Blueberry Mead

How did you mix the honey in with the secondary? Would you not induce O2 when you wouldn't want to at that point? I'm going to try my hand with this but was just curious about adding honey after you're near or at the end of fermentation.

Scratch this question. I missed that it was answered earlier in the post. I noticed on my second read through. :/

When my honey comes on I will be making a five gallon batch of this with your suggestions of 12lbs honey and 12lbs blueberries. Shooting for a dry 11-12%

I put the berries in vodka for a while in order to sterilize them, (and also to make homemade blueberry vodka heh) and am keeping the must in my fridge at about 55 degrees to try and possibly avoid the moldy berries mentioned earlier. I was wondering, no need to add grape tannin?
Thanks!

dbr80 said:

i have followed the original recipe and now have the mel in secondary but have not seen any bubbles in the airlock. i forgot to add the honey before racking and all is now on the bottom of the carboy. i read that i shouldnt stir but should i add some energizer? it has been in secondary for at least a week.
mine also had a smell of rotten berries and not the delightful smell that others have described.

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I'm curious as to what temperature you kept the fermenter at?

I put a batch of this on last january, and it has been sitting quietly in the fermenter ever since the last racking. Has anyone else ever left their mead that long? I have been under the impression that mead benefits from a extended aging process.

jim_reaper1066 said:

I put a batch of this on last january, and it has been sitting quietly in the fermenter ever since the last racking. Has anyone else ever left their mead that long? I have been under the impression that mead benefits from a extended aging process.

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My last 2 batches aged for a year in bulk after it finished and then bottled. It does smooth out a bunch.

This is day 6, I believe. There was significantly more foaming but I just stirred it very vigorously! Can't wait to taste this. Thanks for this recipe post, mgayer! :fro:

Thanks for the recipe mgayer. This was my first attempt at mead, so I'm hoping it'll come out well

One suggestion, put your berries in a mesh bag or something or it's very possible you'll run into some serious clogging problems when you are racking this into secondary. At least, I did. >_<

AugustDerleth said:

One suggestion, put your berries in a mesh bag or something or it's very possible you'll run into some serious clogging problems when you are racking this into secondary. At least, I did. >_<

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Too late for me unfortunately. I hope I can avoid an autosiphon full of blueberries by wrapping some cheesecloth around the business end when I rack.

I've done 2 x 5 gallon batches of this so far and had no problems wrapping a fine mesh nylong brew bag around the racking cane. The only minor problem is the end of the racking process is slowed down a bit.

Mmm Mmmm. Can't wait for this to wrap up! :fro:

I was looking for a decent blueberry mead recipe for my 5 gallon carboy and this looks great..thanks. I'm starting it this week..wish me luck!

Also making this recipe, though I changed it up a bit.

Followed the advice of the OP and went with 10# berries and about 10# honey. I added all the dry stuff (minus yeast) and shook - then pitched yeast after 24 hours. Left in primary with a muslin cloth, triple folded, on top to allow air flow and stirred every day. About a week ago I strained out the berries and racked with 1.5# honey into a carboy. It was super bubbly for about 3 days and now has pretty much ceased to do anything...

Question:
If the carboy was shaken quite a bit, will this ruin or otherwise make this batch no good? I did not realize shaking was a huge no-no and shook is up enough to make it cloudy. It has since stabilized and formed on the bottom again....

Smell is GREAT! No rotten smells at all. When I racked it, we tasted it just a bit. Very awesome - tasted like blueberry juice with more sweetener (honey of course) and a bit of alcohol.

After emptying our primary the other day, we couldn't just leave it empty so we took the 10 pounds of blueberries we had sitting around in the freezer and started a batch of this this weekend. If I did the math right, it'll finish off right at 14%, and we'll sweeten with a little honey at racking. Can't wait... 'till September? Ugh, such a horrible hobby for me to be into... I have no patience.

Sirthomas42 said:

Can't wait... 'till September? Ugh, such a horrible hobby for me to be into... I have no patience.

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Mine have been sitting for coming up on six months, and I intend to leave them for another six before bottling, at which point they'll sit for longer. I've tasted it and it's certainly drink-able right now, but will only get finer with time. I'm excited. Just brew some tasty beers to drink in the meantime!

I hate beer I wish I liked it, but I don't. So I make wine... *hides*

Sirthomas42 said:

I hate beer

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...but I love Apfelwein, Mead, sweet grape wines, Grape Mead... does that help?

So should I be racking this without the blueberries after primary?

I did. Today in fact. It smells and (hydro sample) tastes delicious. Sans blueberries, it went from a 6.5 gal bucket to a 5 gal carboy and fit perfectly. Did t even need to top up. Dark dark purple color.

