Howdy, i normally brew beer in 5 batches and my wife wants me to do a batch of strawberry mead for her...I would like to do at least a 5 gallon batch.....does anyone out there have a good recipe that they would not mind sharing?????? thanks, scotty
Looking for a Strawberry mead Recipe
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Stawberry? I have a good recipie. Might be very sweet though.
20 pounds honey (better quality the better, I used local alphafa honey)
1 tablespoon yeast energizer
1 tablespoon yeast nutrient
2 packets of lavin D-47 yeast
4 gallons of distilled or bottled water.
14 pounds of strawberries.
Note the strawberry will be in the secondary and wont be needed for a couple of weeks.
First step will be to take the honey and 2 gallons of water in a stock pot and disolve the honey. Bring to temp of about 140 to 150 for about 5 min to pastorize (basically kill off the wild yeast. Scrape off the top any scum that surfaces, should be a little. While it is coming to temp put the yeast in a cup of room temp fruit juice so it is nice and active. It is also best to chill the other two gallons of water the previous night to speed up cooling time. Once the honey water got up to 140-150 for 5 min (NOT BOILING) take off of heat, then put in the chilled water to bring down the temp. Wait until it is down to at least 80-85 degree Farien height, candy thermomiters work great. When cool toss in the reactivated yeast and the yeast nutrient and energizer. Give some really good stirs to put oxygen into it. Some people like to whip the snot out of a bit of the mix in a blender and then stir it in. All a matter of taste. Then after getting good air into it transfer to the carboy and cap the carboy with an airlock that will let the co2 out. Let perkalate for around 2 weeks. Until it slows down to about 1 bubble a minute. Or when it slows to a crawl. This is when you rack it.
Step 2 will be preping the strawberries. I like to juice it. Some like to just slice it up and put it in a mesh bag. Last time I made it I pureed it and put it in a bag. If you have a juicer that would be ideal just juice the strawberries after you remove the green. Then you don't have to put it in a mesh bag.
Put the juice in the carboy that you are racking it to first and then trasfer the mead to it. Be sure to have an extra glass gallon container or two in case of overflow so you can rack the excess to it, then blend it into it later as you loose volume on the successive rackings. Then just rack again about once a month. It should be ready to bottle in about 6-7 months, racking ever 1-2 months depending on clairity and sediment. I did mine in about 4-5 rackings. After bottling be sure to let sit (or age as the term is) for at least 6 months to a year. Then you will have a very strawberry and very sweet mead. Some like to cut back on the honey and do 12-18 pounds and you can go lower on the strawberries depending on how strawberry you want it say 8-10 would be lowering it from the original 14 pounds I used. What can I say. I love honey and strawbery and very sweet desert meads.
Good luck. Remember sanitize and air dry equipment before using it.
20 pounds honey (better quality the better, I used local alphafa honey)
1 tablespoon yeast energizer
1 tablespoon yeast nutrient
2 packets of lavin D-47 yeast
4 gallons of distilled or bottled water.
14 pounds of strawberries.
Note the strawberry will be in the secondary and wont be needed for a couple of weeks.
First step will be to take the honey and 2 gallons of water in a stock pot and disolve the honey. Bring to temp of about 140 to 150 for about 5 min to pastorize (basically kill off the wild yeast. Scrape off the top any scum that surfaces, should be a little. While it is coming to temp put the yeast in a cup of room temp fruit juice so it is nice and active. It is also best to chill the other two gallons of water the previous night to speed up cooling time. Once the honey water got up to 140-150 for 5 min (NOT BOILING) take off of heat, then put in the chilled water to bring down the temp. Wait until it is down to at least 80-85 degree Farien height, candy thermomiters work great. When cool toss in the reactivated yeast and the yeast nutrient and energizer. Give some really good stirs to put oxygen into it. Some people like to whip the snot out of a bit of the mix in a blender and then stir it in. All a matter of taste. Then after getting good air into it transfer to the carboy and cap the carboy with an airlock that will let the co2 out. Let perkalate for around 2 weeks. Until it slows down to about 1 bubble a minute. Or when it slows to a crawl. This is when you rack it.
Step 2 will be preping the strawberries. I like to juice it. Some like to just slice it up and put it in a mesh bag. Last time I made it I pureed it and put it in a bag. If you have a juicer that would be ideal just juice the strawberries after you remove the green. Then you don't have to put it in a mesh bag.
Put the juice in the carboy that you are racking it to first and then trasfer the mead to it. Be sure to have an extra glass gallon container or two in case of overflow so you can rack the excess to it, then blend it into it later as you loose volume on the successive rackings. Then just rack again about once a month. It should be ready to bottle in about 6-7 months, racking ever 1-2 months depending on clairity and sediment. I did mine in about 4-5 rackings. After bottling be sure to let sit (or age as the term is) for at least 6 months to a year. Then you will have a very strawberry and very sweet mead. Some like to cut back on the honey and do 12-18 pounds and you can go lower on the strawberries depending on how strawberry you want it say 8-10 would be lowering it from the original 14 pounds I used. What can I say. I love honey and strawbery and very sweet desert meads.
