Belgian White style mead

Ok now that I have you attention, Bigkahuna included I hope. I want to do a mead with a belgian whit take. The one thing I dont want to use is hops because well they cost to dam@ much right now (unless someone wants to mail me some fresh ones, but i dont see that as likely).

I was thinking of using clover honey from a private apiary of course and adding orange zest or whole not sure, corriander and maybe some belgian candy sugar. For yeast I will use a trappist ale yeast which is hopefully up to the job.

Also if anyone has some ideas on a tripple style mead Im open to those as well.

tooomanycolors said:

Also if anyone has some ideas on a tripple style mead Im open to those as well.

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Hey wait...where did I hear that one before?!?





(But I still maintain that you asking for help with experimental meads is tantamount to Albert Einstein asking a middleschool math class for help with a calculation.)

ok...so I just asked you to start a new thread.....and here you are.
I also said:
Do a little mash, add some light bittering hops and call it a Braggot!
Mash like...4# of 2row, (3.3# can of extract)
maybe...1 oz of Cascades?
The citrus and Coriander would go great!

I'll bet that if you skip the Hops and add some extra orange zest, you could get plenty of bitterness. Are you thinking of adding grain? You'd almost have to to give the Belgian appeal?

The grains no problem Ill steal some of my roomies, he is all grain now anyway and 1oz of hops is doable.

I guess no I need to figure out the honey part and think about the candied sugar...

I found a recipe for a Barley wine style Braggot that calls for 4# Pale Malt, .5# Crystal (?L) and 2 oz Cascade hops. This recipe is calling for 10# of Amber Honey and D-47.

So what would you get if you knock out the hops completely (or cut back to 1oz), add orange zest and coriander (Both will work as bittering agents), add 12# of light honey, use the Belgian Yeast!

DON"T over do the Coriander. I did on a mead, and now it's chicken marinade...totally undrinkable.

Someone needs to poke this into beer smith or something to make sure you're not ending up with like 1.200 OG (that's an exaggeration of course) and make sure it matches the attenuation of your yeast. Just use less honey till it hits the target.

I've been thinking about doing a "mead that thinks it's a beer" for quite a while, and what I've come up with is a few problems and a few solutions:

The main problem is body and head retention, but as this a wit style I'm thinking if you did like 15% of the fermentables as carafoam, 10% as flaked oats, and 25% as wheat malt, with the other 50% as a honey, maybe as a heavy honey, such as buckwheat or hardwood in order to work with the heavyness of the grains involved, it might just work out. I was thinking of going for a "quick, mead-house beer" so I was contemplating this very thing for a bit, I haven't tried it yet, maybe throw in a pound or so of malto-dextrin as well, just to give it some more body to counteract the dryness that would result from the 50% honey.

Since Im thinking of a still style mead head retention isnt huge unless I can talk my roommate out of keg space then Ill do sparkling.

And Ill get this into beersmith this evening and post back with more of a recipe

I think if you're going still (and I would...just to be different) I'd keep the bitterness down...maybe do without the hops at all.

for hops what about saaz, stryan golding, or streisspalt?

yeast WLP 570 golden strong ale, or 400

for a recipe looking at

12#honey, probably clover
2# american 2-row
2# american wheat
1oz Styrian golding hops @ 60min

6gallon batch total
not sure how much corriander or zest

bitterness is 14ibu
planning on the WLP570
no candied sugar

process make a 3 gallon mash and pitch with the yeast let it go for about 5 days then add approximately half the honey and allow it to go for about a week or more then add the rest of the honey and allow it to all get friendly for a month or two.

Next question how much corriander should I look at and should I add it to the boil or throw it in raw/plain and let it just come out during fermation?

the only advice I can give on the Coriander is less is more.

1/8 oz?

Is strong tea a useful substitute to bitter a beverage with?

Never tried using tea, but I have seen recipes where it is used.

However, in this one I will not be using it and as to my original tentative recipe Im going to leave out the wheat and instead use a couple other varieties of barley so my project is going more in a triple direction than a whit.

And Kahuna i saw where you said about 1/8oz corriander which seems good but what are your/everyones thought on when I should add it? During the mash boil or once I have added the first installment of honey?

