Honeybush Vanilla B3DM (Bray’s 3 Day Mead)

[loveofrose]

Just when you thought I couldn’t make mead any faster... Bray’s 3 Day Mead.

8/24/2018
1. Brew vanilla honeybush tea by adding 1/4 cup honeybush tea and 1 broken vanilla bean to a French press.
2. Allow to brew until cool.
3. Add 1.5 lbs Palmetto honey, 1 tsp Wyeast Beer Nutrient and strained tea to a carboy.
4. Add water just shy of 1 gallon and mix.
5. Add 1 activated smack pack of Wyeast 1388.

8/26/2018
The gravity hit 1.010, so I put it in the fridge to cold crash and stop with residual sweetness. I also added 2 more vanilla beans.

8/27/2018
I’m drinking it straight out of the carboy now. It has a nice body due to yeast, vanilla and tea tannins. The honey like flavor of the tea enhances the honey aroma far beyond what a short mead would be capable of. The tea also has a nice spiciness to it that complements the overall beverage. A wonderful and blazing fast summer quencher!

Specs
SG 1.060
FG ~1.005
7.2% ABV


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jcav]

Interesting, I just might have to try this. Thanks for posting!

John

 

[Scientific hippie]

Hi! I put this together yesterday. It's bubbling merrily away. I have a couple of questions.

1. Is the one-quarter cup of tea a quarter-cup of tea leaves or of liquid tea (I'm starting to think you meant tea leaves and am wondering if I can add more tea on Day 1) ?
2. You mentioned putting it in the fridge when the S. G. reached 1.010, but in your conclusion you mention an S. G. of 1.060. Which is correct?

 

[loveofrose]

It’s a 1/4 cup of tea leaves in 1 quart of off boil water.
For clarity, SG is start Gravity and FG is final gravity. If you place a fully active ferment in the fridge after it reaches 1.010 from 1.060, it really doesn’t cease fermentation until around 1.005.

 

[Scientific hippie]

Ah-ha! That makes sense. I was just using the contents of one tea bag and a little bit of water; it didn't make sense to me (a newbie). I'm going to brew more tea now, probably very strong in a smaller amount of water.
I have seen SG as "specific gravity," OG as (I think) "original gravity." So final gravity should be 1.005. Thank you for clarifying that!

 

[Scientific hippie]

Wow, I tasted it when removing a little mead to add the tea, and it is much tangier than it was this morning. You aren't kidding! I'll keep monitoring the gravity. I was able to lower a shelf on the fridge door in anticipation of fitting the jug in there. I assume I should keep the airlock in place? Bubbles started pouring out of it when I added the tea. If I ever get to bottling it before I finish drinking it from the jug, would I add some priming sugar, or only if I want it bubbly? What do you suggest?

 

[loveofrose]

This recipe is not designed to bottle. It would create bottle bombs.

If you really want to bottle it, you would need to cold crash followed by racking then stabilize with K-meta and potassium sorbate.

 

[Scientific hippie]

That's good to know! So I either keep it in the jug with the airlock on, or I rack and bottle it and add Campden tablets? I'll probably just keep it in the jug! The S.G. this morning was 1.025. The airlock sounds like a rapidly dripping faucet.

 

[Scientific hippie]

The SG is steady at 1.012. We tasted it last night; it tastes like beer; no flavor from the tea or vanilla beans. I thought it was the yeast substitution, but my guy at the store says it is probably due to the temperature of my basement, which is in the upper 70's. I will try to be patient and wait for the temp to go into the 60s. At least I was able to buy a couple of packs of the recommended yeast!

 

[loveofrose]

You absolutely must use my yeast. Changing the yeast will likely give a beer flavor.

 

[Scientific hippie]

Ah-HA! I will definitely try it again. I am a newbie and seem to like learning by doing. All the mistakes I make I call "tuition." Anyway, I will drink the beer in the meantime. Thanks for getting back to me!

 

[loveofrose]

If you want to avoid a lot of mistakes, read here: https://denardbrewing.com

 

[Scientific hippie]

Thank you!

 

[Scientific hippie]

OK, the gallon jug with airlock is taking up too much space in the fridge. When I make this again, I am planning to add k-meta and potassium sorbate and bottle it. Gotta keep the hub happy! Might a growler work, too?

 

[Scientific hippie]

I just answered my own question; growlers blow up.

 

[DaveBaker]

I just answered my own question; growlers blow up.

