Cherry Berry Mead
Recipe Type: Extract
Yeast: Wyeast 4184 Sweet Mead
Batch Size (Gallons): 5 Gallons
Original Gravity:
Final Gravity:
Boiling Time (Minutes):
Color: TBA (see photo) D'Oh! I haven't figured out how to add photos, yet.
Hi Folks,
This is my first attempt at mead and if this comes out drinkable, I'm taking a day off and getting drunk.
Having read this recipe (posted by SD-SILM, 05-14-2011) I thought, 'I can do this'. *BWAHAHAHA!
Well, it all started out the same. *The recipe calls for:
12 pounds of Light Amber Honey (I bought 15 lbs. of SueBee White Clover)
12 pounds of Frozen Strawberries (bought 15 lbs.)
2 Quarts of Welch's White Grape Cherry 100% Juice
2 teaspoons of yeast nutrients
Wyeast 4184 Sweet Mead (The closest I could find was Sweet Mead/Wine Yeast WLP720)
1 Gallon of Water
I started out following SD-SLIM'S notes by boiling a gallon of water. *While the water was boiling, I poured 12 pounds of honey into my mixing pot (I had previously poured off 3 lbs. to use elsewhere), then used the boiling water to rinse the rest of the honey out of the containers. *Once the containers are clear, discard the remainder of the boiled water (the hotter you make your base, the more cooling you will need to do).
Now you have honey and water, it's time to add the Welch's juice and Yeast Nutrient... Mix everything together and pour into fermenter...add cold water to bring up to five gallons...mix or shake to combine ingredients and aerate.
SD-SLIM advises, 'At this time you want to add strawberries... I prefer to purée my berries and place them into the fermenter, it is my experience that it helps speed the process and really brings in the berry flavor'.
Well, that's where everything went to hell. *At this point, I was at the 'Now you have honey and water' stage and reading ahead. *My brewing kitchen is in a studio apartment above our regular kitchen. *So I went downstairs and began pureeing 12 lbs. of 'frozen strawberries'. *Ever tried that? *I wound up with a red Slurpie CONCENTRATE. *Now, how in the heck am I gonna get that into a carboy? *I needed a LARGE funnel with an output big enough for sliced strawberries that didn't get completely puréed. *2-liter 7-Up bottle to the rescue. *Meet the Redneck Fruit Funnel. *A wooden spoon handle makes a perfect ramrod. *So I took that upstairs, added water to the 5-gallon carboy to the five gallon level, funneled the super Slurpie into the 6-gallon carboy, turned around and saw the Welch's juice, still on the counter (SHOSBOT!).
Ok, I can still do this. *I poured off a little over a 1/2 gallon of honey and water and more water, so that I could get the Welch's juice into the 5-gallon carboy.
In hindsight, I think SD-SLIM might have meant that the fruit goes into the fermenter with the honey, water, and juice PRIOR to bringing the water level up to five gallons. *I was thinking the only way to fit five gallons of honey/water and juice (the mix) into 12 lbs of strawberries is to put it all into a 6-gallon carboy. *But that still left about a half gallon of mix leftover. *I at least had the foresight to add the yeast and the nutrient into the 6-gallon prior to adding the mix.
Well, like I said in the beginning,*if this comes out drinkable, I'm taking a day off and getting drunk. *We'll see in about 6 months.