1 gallon mead

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Fire_travels

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How does this sound for proportion and ingredients... This is not mine i found it on http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques28.asp

Would this be prity dry or not.?. I want to find a good gallon mead and experment with fruit!
Thanks for any opinions!


Blueberry Mead (1 gallon)
2 lb clover honey
2 12-oz bag blueberries (frozen)
1 used teabag jasmine tea
1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
1 tsp yeast nutrient
Red Star Champagne yeast.

Mix honey into 3 qts water and bring to boil. Boil 20 minutes, skimming off any scum that forms. Meanwhile, place thawed blueberries in nylon straining bag and mash in primary. Pour boiling water over blueberries, used teabag, pectic enzyme, and yeast nutrient. When cooled to 70-75 degrees, sprinkle wine yeast over surface. Cover and squeeze nylon bag daily for 7 days. Drain blueberries, squeezing well to extract flavor. Discard teabag. Transfer liquid to secondary, fit airlock and ferment additional 30 days. Rack, top up and refit airlock. Stabilize when clear, wait 10 days, and rack into bottles. Age 1-2 years. [Adapted from a traditional recipe]
 
Looks good to me. I recently made a blueberry mel that looked very similar to your recipe except I didn't use a teabag, and I used Lalvin D-47 yeast. The champagne yeast will dry it out pretty good but you can always back-sweeten when it's done. I also used about 1/3 of a vanilla bean in the secondary, cut into 4-5 pieces. I highly recommend that. I'll be starting a batch of strawberry mel this evening.
 
i was looking on the austin HBS website and they have a whitelabs sweet mead yeast... I was thinking of using that but do i have to ratio the yeast for a one gallon batch?

BTW This will be my first mead!
 
You don't need to portion out the yeast, use the whole thing. Sweet mead yeast is notorious for stuck fermentations, though. Stick with a wine yeast. The other thing you don't really need to do is boil the honey. You loose some of the subtle flavors and aroma if you do that. Just bring the water to a boil, turn it off, then add the honey to dissolve. You won't have scum to skim, either. Just carry on from there.
 
Isn't 2lbs a little light for a gallon? I've used four and came up with a nicely medium sweet mead. Maybe the blueberrys carry enough sugar to bump up the OG?

mike
 
One of my meads keeps getting the fermentation stuck, so it's been working for well over three months. The other, more sucessful one has been working for two, but has just recently stopped fermenting and is ever so slowly starting to clear. Mead needs to age for a very long time anyway, so by the end of a year it should be fairly clear.

mike
 
Fire_travels said:
I was thinking of bumping up the hunny to 3-4# !

Will a recipie like this one come out prity clear?

The blueberries will bump up the OG, and higher gravity meads can get stuck. You can always add more honey in secondary, another pound or 2, once the initial fermentation is done, and you are ready to rack. Leave a little extra head space in your initial gallon fermentation. Warm the honey and add a little water to thin, add to the empty secondary and rack on top of it. The blueberries in primary will cause a lot of sediment, so you should have plenty of room. If you still have space left after your rack your mead over, you could always add some blueberry puree to enhance the flavor.

It works for me.
 
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