Good luck. Remember sanitize and air dry equipment before using it.
By the way this will more than likely produce a very potent mead that you wont notice in the taste. Caution in drinking is advised. Also, you might need to stabalize the yeast before adding the strawberry to prevent it from drying out. I didn't have too much of a problem as I am a bit lazy on racking and waited a month before racking it onto the strawberries. By then the fermentaiton was not perceptable.
If you are on a budget, I've found that a jar of strawberry preserves adds a lot of strawberry flavor without hurting the wallet. Just toss it in after the boil to pasteurize the fruit. One 18oz jar brought a nice strawberry flavor to my regular mead recipe and turned it pink.
I think I used organic just to be safe.
I think I used organic just to be safe.
travestyofnature
Well-Known Member
I have about the same recipie. For a mead that is a little less sweet, follow the same recipie but use WYeast Labs Dry Mead (4632) yeast. It will still be slightly sweet, good strawberry flavor but even more hidden potency. Much more caution is advised!
wdtunstall
Member
I just whipped some up last night. Here is what I did:
Ingredients: (makes 5-gallons)
· 10 lbs Clover honey
· 2 lbs Sugar - granulated
· 16 lbs Strawberries
· 10 Tea bags (Cherry / Cinnamon flavored)
· 5 Campden tablets
· Yeast Energizer / Nutrient
· 2/3 tsp potassium metabisuphite (stop fermentation)
· Montrachet yeast
Procedure:
Slice 6 lbs of strawberries and cram into a (sanitized) knee-high stocking. Squeeze juice into a 5-gallon primary (bucket) and then place the full stocking into primary. Add about 1-gallon of cool water. I sliced the remaining 10 lbs of strawberries and froze them for later. We’ll add these to the secondary.
In a large pot, add 4 cups water and bring to a near boil. Add 10 tea bags and steep for ~10 minutes.
Add honey and sugar. Bring to a low boil and skim off foam. Remove from heat and add 5 tsp of nutrient. There should be about 1-1/2 gallons of liquid in the pot, now. Pour this over the strawberries and add water to bring it to within 2 to 3 inches from top of bucket. Stir vigorously to oxygenate the must.
Cool the must by placing bucket into sink of ice water. It took about ½ hour to cool down enough so I could pitch the yeast. Stir often.
Take about 2 to 3 cups of the cooled must and pour into a saucepan. Heat so it’s about 90° to 100° F. Add energizer and stir well. Remove from heat and add yeast. Let it sit for about 10 minutes and stir well. Cover and wait another 10 minutes. Stir well again and pitch into must.
Stir vigorously, again. Cover primary fermenter and air-lock. S.G. = 1.18
** I did all of this before I went to bed. I finished about 11:00pm. By 7:00am the next morning it was bubbling rapidly. I stirred it again. In the evening when I get home I’ll add some more nutrient and stir vigorously and put in the basement bathroom to sit for a week or so. When the gravity reaches ~1.00 I’ll rack to secondary, stabilize the yeast and add the rest of the (thawed) strawberries (10 lbs).
Ingredients: (makes 5-gallons)
· 10 lbs Clover honey
· 2 lbs Sugar - granulated
· 16 lbs Strawberries
· 10 Tea bags (Cherry / Cinnamon flavored)
· 5 Campden tablets
· Yeast Energizer / Nutrient
· 2/3 tsp potassium metabisuphite (stop fermentation)
· Montrachet yeast
Procedure:
Slice 6 lbs of strawberries and cram into a (sanitized) knee-high stocking. Squeeze juice into a 5-gallon primary (bucket) and then place the full stocking into primary. Add about 1-gallon of cool water. I sliced the remaining 10 lbs of strawberries and froze them for later. We’ll add these to the secondary.
In a large pot, add 4 cups water and bring to a near boil. Add 10 tea bags and steep for ~10 minutes.
Add honey and sugar. Bring to a low boil and skim off foam. Remove from heat and add 5 tsp of nutrient. There should be about 1-1/2 gallons of liquid in the pot, now. Pour this over the strawberries and add water to bring it to within 2 to 3 inches from top of bucket. Stir vigorously to oxygenate the must.
Cool the must by placing bucket into sink of ice water. It took about ½ hour to cool down enough so I could pitch the yeast. Stir often.
Take about 2 to 3 cups of the cooled must and pour into a saucepan. Heat so it’s about 90° to 100° F. Add energizer and stir well. Remove from heat and add yeast. Let it sit for about 10 minutes and stir well. Cover and wait another 10 minutes. Stir well again and pitch into must.
