Jack's Apricot Vanilla Mead

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I make beer not mead but this looks great and I happen to have 3 lbs local honey, some vanilla beans, apricots, and champagne yeast all kicking around. Do I need to boil anything? The recipe just says combine everything and shake it up! No boil? Also, what container should I do this in? I have tons of glass 1G jugs but with the fruit etc., wouldn't I need a larger primary? Tips are most appreciated! Excited to try this!
 
I was going to make this too but haven't yet got around to it. Use a clean and sanitized 2 gallon bucket to do a primary fermentation as Singinchef undoubtedly did. You can stir that must up well to make sure the honey is in solution. No boil is recommended. I was going to make this as a BOMM too using Wyeast 1388 Belgian Ale yeast and 1/4 tsp KHCO3, a 1/2 tsp Fermaid K and 1/4 tsp DAP at must preparation and at the 1/3 and 2/3rds sugar break to make sure I got a good fast fermentation. It's your choice what yeast to use, the bread yeast leaves this sweet and any other yeast gets it dry as a bone. Use your one clean and sanitized gallon jug as a secondary to transfer the mead after one week.
 
Chisena, No boil necessary. Just combine everything and shake it up! I made a batch of this with D47 and it wasn't very good, even after a year of aging, so be careful with yeast selection. It makes a huge difference. Bread yeast works great for mead.
 
I made mine around July 10th. Still hanging out in the fermenter at 68F.
 
In 6 months after bottling. Age it, it is really alcoholic at the beginning.
 
Here is an update on mine. Almost 1 month. Going to move to secondary soon

DSC_0167.jpg
 
Zelmor said:
In 6 months after bottling. Age it, it is really alcoholic at the beginning.
Click to expand...


So this is still in the secondary now at five weeks. All visible fermentation stopped around three weeks which is when I transferred. When should I bottle it?
 
Just took a taste of this over the weekend and its still hot. Its been about 2-1/2 months, but I think its going to turn out well
 
chisena said:
So this is still in the secondary now at five weeks. All visible fermentation stopped around three weeks which is when I transferred. When should I bottle it?
Click to expand...

Don't take my word for it, as I am a newby myself. However, I go mostly by the hightest faq, and I would clarify before bottling: http://home.comcast.net/~mzapx1/FAQ/SparkFine.pdf

I just made 2 batches with this recipe in 10 litre demijohns.

Lime honey OG was 1.1
Rape honey OG was 1.084

I aim to have primary fermentation done in 2 weeks, however, temperatures are at 16 celsius, so it might drag out. After 2 days, Lime is coming around nicely, so staggered nutrient addition started. Rape is soon to follow, as I made them with 2 days of diff.
 
Zelmor said:
Don't take my word for it, as I am a newby myself. However, I go mostly by the hightest faq, and I would clarify before bottling: http://home.comcast.net/~mzapx1/FAQ/SparkFine.pdf
Click to expand...


Mine is certainly clear. Looks gorgeous. I finally tasted it and it's really nice. Has a bit of a strong alcohol taste but as I understand, that will mellow with age. I've never even tried mead and therefore, have nothing to compare to.
 
Quick question from a beginner:

I made a batch of this using 1118 and it's been popping for three weeks straight every second. I topped it up to the neck because the surface area on the apricots made me worried it would grow some aliens on it. I used dried apricots (wont have any here in Seattle until next summer) and two vanilla beans split. My question is this: There is a ton of pulp floating about as the yeast and water has gone to town on them. I read elsewhere to try to get the mixture off the fruit to prevent decomposing off-flavors, but since primary fermentation is clearly still in full effect, this seems like a terrible idea as I don't want to stall the yeast. Do I just wait until it calms down and the SG stays stable and then rack off the fruit or do it sooner?
 
Sadcheese said:
Quick question from a beginner:



I made a batch of this using 1118 and it's been popping for three weeks straight every second. I topped it up to the neck because the surface area on the apricots made me worried it would grow some aliens on it. I used dried apricots (wont have any here in Seattle until next summer) and two vanilla beans split. My question is this: There is a ton of pulp floating about as the yeast and water has gone to town on them. I read elsewhere to try to get the mixture off the fruit to prevent decomposing off-flavors, but since primary fermentation is clearly still in full effect, this seems like a terrible idea as I don't want to stall the yeast. Do I just wait until it calms down and the SG stays stable and then rack off the fruit or do it sooner?
Click to expand...


I say definitely wait until primary fermentation is visually over. Mine went strong for weeks as well. I think I racked it off the dried apricots and vanilla beans after 1-1.5 months or so. Haven't noticed any off flavors. There's still some yeastieness going on in there otherwise it tastes pretty good to me. If I were to rewind, I probably would not have used bread yeast.
 
Mine recently stopped from 1.1000 sg at 1.042. Doesn't look good, so I racked it, topped with some water as I was afraid to top with more honey-water, added yeast nutrients and yeast after 3 days as fermentation did not restart. Any ideas or tips on what I am doing is right?
 
Is all I can say. I just started a JAOM and traditional and will be doing a raspberry in a couple of days. After reading this thread I may leave the raspberries in the freezer and find some dried apricots in the store. I don't want to wait for spring for fresh apricots when I could start this one now and do another one with fresh in the spring! I think I'm going to start getting the stink eye from the wife..... whaddya ya mean "just ONE more" one gallon jug/batch! Lol!
 