On another note this project should be started next week as I am in the process of purchasing 60# of honey. YAY ME

tooomanycolors said:

And Kahuna i saw where you said about 1/8oz corriander which seems good but what are your/everyones thought on when I should add it? During the mash boil or once I have added the first installment of honey?

On another note this project should be started next week as I am in the process of purchasing 60# of honey. YAY ME

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Since I don't know for sure, I might do 1/2 in the boil and half with the addition of the honey. That way you'll get some of the benefit of both methods.

60# of Honey! YAY YOU!

Getting my honey on Friday, 60lbs of a soybean/clover/alphalfa mix from 2006, so hopefully this will get started saturday or sunday!!!

tea isn't going to bitter like hops will.

and honey is FAR more expensive than an ounce of hops, especially the low amount you'd use in a witbier.

the mead style you seek is called a Braggot, and is a style that means 'mead made with some malted grain'.

since you want a wit, you MUST use some winter wheat in your mash, or its not gonna be 'wit like' at all IMO. I'd go heavy on the wheat, maybe a 1lb of 2-row since wheat can convert itself pretty readily.

if you don't plan to go pretty dry, you'll NEED hops to balance the sweetness out.

actually this is going to be more of a trappist style braggot, not a wit. That's why were were thinking styrian goldings or saaz and maybe some aromatic and/or special B in the mash. WLP570 most likely.

I think I may have settled on this recipe

3# 2 Row
0.75# Special B
0.50# Aromatic
0.50 Strisslespalt or Saaz hops @60min
15# Honey (its a mix of Alfalfa, soybean, and clover from 2006)
5 gallon tap water
WLP570 Golden Ale yeast

Step 1: Create mash using 2 Row, special B, and Aromatic in 3 gallons of water.
Step 2: Dissolve 8lbs honey in 1.5 gallons water and cool then add to primary carboy with beer wort
Step 3: On day 28 dissolve remaining 7lbs honey in 1.5 gallons warm water and cool then add to primary fermenter
Step 4: On day 74 transfer to secondary carboy and age for 10.5 weeks then bottle

estimated OG: 1.105
estimated color: 17.3
bitterness 6.4IBU using the strisslespat

tooomanycolors said:

I think I may have settled on this recipe

3# 2 Row
0.75# Special B
0.50# Aromatic
0.50 Strisslespalt or Saaz hops @60min
15# Honey (its a mix of Alfalfa, soybean, and clover from 2006)
5 gallon tap water
WLP570 Golden Ale yeast

Step 1: Create mash using 2 Row, special B, and Aromatic in 3 gallons of water.
Step 2: Dissolve 8lbs honey in 1.5 gallons water and cool then add to primary carboy with beer wort
Step 3: On day 28 dissolve remaining 7lbs honey in 1.5 gallons warm water and cool then add to primary fermenter
Step 4: On day 74 transfer to secondary carboy and age for 10.5 weeks then bottle

estimated OG: 1.105
estimated color: 17.3
bitterness 6.4IBU using the strisslespat

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WOW!!! I can't wait to hear how this turns out...Looks amazing. Any idea what the starting gravity of this will be?

its estimated at 1.105, which im just gonna use since im not sure how to figure it out with staggered additions of the honey

1.200 OG
Hey, anything is possible, I just need to find a yeast that I could step up to that level and still finish dry without tasting like jet fluid.
Coriander and grains of paradise is some potent stuff. Just used it for the first time and I tasted it prior to pitching it, after tasting it I think I went down to a few grains.

huh? whered you get 1.200?

just picked up my honey 5gallons for $80, but got some bad news at the same time, this years collection is gonna jump to $140 per 5gallons. CRAP. And at the same time I want some because its heavy on the sweet clover and basswood, tried some out of the frame and it was DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Time to start keeping some bees!

I know, my source was telling me a small hive will produce between 50 and 150lbs a year.

Oh nice!! I wonder how the HOA would feel about bees at my townhouse...

Dont' tell them!

Since im still waiting for the grapefruit to clear, what would be the thoughts if I used 0.5oz of saaz and 0.5oz of strisselspat

So we(me and toomanycolors) just had the crazy idea of doubling the grain bill, and splitting it into two batches, one being the trappist/abbey style mead and the other, with less honey and a lower abv for a lambic or other sour type of braggot. It's just an idea right now, and I'm going to start reading on lambics and other sour blends so see what we need to do.

And the hops have been dropped from the trappist braggot