Smoked Mead

[Tnoodle]

I'm thinking of trying to infuse a mesquite smoke flavor into a basic mead. There are a couple different ways I was thinking of doing this:
1. Throw some mesquite chips on the smoker and actually smoke them like a piece of meat. Then add them to the carboy for a month.
2. Get the smoker running and try and route the smoke from the stack and into the carboy. This would be more like a mad science project in the back yard. This would consist of a dryer vent hose, lots of duct tape and some rubber tubing.

Let me know what you think, any concerns or ideas would help.

 

[Revvy]

Smoke some honey ahead of time. Setup your smoker, dump some honey in a saucepan and smoke it for a couple hours.

 

[Tnoodle]

Doh I didn't even think of smoking the honey. Thanks

 

[CreamyGoodness]

When you are all done, invite a balding New Yorker to come to Oklahoma and sample it.

Totally a necessary step.

 

[Tnoodle]

Haha if it turns out good I might send some smoked yeast samples around the country for testing.

 

[Tnoodle]

Any ideas for a yeast that might compliment this? I haven't tried D47 yet but I don't know, this would probably be best semi-sweet.

 

[fargo234]

I've only made a few meads... my last being hour ago...

But the one I'm drinking <i>now</i> used D47. For a 1 gallon batch I used 3 lbs honey and a liter of orange juice as the only ingredients (and water...). Added 1 tsp of Fermex (DAP + hulls) as the only nutrients.

This sucker was supposed to be a semi-sweet. It's dry as a bone. But nicely orange-ish.

My experience being as limited as it is, I could only conclude that (1.) the pack (intended for 5 gallon wines) was pretty big for a small batch and/or (2.) D47 loves oj.

Have you considered any White Labs Ale Yeasts? I've heard of people using them for meads... but never met one.