I used dried mangoes. At 4 months very hot. Not good. At 6 months, totally different animal. Smooth and mellow like me, ;-). Time for anther batch.
 
I just finished up the 2nd tasting of this and we are getting a lot of cinnamon taste. As i posted here with the 1st tasting it was hot, we didn't get any cinnamon. Have any of you guys had cinnamon from this? As in the video we did taste the others to make sure we had the right one and we did. I did a apple cyser and a blueberry one.
Here is the review
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I subbed Craisins, 2 old cinnamon sticks, and 2 Tbls of Mexican Vanilla. My wife strongly dislikes my beer. She told me to make more Cran mead.
 
SinginChef said:
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
Click to expand...

Anyone try this with dried cherries? Just a thought, may give this a go this weekend. I have an empty 1 gal carboy just sitting around....LOL;)
 
I have a gallon batch going now with cherries. I should rack it to secondary tomorrow. If it turns out as good as with Craisins, it will be another hit.
 
Doing a dried cherry and original (apricot) recipe now.

New to "meading", so how long in the primary until racking to secondary?

Also, is it done in the secondary when it is clear?

One more thing, when and how often are you adding yeast nutrients?

Using Costco clover honey.
Thanks
 
Ever seen this before? Small white foamy bubbles just under krausen, about 1/2 inch? Looks like snow or frost.

Nice strong fermentation krausen already peaked after 40-hours into fermentation.

Sorry cannot get the pic to load from my phone.
 
I would make this again but definitely not with bread yeast. That flavor was ever present in mine and not appealing to me personally.
 
Started a 3 gallon batch of this last Saturday. Used D47 yeast and upped the honey content to 10 pounds and 3 pounds of dried apricots. It set off like a rocket, and is still happily bubbling away. The aroma it's giving off is amazing, so de-gassing it a couple of times a day is a real treat. I opted not to use the vanilla beans in primary, but am going to be introducing vanilla in secondary so that the flavor is a bit more pronounced. Bought the Clover Honey and Dried Apricots at Costco, so this 3 gallon batch is probably going to turn out to be one of the less expensive batches I've brewed in a bit. More updates when I move it to secondary.
 
JohnDBrewer said:
Doing a dried cherry and original (apricot) recipe now.

New to "meading", so how long in the primary until racking to secondary?

Also, is it done in the secondary when it is clear?

One more thing, when and how often are you adding yeast nutrients?

Using Costco clover honey.
Thanks
Click to expand...

I usually wait 35-45 days. No big deal, just how busy I am. After that, secondary is about 2 weeks (maybe more). When it clears it's good. Actually at racking it's good. I do have some bottles with a bit of sediment in the bottom. I did a batch wit her dried cherries. Not very impressed. Apricots, craisins and lingonberry are my favorites. I have not had any bread yeast flavors. This is a classic recipe.
Cheers
 
Made this as my first mead. Used fresh apricots in primary and secondary. Used vanilla extract as I had trouble finding beans. Vanilla got blown out, but otherwise this turned out amazing. Drinkable in 30 days and I can't wait to see where this ends up by Christmas.

Thanks for sharing.
 
Made this today. Thanks for the recipe. I added a little more dried apricot. I cut up the apricots into quaters and soaked them for a couple of hours in hot water. I also added some raisins like I did in JAOM. I figured it couldn't hurt. Used whole vanilla bean. They are pricey!! Really looking forward to this one.
 
A long time ago... I made a dried cherry mead. Wasn’t very impressed. I sampled my way through the batch. I found 1 bottle hiding in the cupboard. At 14 months, it was really and truly wonderful. I was almost sad to be sharing with my sister in law and her husband. So lesson learned, if it’s not good. Recap it and put it away for 6 months. Remember, take a sip. Then decide whether to drink the whole bottle or recap. It si better to wait than wish you would have.
 
I made one in October. Bottled it late last month. It was incredible. Abit firey but whoa boy delicious. Made another 6 gallon batch immediately.
 
I haven’t used peaches... apricots, craisins, dried cherries. Try to get unsulferred if you can. Less preservatives the better.
Bread yeast works. But wine and beer yeast is cheap enough and could give you better results.
 
Sorry I meant to apricots. I have been looking at fermenting some peaches lately, so I have had peaches on the mind.
 
I'm not sold on the whole raisins in the JAOM or any other mead for that matter. I thought it was only for the nutrient value, which in this day and age is obviously superseded by the quality products available. Same for the bread yeast for that matter - can anything beat a 71B?
 
We use 71b almost exclusively. DAP and Fermaid K for nutrients. We have 30 gallons in 5 gallon batches of grape, apple pie, tart and sweet cherry all in secondary. We may give the apricot a try. We do mostly high gravity meads that will bulk age for about 8 months before we bottle and put away for a year or so. We have a 5 gallon batch of grape that we “sample” to keep from dipping into the others. It never makes it into a bottle.
 
I realize this is a very old thread, but if anyone is still following, do you know if you can use liquid vanilla in place of the vanilla bean?
Thanks.
 

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