin should I use? I would like a nice pumkiny spicy mead it sounds sooo good!

2 pounds fresh sliced pumpkin and 1 pound sweet potato in primary and and additional pound of pumpkin and sweet potato in secondary. That's what I'll try next if I try again.

*edit* per gallon that is.

Grrrrreat!! Thanks again

Arpolis said:

2 pounds fresh sliced pumpkin and 1 pound sweet potato in primary and and additional pound of pumpkin and sweet potato in secondary. That's what I'll try next if I try again.

*edit* per gallon that is.

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2# fresh pumkin and 1# sweet potato PER gallon. thats a lot of product...
am I reading that right?

Why that particular yeast? I've not played with ale yeasts a lot so I'm curious what traits it lends to the brew.

To be honest I was just experimenting around with yeast types to learn myself. The one I had choosen here had the lowest recorded ABV limit out of Ale yeasts. A lot of posts I read about the yeast says that it seems to make very "fruity" flavored ales & so I hoped it would wok well with my mead. his yeast fermented FAST and hard. I hit 9.5% ABV and it was still going stong so had to cold crash it fast since I did not want the ABV any higher. It should have hit its tolerance at 9% ABV. I do not really get the "Fruity" aspect from my mead. Not any more so than I would expect. Actually was a bit disapointed in that department. I think if I do this again, I will start it in the winter and use Lalvin D47. I used that one befor with a spiced mead and it had a definate "Fruity" character. I thought it was amazing at how fruity it tasted with no fruit in it lol.

taishojojo said:

2# fresh pumkin and 1# sweet potato PER gallon. thats a lot of product...
am I reading that right?

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Thats about 6 cups of solids. So less than half of your volume for one gallon. Now that I think about it you are right that it is quite a bit. My batch here was a 2 gallon batch and I think I was going off of my measurements for this batch. So more like 1# pumpkin "2 cups" and 1/2# sweet potato "1cup" would be more appropriate. If the flavor is not there then add the same amounts to secondary after first racking.

So a lil update. I tasted the mead again and it is very smooth, almost creamy but not really thick. I love the body and mouth feel just no damn spicy pumpkiny flavor lol! So the smart thing to do is to bulk age on additional spices which I have already used in this recipe and just make a nice spiced drink. But I don't like being smart it seems. So I decided after talking with some friends to blend in a spiced apple wine into the mead to add some flavor. I will bottle one 750ml bottle to age and compare when I use the re-vamped recipe I want to use. That should give me about 1 gallon of mead after losses from the pulp/lees & this one bottle.

For the Apple wine I used the following recipe:

1/2 gallon bottle of Mott's 100% apple juice
3tsp of Mahara ja Chai Oolong tea from Teavana (This is the spiciest and greatest tea I have ever owned. It is like $12.00 an ounce)
2 TBS of table sugar
1/3tsp of Nutriferm advanced yeast nutrients/energizer
Yeast (See Below)

I thought this was perfect timing too. I just finished off the last of my Spiced Chai mead which has been my absolute favorite to date. It was so good I just tapped right out of the secondary and took glasses from there. Consequently I had a small yeast cake at the bottom so shook up that carboy with what little mead was in there and poured in that yeast cake. I figured that a perfect yeast cake to use to help compliment the flavors. However over 24 hours from yeast pitch......nothing, absolutely nothing. I stirred and stirred and gave it it's best shot but I actually think that yeast cake was all dead. I could not believe it personally. I could not make it to the LHBS for a few days and so feared infections would set in. So i did the unthinkable to save the must................... I used bread yeast............. Well about 18 hours has passed since then and this bad boy smells AWSOME and is bubbling along with a ferocity that you would expect with beers. So I will let it go dry "If the yeast can handle it, they should I guess" Cold crash, rack to a new container, stabilize and then blend with my pumpkin mead. Bulk age another month to let last sediments drop out and bottle. Wish me luck.

thought this was perfect timing too. I just finished off the last of my Spiced Chai mead which has been my absolute favorite to date. It was so good I just tapped right out of the secondary and took glasses from there.





What did you use in the spiced chai mead it sounds aaaamazing

This is the recipe I used in 1 gallon form with a few instructions:

Spiced Chai Mead
3 lb of Honey
10 bags of Earl Grey Black Tea
1 ½ tsp ground Cardamom
½ tsp of Whole black Peppercorns
2 whole cloves
1 stick of Cinnamon
1 Madagascar Vanilla Bean (Slit in half, seeds scraped, added to the must and the whole pod thrown in)
3tbs of Ground Ginger
1tsp of yeast nutrients
½ tsp of yeast energizer
1tsp of Acid Blend
Water to one gallon
Yeast “Lalvin D47”

Mix the Honey water & nutrients all together leaving enough head space to add your yeast starter as explained below. The energizer will be added when 1/3 of the fermentation is done. Add the entire spices/tea/vanilla bean to a nylon bag and place in the must. The powered ingredients can be added directly to the must. Then create a yeast starter:

1 cup water
¼ cup of honey
½ tsp of yeast nutrients
5 chopped up fine raisins

Sprinkle the Yeast on top and cover with a paper towel for 8 hours. Then pitch the yeast starter into the must. There should be a lot of activity in the starter after 1 – 2 hours. For larger batches of this recipe “3 or more gallons”, Increase the water to 2 cups, Honey to ½ cup & 10 raisins.