Lingonberry Mead ( Ikea concentrate mead )

I found some bottles of Lingonberry concentrate at Ikea and decided to try making a mead with it.

1 Gallon Test Batch: Started 11/20/14

3lbs Orange blossom honey
1lb Clover honey
500ml ( 1 bottle ) Saft Lingon Concentrate
1/2 tsp yeast nutrient
1/4 tsp Tanin
Lalvin 71B-1122 yeast

The online mead calculator estimates the OG at around 1.163
( Yes I know i should own a hydrometer by now..Next paycheck I swear )
I was considering adding the lingonberry syrup during secondary, but added it in primary instead. I will probably do a second batch the other way later on.

12/21/14

Racked into secondary after a solid month of active bubbling in primary. Topped off with apple juice ( Apple and Lingonberry are supposed to complement each other and I had no more lingonberry syrup ).

Taste test: Was almost worried the fermentation had failed. Got a MASSIVE honey flavor with a slightly fruity after taste. There is defiantly alcohol in it, but the usual young alcohol taste/burn is very light.

I am hoping that the addition of the apple juice will restart fermentation. With any luck it will lower the strong up front honey flavor a bit. Future batches will have no more than 3 lbs of honey.

I am curious... How did this turn out??

Just bottled it on Sunday. The sample i tested at bottling was sweet with a jet fuel aftertaste but only a hint of lingonberry. Its defiantly going to need time to age.

Four pounds of honey per gallon made fermentation take longer than I was expecting. The concentrate ferments without any problems but the flavor was quite mild. In the future ill either use more of it in secondary or just use it to back sweeten.

Just pitched a batch of saison with a half liter bottle of this thrown in and minimal hopping. The syrup itself is very sweet but with all of the sugar eaten away it should leave some sourness and saisons are so dry so I put in some Korean oligosaccharide corn syrup to balance it out. AFAIK yeast doesn't eat oligosaccharides so that should give some sweetness.

The wort tasted distinctly of lingonberries but not overwhelmingly so. Hope it turns out well.

They've also got elderberry and blueberry. Might try those later.

If you wish to increase the lingonberry flavor, try these:
https://nwwildfoods.com/product/dried-wild-lingonberries-2/

These dried berries make wonderful mead.

I just bottled a gallon of lingonberry mead. I used 3 cups of (fresh) frozen and chopped lingonberries. Turned out great. I did a modified Jack's apricot mead. My wife likes it.