Lemon Lavender Mead(Metheglin?) Advice needed with Recipe

[Darkholm]

Hello All,

I just finished my first batch of mead ever and am working on my recipe for my second. I'm wanting to do a lemon lavender mead in January so it is ready for spring. Below is the recipe I created. Could I get some feedback on it please? I'm going for the lemon being the star smell and tasting note with the sweetness of the honey and the fragrance of the lavender supporting it. What I'm having the most trouble with is the the amount of Lemon zest to use and what yeast to use. For the lemons I was thinking one lemon worth of zest per gallon. For the yeast I found a few options in research, but am new enough that I'm not sure what would be best. I used a LALVIN EC-1118 for my traditional mead, but I think I got lucky with the results from it because it only finished at an FG of 1.030 which made a great sweet mead, but I believe that yeast should finish much dryer. What I am wanting for this is something on the higher side of semi-sweet(1.02ish). Would Lavlin d47 be a good option for this or would Wyeast 4184 be better? The full recipe is below

Lemon Lavender Mead(Metheglin)

5 gallons of water

18 pounds of clover honey

5 lemons worth of zest

1 pound of lavender

4 bags of black tea for the Tannins

10g Lavlin d47 or maybe Wyeast 4184(I used LALVIN EC-1118 for my last mead but I think I got lucky with my results)



Target OG: 1.124

Estimate FG=1.02

Boil water at 160 for 30 minutes with tea bags and lavender.

Remove tea bags and lavender and bring temp to 80 degrees.

Mix in honey and pitch in nutrients and yeast.

Mix well and add air lock

After fermentation has completed rack into secondary carboy and add lemon zest. After 2 weeks rack off of zest and continue to age in carboy for at least another month.

 

[A-man]

Searching the Scott Lab site, M2 yeast may be a good choice. I would add the lavender to the secondary to have more control over the strength of the addition. Just add it in a hops bag or similar and taste as you go to know when to remove it.

 

[dmtaylor]

Lavender and tea are powerful stuff. I'd use like 1-2 teabags and only 1/8 lb lavender. You can always add more, but once you've added too much, you can't take it back out.

 

[bernardsmith]

I gotta agree with dmtaylor. You add too much lavender and those drinking it will swear that they are drinking soap. What you might do with your lavender is cover it with vodka to create an extract. That might take a month to fully extract all the flavors. You then bench test the amount of this extract you add to the secondary. You now have complete control over the amount of lavender flavor that goes into and comes out of your mead.

 

[Darkholm]

Thank you for the great advice everyone! I did some more research on lavender and I definitely hadn’t taken into account the potency of the lavender, or the extra tannins. I’m going to scale back the amount of lavender drastically and work with it in secondary(either with a hop bag, or the extract). As for the yeast I need to do some more research on the M2, but what i’ve read so far looks really promising!