Cherry Berry Mead

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SD-SLIM

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Hello All,

I made a Cherry Berry Mead last year and loved it...so a couple of weeks ago I brewed up some more and thought I would share!

  • 12 Pounds Light Amber Honey
  • 12 Pounds of Frozen Strawberries
  • 2 Quarts Welch's White Grape Cherry 100% Juice
  • 2 teaspoons of yeast nutrients
  • Wyeast 4184 Sweet Mead
  • 1 Gallons of Water

For my base I start by boiling a gallon of water....while the water is boiling I pour the honey in to a mixing pot, then I use the boiling water to get the rest of the honey out of the jug...when jug is clear, discard the rest of the boiling water (the hotter you make your base, the more cooling you will need to do). Now you have honey and water, its time to add the Welch's Juice and Yeast Nutrient....mix everything together and pour in to fermenter...add cold water to bring up to five gallons...mix or shake to combine ingredients and aerate.
At this point you will want to add strawberries...I prefer to puree my berries and place them in to the fermenter, its my experience that it helps speed the process and really brings in the berry flavor...the draw back is that you will need to rack it another time to get it crystal clear.
Pour in yeast and primary ferment for 2 weeks, rack to a secondary for 3 weeks and finally rack again for 1 week for clarification.
Bottle and let age for 3 months and give it a try...at 6 months it's a piece of art!
 
Slim I brewed this the other night, it has an amazing smell to it, I just wanted to drink it then. I cant wait to try this one when it's done, can you recommend any other mead recipes to try?
 
I want to try it, but my SO says the amount of honey has to be a typo. What was your starting/ending gravity? What ABV did it end up?
 
Looks about right. A standard mead has between 2 - 3 pounds of honey per gallon. Come out at around 12%.
 
taureangirl said:
I want to try it, but my SO says the amount of honey has to be a typo. What was your starting/ending gravity? What ABV did it end up?

Old mate is correct it's a12% mead....in regards to the honey, you can go more or less...the less you put in it the dryer it will be. I think if you give this one a try you won't regret it...after making this one 8 different times, it truly is my favorite based on the smell (A++++), the taste(A++++) and the simplicity to make.
 
He is still saying it's off- 12 pounds of honey to 1 gallon of water. Even taking the juice into consideration it's 12pounds to 1.5gallons of liquid.
We are new though, so please let me know if we are missing something.

Edit: Nevermind, he had missed the additional water in the instructions. It shall be my next batch. I'm currently doing a blueberry mead.
 
He is still saying it's off- 12 pounds of honey to 1 gallon of water. Even taking the juice into consideration it's 12pounds to 1.5gallons of liquid.
We are new though, so please let me know if we are missing something.

Edit: Nevermind, he had missed the additional water in the instructions. It shall be my next batch. I'm currently doing a blueberry mead.

It's a 5 gallon batch...if you look at the very beginning it has the batch size...the 1 gallon you see is the amount of water I recommend boiling to pour inside your honey container to extract all of the honey out of it. So basically for a 5 gallon batch you would pour 12 lbs of honey, wash the honey container out with hot water until all the honey is out, add the juice and then fill the rest of the way up with water until you have five gallons.
Sorry for the confusion.
 
Let's blame him. I just looked at the flavors and knew it was going to be a good combination.
Basically, I do the recipes and he does the hard part. LOL
 
taureangirl said:
Let's blame him. I just looked at the flavors and knew it was going to be a good combination.
Basically, I do the recipes and he does the hard part. LOL

Sounds good too me! I hope you guys like it... I know that all my friends and neighbors did!
 
Just finished filling up my kegs with beer so I have free carboys. It's time to go back to where I started with some mead and this one sounds fantastic. I'll let you know how it goes.
 
Just finished filling up my kegs with beer so I have free carboys. It's time to go back to where I started with some mead and this one sounds fantastic. I'll let you know how it goes.

I hope you like it, I know it's a big hit in my Family!
 
Opened my last bottle of Cherry Berry Mead with some friends (so I thought I would add some pictures)...it was amazing! Can't wait for my next batch to be ready!

DSC_0613.jpg


DSC_0612.jpg
 
This smells absolutely amazing in the fermenter but I must add if you are using a carboy for a primary add the strawberries before the water so the level isn't too high. My carboy just spent the night puking pureed strawberries. =)
 
This smells absolutely amazing in the fermenter but I must add if you are using a carboy for a primary add the strawberries before the water so the level isn't too high. My carboy just spent the night puking pureed strawberries. =)

Sorry to hear that you had a strawberry explosion...it will all be worth it when its done! Additionally, a good friend of mine made this recipe and swears it's served best on the rocks with a lime wedge for garnish...haven't tried it, but he swears by it!
 
TimothyChurch said:
Just out of curiosity how is this wine young? I might be patient but I have a few friends that are not so willing to wait.

It's good, not great...so drink some now and save some for later!
 
Well as sad as it is to say with only a week left until bottling, my dad moved my kitchen table not knowing that the thing wearing the tshirt was my wine. Well I'll just say my kitchen smelled amazing but I'm down a carboy and back to square one. Once the painful thought of all the spilt wine is gone I'm sure I'll try this again.
 
TimothyChurch said:
Well as sad as it is to say with only a week left until bottling, my dad moved my kitchen table not knowing that the thing wearing the tshirt was my wine. Well I'll just say my kitchen smelled amazing but I'm down a carboy and back to square one. Once the painful thought of all the spilt wine is gone I'm sure I'll try this again.

That's heart breaking....it's the smell that's make me like this one, it's the taste that made me love it...so I hope you take another shot at it!
 
