Viking Blod - Recipe Assistance

[reezle]

I've been looking for a Recipe for Viking Blod (Dansk Mjød) for quite some time, and have finally found one. It seems to take quite a bit more honey than any other recipe I've seen, and finishes with a rather high FG as well. It uses bittering hops, so perhaps that balances out the FG. I was hoping you guys would have some input on this recipe before I waste 25lbs of honey and 6 months of fermenting time...

Batch Size 6g
OG 1.146
FG 1.036
Honey 25lbs
Boil 30min
7 HBU .5 Ounce Magnum 30 Minutes
2.5 HBU .5 Ounce Goldings 15 Minutes
2.5 HBU .5 Ounce Goldings 5 Minutes
7 Ounces Hibiscus

Yeast Lalvin D-47


I'm assuming the Hibiscus is done like a dry hop, but the recipe doesn't specify. I'm also assuming with that high of an OG I'll have to start fermentation with only part of the honey, and add more in batches over the first few weeks (so as not to over-saturate the yeast). Not sure what kind of schedule to follow, though.

Any Advice? Does this recipe look like it would make a reasonable clone of Dansk Mjød Viking Blod ?

 

[MedsenFey]

I'm not sure of the ingredients for that mead, but your recipe should produce a nice hop metheglyn. With a gravity of 1.146, you can still use all the honey at the beginning, but you will probably want to pitch at least 10 grams (2 packets) of yeast, and you are going to need to give plenty of nutrients (which you don't have listed).

 

[reezle]

Thanks, I did end up brewing this recipe.
Hibiscus was a little hard to locate, but I found a shop online that shipped me a pound of dried blossoms for just a couple of bucks.
My LHBS carried Meadowfoam honey in bulk, so I went with 1/2 of that and 1/2 raspberry honey. The vanilla/raspberry combined with the Hibiscus and hops makes a very interesting flavor.
I staggered the yeast nutrients, performed daily degassing for the first week or so, and fermentation has been going strong. OG was 1.17 (seemed kind of crazy high, but the yeast took off anyways).
Gravity is down to 1.09 after just a month, and still going strong. I'll cross my fingers that it's ready by x-mas...

 

[TDiddy]

How did this come out?

 

[dummkauf]

How did this come out?

What he said Any pics of the final product or is this still aging?

 

[nukinfuts29]

Subscribed!

 

[reezle]

Flavor-wise this stuff is great, high alcohol, but still too sweet. I did a lot of yeast nutrient additions and degassed it for the first few weeks. Fermentation was steady for a few months, then slowed down to nothing. After a time I hit it with some champagne yeast. That fermented a few months then slowed down too. I debated watering it down to reduce the ABV so the yeast could eat more sugars, then decided (don't laugh) to pitch a bit of Turbo Yeast to see if it would get it as dry as I'm looking for. Initial Brix reading was 38, and if the new yeast can get it up to 22% without too many off-flavors, I should be about where I want. Brix was down to 27 on the most recent re-pitch, and it's been very slowly bubbling the airlock the last few weeks. (fingers crossed this yeast doesn't poop out on me, too)

 

[reezle]

I thought 25lbs of honey in a 5gal batch was a bit much, and it turned out that it was... Nothing I could do would get it to ferment any drier than 'sickeningly sweet'.

I made a huge champagne yeast starter, split the batch into (2) 5-gal carboys, topped off with water and repitched. After just 2-3 weeks one of the carboys has come close to FG. Tasted it, and it's wonderful. For whatever reason the other carboy is still bubbling along slowly, so I haven't touched it even for a sample.

Give it a month or two, and see what we got.

 

[nukinfuts29]

25lbs is very heavy in 5 gallon

 

[thecad]

any final input on how this turned out?

going to steal this recipie for my own twisted use.

your pal
THE CAD

 

[samqwi]

Also being a fan of the Viking Blod, I decided to try your recipe and change it a bit (mostly by default since I'd never made mead before). I made this in a 2007 44gal white wine (not sure what type) oak barrel from Southern California.

125 lbs yellow clover honey
3oz nugget hops
6oz golding hops
40g Lalvin D-47
2lbs hibiscus flower
OG- 1.754 (it was a little extreme)
FG- 1.008

I boiled the honey mixed with water in several pots for 30 min at a slight rolling boil. Once all the honey was boiled and added to barrel, I topped it off with water (with room for about two more gallons). I then added the activated yeast. I kept the barrel at about 65 degrees. After six weeks I took the hibiscus flowers and boiled them down and added the water to the barrel. I then kept the mead in the barrel for 11 months. At this point I bottled the mead because there appeared to be no more off gassing.

The mead turned out very good, though extremely heavy on the hibiscus. The color was a bright red and the drink turned out to be more of a sparkling wine. not what I was shooting for, but very enjoyable. There was a strong honey flavor to the mead, but the more the mead was left to flatten out in the glass the heavier the honey flavor. Then about six months later, the bottles began to pop. I think when I bottled it, it started to mix up the sediment and reactivate the yeast.

I'm going to retry the recipe in the same barrel without any additional hibiscus except whats left in the oak. Any thoughts on why this went down the way it did or some ideas for the next one?