Lol that didn't take long.. Hopefully nobody's hurt and its just a clean up

 

[Scientific hippie]

No, I just looked it up on the bottling forum. Lots of horror stories.

 

[Scientific hippie]

I'm having a busy afternoon. I set up a JAOM; it began bubbling in minutes. I am waiting for the honeybush tea to cool before adding it to my batch of Bray's 3-Day Mead (Am I the only person who ripped open the Wyeast Smack Pack without reading the directions first and spilled some nutrient on the floor? I considered using my other one, but, honestly, it's hard to feel that little packet inside the big one). I am getting ready to bottle my latest 2.5 gal batch of kombucha (maybe the last blueberry one this year). If I have any energy left, I'll set up the next kombucha batch. I'm having a lot of fun!

 

[Scientific hippie]

I bought k-meta and potassium sorbate this morning, along with different kinds of honey, more vanilla beans, etc. I have to remind myself that I bought some Grolsch-type bottles for the 3-Day, so I'll hit it with the k-meta and sorbate (the spellchecker wants to spell "sorbet") after filtering.

 

[Scientific hippie]

OK; the JAOM is bubbling. The 3-day mead is not. I don't understand why; is it because I used buckwheat instead of palmetto ($$$) honey? I saw some half-hearted bubbling for a half hour, then nothing. I will check the SG tomorrow.

 

[Scientific hippie]

Woo-hoo! The 3-Day is bubbling this morning! Patience pays off. The JAOM is bubbling so much, it has backed up into the airlock; it doesn't appear to be overflowing (I have the jug in a bucket, anyway). I'll keep an eye on it.

 

[bernardsmith]

East coast buckwheat honey tends to taste very... um earthy. I've heard it described as more like molasses than honey and that may be why you said that the tea mead tasted more like a beer. IMO, buckwheat honey should be used "sparingly".. and by "sparingly" I mean that you show the honey to the carboy but then you switch it you add something very different. (For the record, the very first mead I made I made with buckwheat and I refused to make another mead for about 15 years after that... ).

 

[Scientific hippie]

Frankly, I am not the biggest fan of flowery honeys; I find them very cloying to the point of nauseating, while I can eat buckwheat honey right out of the jar. I think when I was little, I ate some honey just before coming down with some little kids' ailment that, uh, involved gastric upset. A similar thing happened with coleslaw, which I have only been able to enjoy once hitting my forties. The mead that tasted like beer wasn't from buckwheat honey; it was from random Brazilian honey I bought at Target. I promise that if I don't like the flavor of the buckwheat mead, but the SG and everything else come out right, I'll spring for some palmetto honey and try it again.

 

[Scientific hippie]

I did another SG this evening; it has gone from 1.042 to 1.034. It tastes WONDERFUL! I am not getting too much of the tea flavor, but the mellow dark honey flavor is really good. It's bubbling like crazy; it started about 12 hours after I pitched the yeast. I actually checked it around 5 AM and it wasn't doing much. I went back to bed and by about 8 AM it was frothing away.

 

[loveofrose]

Yep, that’s pretty common. Wait until you get the traditional batch that never foams, but is done in a few days. Silent storms are common with mead.

 

[Scientific hippie]

I didn't know that! Thanks!

 

[Scientific hippie]

Not bubbling too much this morning; I shook it gently. Now it's bubbling away again.

 

[Scientific hippie]

It was 3 days yesterday, S.G. 1.024. No sweetness; I cannot taste the tea but the honey flavor is great! No "off" flavors. I refrigerated it. The S.G. was the same today; I racked it into another jug containing the k-meta and sorbate. I am letting it sit in the fridge with the top on loosely and may bottle it later today. I am happy with the taste; I will probably try another batch with a mixture of the honeys I have left over from this and the JAOM: 1/2 lb each of wildflower, generic Brazilian, and buckwheat.

 

[Scientific hippie]

I've been enjoying the mead; it gets better each day. It's quite mellow now.

 

[Scientific hippie]

Busy afternoon: I set up a gallon of 3-day mead with the recommended palmetto honey. I also set up a gallon of apple cider from unfiltered juice with pectinase and Montrachet yeast; when I found pre-spiced cider at Trader Joe's I set up a second unspiced pectinased gallon plus a gallon of spiced without pectinase. Then I set up my usual 2.5 gallons of kombucha. I'm going to set up a gallon of BOMM as soon as I get the K-ferm and DAP. Wine coming soon!