Fortified Mint and Lime mead - seek advice

[morunas]

Hey everyone! So I'm getting ready for my second mead and the overall idea is a sweet fortified mint mead with a hint of lime, aimed to be drank cold in the summer, like a mojito-inspired dessert wine. Here's my plan and a few questions. All thoughts and suggestions welcome.

Ingredients:
Must of 8 kg honey + 14L water
Aiming for OG around 1.130
Extra 1 kg honey for back sweetening
Yeast that can tolerate at least 16%
Unedo berry brandy to fortify

1. make a "mojito" mint tea with some black tea
2. let cooldown to 70C, stir in 8 KG honey for 10 min to eliminate competition / pasteurize
3. let it cool to 20C, then stir in yeast and yeast nutrients
4. add lime zest in tea bag

Primary
Run primary 3-6 weeks until low activity

Secondary
Wrack and wait a few months

Final adjustments
When gravity is near 1.00X
1. Stabilize with Potassium Sorbate and Metabisulphite
2. Do a back-sweetening and fortifying pilot to find out adjustment ratios to taste
3. Back-sweeten with approx/estimated 1 KG of honey and fortify with brandy

Questions:
- Should I add lime zest in initial tea, infusion on primary or infusion on secondary?
- Should I add black tea when doing mint tea or add black tea together with lime zest for infusion?
- Should I go heavy on mint side? Or heavy on lime side? Or balanced? I feel mint with a hint of lime would work better... but perhaps someone has tried similar things...?
- Considering I want to stabilize, back-sweeten and fortify, is there any recommended yeast?
- Any other recommendations / thoughts?

 

[CKuhns]

Lime zest, go easy I find it kind of sneaks up on the Mead and can overpower a bit.

I add almost everything to secondary, much easier to check it and pull it when it hits your flavor profile.

I have tried black tea in about every configuration possible and really don't care for it. I would think it would over power the mint.

1.130 OG consider Cotes Des Blanc, Premier Cuvee or D47 yeasts. All should do well with good nutrient additions and Temps in the mid-tolerance range.

Mint and lime balance go with your initial feeling. Can always adjust if not to you liking in secondary.

Good luck let us know how it comes out.

 

[Lampy]

My two cents: Don't overdo black tea. I boiled twelve bags for a one gallon batch and I probably should have used half as much. Maybe experiment with a taste test between cups of boiled tea and cold steeped tea to see if you find the flavor of one better.

 

[madgardener]

I've never done it with a mead but I make a mint wine that has lemon zest & I always add the zest in its own teabag in the primary, then discard it 3-5 days later when I move the batch to secondary