 

[Zabuza]

I thought 25lbs of honey in a 5gal batch was a bit much, and it turned out that it was...

25lbs is very heavy in 5 gallon

Why does everyone keep saying five gallons? The recipe clearly states it is a 6 gal batch size.

 

[MrSweet]

Subscribed!

ditto!

I'm curious; how did you steep the hibiscus flowers? Did you bring it to a boil and then let them sit for 20-30 mins? I am about to embark on a hibiscus/cranberry creation and I dont want either flavor to outshine the other.

 

[reezle]

Hmmm been a while, but I recall putting the dried hibiscus in at flame-out and letting them do their thing until the wort was at fermentation temperature. The mead picked up a lovely red hue which faded to light pink over time.
I had a chance to run the final product past a group of wine enthusiasts (work in the business and/or professional critics). They were impressed by its originality. I worried they were being polite, but was pleasantly surprised to see all the glasses get emptied rather quickly.
I broke open the first bottle this spring and am somehow down from almost 10 gallons to about 5 bottles left. It was a lovely evening drink... Perhaps time to try again with a better starting ratio of honey to water.

 

[Arpolis]

Very nice Reezle. So since you had to split your batch and top off with water to get it to ferment more. Do you think getting the original honey addition down to about 22 lb would be appropriate?. Probably start fermenting with Lalvin D47 or 71B & finish with a nice starter of Lalvin ec-1118? I am very interested in this recipe/vikings blood because I have some family that his totally into the viking tradition stuff.

 

[reezle]

Honestly, I think closer to 18-19lbs is where I would go next time, but I think I'd run it through a 'mead calculator' of some sort if there is such a thing. (I'm guessing my 18-19lbs on the batch split, then the backsweetening that was done)

Any good mead calculators out there? I kinda doubt brewpal is going to do the job.

 

[Arpolis]

Gotmead.com has the best calculator in the world! I use it for everything.

 

[seth8530]

My one recommendation for this mead would be not to boil the honey. When you boil honey you can lose a lot of delicate aromatics.

 

[corwin3083]

My one recommendation for this mead would be not to boil the honey. When you boil honey you can lose a lot of delicate aromatics.

You have to boil at least some of it to isomerize the hop acids.

 

[seth8530]

You have to boil at least some of it to isomerize the hop acids.

Could you not just boil the hops by themselves and then add the honey post boil?

 

[corwin3083]

No, you need some sugar in the boil liquid, apparently. You could do this thing that extract brewers do, though, and add most but not all of your honey at the end of the boil.

Boil a quarter to half of it with the hops, then add the rest near or after flameout. This will increase hop utilization a bit; if you have a program like Beersmith, you can have the softeware calculate the additional IBUs for you so you can adjust your hop amounts accordingly.

 

[Halbrust]

Hop utilization is different depending on the gravity of the liquid it's boiling in. But I have never heard that ther eis no utilization in water only. That doesn't make any sense to me.

People make hop teas all the time with just water. Although I've never heard talk of IBUs with a hop tea.

 

[corwin3083]

That's what I meant; supposedly you get very poor bittering without sugar in the solution. You can get flavor and/or aroma, but Viking Blod definitely has some bittering to it, so you'd have to boil at least some of the honey with the bittering hops.

 

[blh3d]

Just to clarify, the hibiscus is purely for color? And if so has anyone used it in beer?

 

[seth8530]

Hmm, so it seems to me the trick would be to use as little honey as possible in the boil so as to maximize the hop extraction and simultaneously minimize the damage to the over all honey aroma.

 

[thecad]

I added the hibiscus in a different way then what I've seen posted. When I transfered to the secondary I made a "hibiscus tea" by boiling the petals in a pot of water. I then added that to the secondary to fill the empy space left from reracking. Any thoughts on how this may effect the final product? My OG was insanly high so I'm not to concerned with diluting it a little.

 

[reezle]

I like the idea of a 'Hibiscus Tea' a lot. Was also thinking next time around to add the last 5 or so pounds of honey in stages (perhaps along with the nutrient additions), so the yeast don't have such an extreme environment to get started in. That would help the yeast out, plus ensure there is some unboiled honey in the mix... Just need to make sure to add it in before the abv gets too high.

 

[biochemedic]

First of all, boiling honey isn't as bad as some mazers make it out to be...it's just a different technique. I feel like I'm posting this link for the hundredth time...

Regarding the hop utilization issue, there are multiple factors that make wort/must better for extraction of bitterness and flavor from hops; check out this neat primer on hop utilization from BYO magazine...

When I do my hop metheglins, I split the difference: boil half the honey, and add the other half during cooling (once the temps get down to around 100 or so)...

 

[HHammer]

I love this mead, and want to give this a shot. anyone who made it want to post tasting notes? did it come out close? any changes you would make to the posted recipe? also where did your abv end up? Brewsmith says i will get almost 24% but the got mead calculator says 18% and that is a huge gap for the same numbers. thanks

 

[thecad]

I've never had the orginal but I think it came out fantastic. My final ABV was around 17% (don't got my numbers handy) according to my fuzzy math. Some people said that the caraway seeds gave it to much of a grassy taste.