Quick Blueberry/Pomegranate sparkling mead

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summersolstice

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Like many mead makers, Joe Mattioli has been an inspiration to me. I make a lot of mead but sometimes my friends want something right away - aging be damned. To that end I developed (with Joe's help) a quick blueberry/pomegranate mead. I tried the first bottle within two months. It was a little tart but it had a nice honey nose and flavor and it cleared very nicely. This is a straightforward quick drinking mead.

8 cans Old Orchard Blueberry/Pomegranate concentrate (Wally World)
1/2 can Welch's white grape/raspberry concentrate
6 pounds Nebraska alfalfa honey
1/2 pound Western buckwheat honey
1/2t pectic enzyme (don't know if it's really needed)
water to 4 gallons
Lalvin EC1118
OG 1.078

no starter or rehydration - ten days in the primary at 67F drops it down to 1.001. Four more weeks in secondary to .996, add K-meta/sorbate and backsweeten with 8 oz alfalfa honey and 6 oz Welch's white grape concentrate (more honey/concentrate will make it less tart but why make a pomegranate mead if you don't like tart?). Within another week to ten days it'll be clear and ready to bottle.

Put this in crown capped sparkling wine bottles, beer bottles, and swing tops for 3-4 weeks and refrigerate and you'll have a nice sparkling mead. Add k-meta and potassium sulfite and allow it to age for 2-3 more months in the secondary for a still mead.
 
Let me get back to you on this in around three months, if I can find the Blueberry/Pomegranate concentrate. Now if only I can find more carboys.
 
I'd like to know too...it sounds yummy, and I've love to hear the outcome and final tasting thoughts.
 
I've made this twice now. The first batch, made a couple of years ago, was officially gone when I consumed the last 1-liter crown cap last weekend. I still have almost a case of 12-oz crown caps left and it, too is delicious!

As good as it is, I prefer the Johnny Jump Up sparkling cider posted in the Cider recipe section. It's made the same way but with apple juice and sugar instead of the far more expensive B/P juice and honey.
 
SWMBO has asked that I make her this mead. Never done it before, but I have a 3 gallon better bottle that needs filling so I figure 2.5 gallon batch would be good to go. I am guessing this is a 5 gallon recipe batch? If so I just need to cut everything in half to get it right?

Also, would you recommend this for a first mead? It seems fairly simple, but I have no idea...

Any suggestions on where to buy these types of honey online?
 
SWMBO has asked that I make her this mead. Never done it before, but I have a 3 gallon better bottle that needs filling so I figure 2.5 gallon batch would be good to go. I am guessing this is a 5 gallon recipe batch? If so I just need to cut everything in half to get it right?

Also, would you recommend this for a first mead? It seems fairly simple, but I have no idea...

Any suggestions on where to buy these types of honey online?

You'll do fine on this one. The only problem you may have, since you don't have previous mead (wine?) experience, is knowing when to bottle. Too soon and it isn't clear enough and you may have exploding bottles, too late and you'll have still mead rather than sparkling. Otherwise, it's based on a basic quick mead recipe.
 
Summer....what was your F.G. on this mead? It seems that the Johnny Jump Up finished fairly dry to me for a cider. I like mine a bit sweeter.
 
Oops..nevermind..I see you posted it in your first post. .996..man that's dry.
 
I have a stupid question: is the addition of the K-meta/sorbate during the secondary fermentation required only if you want still mead? Or should you add it for sparkling mead as well?
 
Since I rely upon continued fermentation in the bottle I leave out the k-meta and sorbate. When I make mead or cider this way it's usually consumed within a year so I'm not worried about long-term storage.
 
I've now made this and gone through about 1/3 of it. I must say that I'm very impressed. The pressure in the bottles is quite high (I had a 2 foot gush when I opened a litre bottle at room temperature). It tastes quite good (dangerously so!). The only thing I did differently was use unconcentrated blueberry/pomegranate juice, as I couldn't find the frozen variety. I plan to make this again real soon!

Thank you very much for the recipe and your advice.
 
I think I'll give this one a try, let it ferment out, and then backsweeten as your original post states. I have some good, fresh wild blueberry juice..so I think I'll incorporate that too. Then I am going to keg, and force carb..so I am not too worried about bottle bombs, or anything.

Also..since I am on the subject of kegging, do you think I could use my beer gun to fill champagne bottles with this after it is carbed in the keg???? Just a thought.

Dan
 
Summer..quick question for you. I have purchased all the ingredients to make this locally. instead of alfalfa honey, I am going to sub my blackberry blossom honey. Also, before I have to order one packet of yeast, I have two different lavlin's here..the D47 and a packet of 71B-1122....what do you think either two of those would do for this recipe? I know 1118 will take it to a dry wine, but not sure what the outcome would be with either of these.

Any thoughts???
Dan
 
Yeah, that's why I bought a bunch of them when I started mead making. That's why I was wondering how it would treat this recipe?
 
Yeah, that's why I bought a bunch of them when I started mead making. That's why I was wondering how it would treat this recipe?

I tried replying to your pm but your inbox is full. Both your choices enhance varietal characteristics, meaning it brings out the dominant properties of the ingredients. Either would be fine, assuming you could control the temps on the D-47. I prefer the EC1118 in these quick sparkling wines and meads due to it's aggressive nature. Just a personal preference and I'm sure both your choices will be fine.
 
Hey S.S....sorry bout that...I cant' believe they only let you have 5 PM's!!! anyway, I deleted a bunch..so you should be able to PM me now.
 
Hey Summer. I just wanted to say thanx for the easy looking mead recipe. It looked simple enough, yet tasty enough for me to take a plunge towards my first mead. I've been just a brewin beers.

I started it out 2 days ago with a 3 gallon batch in mind. I found the blueberry/polmagranate just a tad more tart than I wanted so I went with 4 cans and a bottle of Wyman's Wild Blueberry Juice and bumped the honey to 7lbs clover. I'm two days into the ferment and I think I am going to up the batch to 5 gallons with some more honey and blueberry juice. I know I'm butchering you're recipe up here but I can't help myself. I'm a hopeless tinkerer. I've been doing some reading over at gotmead to help nurse me along.

I will up the fermaid k, energizer, and dap to cover the additional fermentables as my projections are I will have the equivelant sugars of a 1.100 with all I am adding. So I guess the aging time will be extended as well.

Anyway despite all the recipe deviations, which is my inquisitive dysfunctionality :), I just wanted to say thanx for the intriging recipe that made me pull the trigger.
 
Summer.....Ok, I just racked this to my secondary today. Started the ferment on 12/10/09 and am just at 1.000 today (12/21/09) this about right? I tasted a sample..strong alc. smell, but nice flavor..not too hot actually, but a slowly warming sensation in your stomach. Now it's in secondary and will let it sit 3-4 weeks, then sorbate and bisulphite it, backsweeten and keg. This very well could be a winner for my SWMBO!! :)
 
Sounds about right to me. I don't keg so as soon as it drops clear I bottle in crown caps and wait several weeks for it to become sparkling. I may have 3 or 4 22s left somewhere. Thanks for reminding me!
 
I'm planning on making a batch of this soon but I don't have anywhere close I can purchase Buckwheat honey. Would some brown sugar be a close replacement?
 
order the honey. You can get it from ebeehoney.com this time of year and it hasn't crystalized yet.

Dan
 
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