Stir vigorously, again. Cover primary fermenter and air-lock. S.G. = 1.18
** I did all of this before I went to bed. I finished about 11:00pm. By 7:00am the next morning it was bubbling rapidly. I stirred it again. In the evening when I get home I’ll add some more nutrient and stir vigorously and put in the basement bathroom to sit for a week or so. When the gravity reaches ~1.00 I’ll rack to secondary, stabilize the yeast and add the rest of the (thawed) strawberries (10 lbs).
Beeropolis
Well-Known Member
I just made my first batch of mead and after it ferments out I'm going to add juiced strawberries to it. My question though is this, is there any reason why I can't age it in bottles for 9ish months instead of a carboy? I have limited carboy space and can crash cool it to clear it up if clearing is the only reason for it to sit in a carboy.
travestyofnature
Well-Known Member
You can age in bottles but mead aged in bulk will retain its consistency, where mead bottled young may vary between the bottles after it has aged.
funkapottomous
Well-Known Member
just made basically this same recipe, going to rack it every month for three months, bottle it up and let it sit for 3 or 4 months in wine bottles. I told myself I was going to carbonate it, but I may not in the long run. I'm going to carb half of my gallon of pomegranate mead and see how that turns out, and then go from there. (of course with five gallons, I could carb half and not carb the other half as well. It would look awfully nice coming out of champagne bottles, I bet.) Who knows. a lot of it depends on the bottles I get. Scored a big amber half gallon jug, a giant wine bottle and an old crock wine bottle (i love these things, makes me feel like a real viking!) at an antique shop here in town so I'm going to go search some more in the time before it's ready.
meading_of_minds
Well-Known Member
I definitely want to try this. When you've made it before (anyone), did you really wait a whole year before you had some?
Twofox
Well-Known Member
I made a batch of strawberry mead (my first ever).
7# clover honey
1.25# sage honey
3.5# strawberries (cut and frozen)
WLP720
Started this 5 days ago. Fermentation started the next day too.
I have some questions of anyone could answer them - I remove the strawberries when they turn white correct? So then do I rack to secondary or leave it? Also racking to secondary, will fermentation continue?
Just not completely sure how to proceed.
7# clover honey
1.25# sage honey
3.5# strawberries (cut and frozen)
WLP720
Started this 5 days ago. Fermentation started the next day too.
I have some questions of anyone could answer them - I remove the strawberries when they turn white correct? So then do I rack to secondary or leave it? Also racking to secondary, will fermentation continue?
Just not completely sure how to proceed.
funkapottomous
Well-Known Member
I know I definitely won't wait a whole year to try it, but i will definitely save some for a year and taste the differences.
meading_of_minds
Well-Known Member
I think I'm going to try it first with strawberries in the primary. Strawberries bought. I hope I have enough honey.
I may put more strawberries in the secondary, depends on what it tastes like when I sample.
I may put more strawberries in the secondary, depends on what it tastes like when I sample.
funkapottomous
Well-Known Member
I used roughly three pounds of strawberries in primary, nearly 12 pounds of honey, and let it sit for three weeks(?).
Transferred to secondary on top of 13/14~ pounds of cut fresh strawberries. (oh the joys of having lived in pasadena, TX. it just so happens that the weekend before I planned on transferring was the strawberry festival, so I picked up a whole flat of strawberries for 20 bucks. roughly 12 pints I think it was.) It has been fermenting away, and I'm tempted to take it off and transfer it over again, but I may wait another week or so to do it. From what I've read though, after the first week or so you pretty much get all of your flavors out of the fruit; and am contemplating whether or not to transfer it already or wait. Maybe I'll flip a coin.
You do need a year to age it. The taste is there but too much alcohol taste if you drink it sooner. The fruit flavor really comes out at the year mark. Trust me It's worth it. I did my fruit in the primary and the primary exploded through the airlock. So be careful. Secondary is the way to go for me from now on. My next batch is going to be a blueberry strawberry. Should be great.
While I realize that this thread is super old, I was curious about diluting after aging? I plan, as I always do, to make a strawberry mead with about a 19% ABV. If I rack, age, rack, age, rack, and age. After 5 months or so of aging, would I be able to dilute the mead to a 10% ABV by just adding water without losing a lot of flavor? And before you ask, I want to make sure I bring the alcohol high enough to prevent the fruit from spoiling white it ages, because I have seen it happen a few times in the past.
thediyfoodies
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If anyone is still looking for an awesome strawberry mead recipe we just posted ours on our website! It is a strawberry metheglin-sack mead sitting at 18% ABV. It was incredible and cleared out nicely!
https://thediyfoodies.com/strawberry-sack-metheglin-mead-recipe/
https://thediyfoodies.com/strawberry-sack-metheglin-mead-recipe/
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