I'm gonna brew this tomorrow unless someone here stops me!
3 gallon recipe:
Ingredients:
6 lbs wildflower honey
0.25 oz Millenium hops (pellet, 17.4% AA) at 60 min
1 oz Simcoe hops (pellet, 13% AA) at 15 min
1 oz Simcoe hops at 1 min
1 oz Czech Saaz hops (whole-leaf, 4.5% AA), dry hop
8 oz maltodextrin
Buckwheat honey, to taste
2 tsp yeast nutrient
US-05 dry yeast
Boil:
Do a 60-minute boil with water, maltodextrin, and Simcoe hops. While boiling water, burn/caramelize 1 lb of the wildflower honey. Strain hops from water, add yeast nutrient, and pour hop-water over burnt honey, then add remaining 5 lbs of wildflower honey. Cool to 74°F, pitch US-05, ferment completely. Rack to secondary and add dry hops for 2 weeks before bottling (i.e., after mead has cleared).
Then, the hard part:
Back-sweeten/prime with buckwheat honey to taste, then bottle in 22-oz bottles. Reserve enough to fill 2 plastic soda bottles (use first and last runnings from the bucket). When the soda bottles first begin to feel tight, open the first one to check carbonation. If adequately carbonated, pasteurize (on the stove) all the remaining glass bottles to kill the yeast. If not, give another day or two and then check the second one, and then pasteurize if satisfied. Refrigerate and enjoy some sparkling, slightly-sweet, IPA mead!
Now, I'm not even sure if back-sweetening will be necessary; I predict an OG somewhere around 1.080, but I have no idea what level of attenuation to expect out of the US-05. I know it can go to 12% ABV before pooping out, so it may make this bone-dry. It also might take forever to fully attenuate and clear. So I may just bottle it when it hits a SG of 1.018 or so, with some priming sugar, and pasteurize it when it's fully carbed. I dunno. It's an adventure!
3 gallon recipe:
Ingredients:
6 lbs wildflower honey
0.25 oz Millenium hops (pellet, 17.4% AA) at 60 min
1 oz Simcoe hops (pellet, 13% AA) at 15 min
1 oz Simcoe hops at 1 min
1 oz Czech Saaz hops (whole-leaf, 4.5% AA), dry hop
8 oz maltodextrin
Buckwheat honey, to taste
2 tsp yeast nutrient
US-05 dry yeast
Boil:
Do a 60-minute boil with water, maltodextrin, and Simcoe hops. While boiling water, burn/caramelize 1 lb of the wildflower honey. Strain hops from water, add yeast nutrient, and pour hop-water over burnt honey, then add remaining 5 lbs of wildflower honey. Cool to 74°F, pitch US-05, ferment completely. Rack to secondary and add dry hops for 2 weeks before bottling (i.e., after mead has cleared).
Then, the hard part:
Back-sweeten/prime with buckwheat honey to taste, then bottle in 22-oz bottles. Reserve enough to fill 2 plastic soda bottles (use first and last runnings from the bucket). When the soda bottles first begin to feel tight, open the first one to check carbonation. If adequately carbonated, pasteurize (on the stove) all the remaining glass bottles to kill the yeast. If not, give another day or two and then check the second one, and then pasteurize if satisfied. Refrigerate and enjoy some sparkling, slightly-sweet, IPA mead!
Now, I'm not even sure if back-sweetening will be necessary; I predict an OG somewhere around 1.080, but I have no idea what level of attenuation to expect out of the US-05. I know it can go to 12% ABV before pooping out, so it may make this bone-dry. It also might take forever to fully attenuate and clear. So I may just bottle it when it hits a SG of 1.018 or so, with some priming sugar, and pasteurize it when it's fully carbed. I dunno. It's an adventure!