Just threw mine together.. I couldnt find Grape-Cherry, so I replaced it with Grape-Peach... The wort, or is it called must now, tasted GREAT and smelled great.. I am waiting on my smack pack to swell, and my must to come to room temp.. I should be pitching yeast in an hour or two... It is air locked and waiting on the yeast however...
 
Just threw mine together.. I couldnt find Grape-Cherry, so I replaced it with Grape-Peach... The wort, or is it called must now, tasted GREAT and smelled great.. I am waiting on my smack pack to swell, and my must to come to room temp.. I should be pitching yeast in an hour or two... It is air locked and waiting on the yeast however...

Awesome...I am excited to hear how it taste!
 
This is only my 2nd batch of mead. I made it on Saturday. Its really cool in my house and I could only maintain 60 degrees. Needless to say, haven't seen any signs of fermentation yet. I moved it to the heater room and the temp of the must is slowly climbing. Hopefully, its just me being impatient. If I get the temps up to 70, should fermentation start up? Should I add more yeast nutrients?
I used White Labs Sweet Mead yeast.
Thanks
 
dan09554 said:
This is only my 2nd batch of mead. I made it on Saturday. Its really cool in my house and I could only maintain 60 degrees. Needless to say, haven't seen any signs of fermentation yet. I moved it to the heater room and the temp of the must is slowly climbing. Hopefully, its just me being impatient. If I get the temps up to 70, should fermentation start up? Should I add more yeast nutrients?
I used White Labs Sweet Mead yeast.
Thanks

Temperature recommendation for that yeast is 70 to 75 degrees, so warm it up and wait for activity within 24 hours!
 
Thanks Slim. Moved it into the heater room. Temp is now up to 68 degrees. Its fermenting away. Had to put a blow off tube on. Looking forward to tasting this. Smells great.
 
dan09554 said:
Thanks Slim. Moved it into the heater room. Temp is now up to 68 degrees. Its fermenting away. Had to put a blow off tube on. Looking forward to tasting this. Smells great.

You will love it....the only downside is the waiting!
 
question - where do you all acquire your honey in this quantity? And are you using a specific kind of honey?

Thanks I want to put this together this weekend.
 
question - where do you all acquire your honey in this quantity? And are you using a specific kind of honey?

Thanks I want to put this together this weekend.

I buy mine from local farmers...just google honey farms in your area and you should be able to get some good deals...also Sams Club has good prices on large quantities of honey...finally I sometimes buy mine from Northern Brewer, but shipping adds up!
 
Slim, I've had this in primary for just over 2 weeks. Airlock is still bubbling about every 3 seconds....Should I just leave it? You first post said to rack after 2 weeks....
 
Slim, I've had this in primary for just over 2 weeks. Airlock is still bubbling about every 3 seconds....Should I just leave it? You first post said to rack after 2 weeks....

Yes leave it for as long as you can, if you bottle it while its still chugging along you will get bottle bombs!
 
Question on he yeast, I am using the suggested Wyeast 4184 put in in the carboy yesterday afternoon. It started fermenting about 3 hours later and continues to do so. However, the fermentation is not exactly brisk, one bubble about every 3 seconds, is this normal with this strain?
 
Brew_Vet said:
Question on he yeast, I am using the suggested Wyeast 4184 put in in the carboy yesterday afternoon. It started fermenting about 3 hours later and continues to do so. However, the fermentation is not exactly brisk, one bubble about every 3 seconds, is this normal with this strain?

Yes...any activity is good activity, wait a few weeks and take some readings.
 
SD-SLIM said:
Yes...any activity is good activity, wait a few weeks and take some readings.

Actually since I wrote the response the fermentation has sped up quite a bit.

Thanks
 
I'm getting things around to try this soon. Like the other poster I could only find white grape and peach so I'm going with that. I'm still new to mead makeing so I have a few questions.

I didn't see anything about a starter for the yeast. I assume I need to make one though. What should I use as a starter when it comes to mead?

Is there any other steps I should be takeing that wasn't listed like degassing or stagered yeast nutrients, or whatever?

Last I have a few vanella beans and wanted to know if they could work in something like this.

Sorry for the questions. I just want to make sure I do it right the first time.:)
 
barrog said:
I'm getting things around to try this soon. Like the other poster I could only find white grape and peach so I'm going with that. I'm still new to mead makeing so I have a few questions.

I didn't see anything about a starter for the yeast. I assume I need to make one though. What should I use as a starter when it comes to mead?

Is there any other steps I should be takeing that wasn't listed like degassing or stagered yeast nutrients, or whatever?

Last I have a few vanella beans and wanted to know if they could work in something like this.

Sorry for the questions. I just want to make sure I do it right the first time.:)

Hello I would recommend using various sites like mr. Malty to calculate what size of yeast starter is required, a work around for a yeast starter is to get a smack pack...which are perfect for a 5 gallon application.
I would recommend degassing and staggering yeast nutrients, both if done in a controlled environment will make for a better product.
As for vanilla bean, I think you can add them to anything...just make sure to sanitize the beans in vodka before adding to your mead.
 
Another question, excuse the ignorance this is my first mead. I did some further reading on mead after noticing a thick layer of Krausen on the surface. I understand this is called the cap and is common with fruit meads? They also suggest knocking it down or stirring it back in every few days or so?
 
Brew_Vet said:
Another question, excuse the ignorance this is my first mead. I did some further reading on mead after noticing a thick layer of Krausen on the surface. I understand this is called the cap and is common with fruit meads? They also suggest knocking it down or stirring it back in every few days or so?

I never do, because it contains dead yeast...and will cause some off flavors, however I only brew 6 or 7 Mead batches a year, so their may be better information out their than mine.
 
Looks like a great recipe... Looking forward to getting a batch started soon!
 
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