When I racked, a few berries and berry bits floated over through the cane and are still in my secondary. It'll just add a little more colour and flavour. I've been adding a small amount of honey at each rack, and this quickly became a dessert wine but I will say that it is DELICIOUS. Just be aware of where you want it to finish and adjust how much honey you add at each racking.

We tied up the blueberries really tight in the fruit bag, it was a pain to untie, but no blueberries made it into the 2ndary, and all the fruit bits that made it through the mesh were left at the bottom of the bucket. Still fermenting along, can't wait!

Sirthomas42 said:

... no blueberries made it into the 2ndary...

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If you wanted a pretty strong blueberry taste, you'll want some blueberries to be in your secondary. Fruit in primary is almost completely fuel for the yeast, and you get more flavour and colour from your fruit when they are added after fermentation has ceased.

Hello all! Glad to hear everyone is enjoying this. I have found it a great addition to have berries in the secondary as long as possible. It will impart more flavor to a point and then the tannins in the berries tend to get bitter. No worries until about 90 days however.

I haven't been on for awhile but nice to see it is still being used. I usually have a bottle soon after bottling as it is hard wait. After 2 years it is almost like kool-aid.

mgayer said:

Hello all! Glad to hear everyone is enjoying this. I have found it a great addition to have berries in the secondary as long as possible. It will impart more flavor to a point and then the tannins in the berries tend to get bitter. No worries until about 90 days however.

I haven't been on for awhile but nice to see it is still being used. I usually have a bottle soon after bottling as it is hard wait. After 2 years it is almost like kool-aid.

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Oh no just cleared the berries out when i racked it yesterday! Unbelievable bad luck! Thanks or getting back

AugustDerleth said:

If you wanted a pretty strong blueberry taste, you'll want some blueberries to be in your secondary.

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Hmmm I'll know that for next time. Going to rack it again on a week or so, I'll give it a taste then, see what I think of the blueberry flavor. Maybe I'll top it up with some blueberry juice. It did amazing things for the blueberry cider we're aging now

I put a batch of this on back in January 2010 and its still sitting in the carboy. I might have to get around to bottling it at some point.

We racked it again last night, probably for the last time -- there was no sediment at the bottom of the carboy. It's dry as a bone, and the hydro sample was delicious! I like my wines a little sweet (we usually sweeten to about 1.010) but this stuff was amazing even dry. Probably bottle in a couple weeks when our primary/bottling bucket is free

OK, so I couldn't stand waiting any longer... we needed another bucket anyways, so I picked one up and we bottled this. We sweetened the mead to 1.010, just a bit sweet, right where we like it. It turned out AMAZING, with a strong blueberry flavor -- surprising I think, since it only had 10 pounds of blueberries at the start.

At 14.9% abv, it's a little hot, but I have a small mountain of Apfelwein and Skeeter Pee to drink while it ages a little. I... may be buzzed a little, OK fine, a lot. Woo, drunk HBT posting?

Put another 6 gallons of this on today, as we're down to just 6 bottles of our original batch! This time I added a few vanilla beans to the primary -- got a bunch of beans for really cheap. Of the 2 dozen or so batches I've made in my short time making wine, this is far and away my favorite!

mgayer said:

3 packets of Lalvin D47 Yeast

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Are 3 packets of yeast really necessary, or can one get by with 1 or 2? I thought a single packet was good for 5 gallons?

I only used one both times I've made this. I *do* make a starter for almost every batch I make though.

My uncle brought some of his ten year old blueberry mead to thanksgiving and now I'm totally convinced this is the next thing I want to get brewing.
Question: About how many pounds of honey are in a gallon?

The last time I bought honey, I believe it was 3 pounds per quart jar...so around 12 pounds per gallon roughly.

It's about 11-3/4 lb per gallon.

Thanks! Now I just gotta find gallon and a bit more of honey and I'll be all set.

Do you top off with water to 5 gallons before or after throwing the blueberries in?

So I bottled my blueberry mead this past weekend, and the bluberry flavor isn't very pronounced. I think it would be better to add the blueberries to secondary rather than include them in primary.

Going to be making this in a few hours... still waiting for my blueberries to freeze.

As soon as they are I will proceed to mix 13lbs of honey with water in my carboy. I then will mash my 7 lbs of blueberries and throw them in as well as the energizer, the nutrient, and some camden pills. Tomorrow I throw in the 3 packets of D-47.

The sooner I do this, the sooner I drink. I don't plan on bottling for 4 months which will be really hard.

Thanks for the recipe!