Newbie JAOM recipe requires critiquing (no actual oranges involved)

This will be my first attempt at making mead, and feeling unjustifiably ambitious I'm planning on making 2 gallons, blackberry vanilla.

6 lbs Wildflower honey
4 lbs blackberries (2 lbs go in the primary, rack onto 2 lbs and the vanilla beans for the secondary)
Raisins
Vanilla beans (the amount of these I need assistance with for a mild vanilla flavor)
Nottingham Yeast
Add water to two gallons

I want to add yeast nutrients, but with how far I'm already deviating from the recipe, I'm not sure it's needed.

I'm curious to see what kind of result the Nottingham yeast gives me, and using that instead of bread yeast should be a lot less messy when I rack this to the secondary.

When it's time to rack, I plan on splitting the vanilla beans but I have no idea how many I should use. The easy way would be to simply use vanilla extract to taste, but using beans feels like the 'right' way.

If I've got this figured out right, at the end I should have a still, slightly sweet, absolutely delicious mead. [joel] What do you think, sirs? [/joel]

Ok, I have found that 1/2 bean split per gallon yeilds a very tasty vanilla flavor. You will want to taste it frequently in case you start getting more vanilla than you want. I also think the raisins are unnecessary with the 2lb blackberries in primary, this is especially true if you use nutrient additions. No personal experience with Nottingham but I have heard others using it with good Results.

I finally hit the end of the JAOM recipe thread and one of the posts mentioned vanilla beans too. One bean for two gallons seems like a safe starting point. Better too little than too much.

I think I read in my mead book that vanilla is something that may be very subtle if added to primary but in secondary is much stronger. Either way, highly recommended addition.

As others have said blackberries may provide the desired nutritrients so you may not need raisins or nutrients

When I make JAOM with mixed berries I do use raisins, just fyi, and both times I have gotten something of a silky mead. I guess my point is they can't hurt.

One thing to note about the berries - seeds. Don't damage them. I think I damaged my Blackberry/raspberry mead because I pureed the berries which cracked at least some of the seeds. It tastes pretty... chemicalish, harsh and weird after 3 months.

Hadnt even thought about that because I use frozen and add as is. Having whole frozen berries didnt make it less berry-y, so I saw no need to dirty the cuisinart .

haxcess said:

One thing to note about the berries - seeds. Don't damage them. I think I damaged my Blackberry/raspberry mead because I pureed the berries which cracked at least some of the seeds. It tastes pretty... chemicalish, harsh and weird after 3 months.

Click to expand...

haxcess said:

One thing to note about the berries - seeds. Don't damage them. I think I damaged my Blackberry/raspberry mead because I pureed the berries which cracked at least some of the seeds. It tastes pretty... chemicalish, harsh and weird after 3 months.

Click to expand...

From what I know of berry seeds, I would imagine that breaking them open could cause some undesired and/or bitter flavors. Of course I suppose the real test would be to see have the mead tasted another six months down the line.

I've got some fresh berries in my freezer, and I'll make sure to mash them oh so gently when I mix this batch up this weekend.

I think I'll try adding one split vanilla bean to the primary, see what flavor profile that instills, and then add one more, a half a bean at a time, depending on how much stronger I want to try and make it.

Thanks for the suggestions. This will be a fun experiment, if nothing else.

One thing that occurred to me, when I rack onto the fresh 2lbs of berries, how long should I let them sit there in the carboy? When should I rack it again and just let mead sit and age?