1st Batch of Mead - B-Nektar Black Fang Style?

[gatorforty]

Hey Guys,

I'm a pretty solid all-grain beer brewer (~25 batches), making mead for the first time. HBT has taught me most of what I know, so thanks.

My wife really likes the B-Nektar Black Fang mead, and so do I. It's a blackberry melomel with clove and orange zest. 6.0% ABV, so I guess considered a "session" mead.

I'm going to make a 2 gallon batch to try to do something like it. I can't find a clone recipe or even advice anywhere online, but here's my thoughts so far:

2 gallons water
2 lbs Orange Blossom Honey
3lbs Blackberry Puree (Vintner's Harvest, http://morebeer.com/products/blackberry-puree.html) added to the secondary
1-2 whole cloves
zest of one orange
D47 yeast?

This should get me to about SG 1.041 and finish around 6% if the blackberry ferments out, according to some online calculators I've seen. I'm hoping the D47 will leave a bit of residual sweetness otherwise I will back sweeten with honey when I keg/carb.

Questions:

1 - have you had the Black Fang, and do you think this makes sense?
2 - when should I add the cloves and orange zest? I'm not planning on boiling or even pasteurizing, but do these additions need heat or do I just toss them in?

Thanks in advance for reading this and providing any guidance you can!

- Ron

 

[fatbloke]

Any wine yeast will ferment this dry. Honey isn't like malt, it's pretty much completely fermentable, as is any fruit sugar in the puree.

Mead types aimed at the beer market aren't easy.

I'd say you're better learning "to walk before you can run"......

 

[gatorforty]

That's good feedback for sure. I have done a few ciders and back sweetened in the keg. Could I do the same with honey in the keg for mead?

 

[bernardsmith]

I speak as a wine maker and as someone who has never kegged (although I have brewed a few batches of beer). Wine yeast - unless you are filtering your mead with a "sterile" sized filter will still be active in your keg . I know, I know. brewers cold crash to help remove ale and beer yeasts , but cold crashing for wine makers simply prevents the crystalization of tartaric acids. It will not significantly remove enough yeast to allow you to backsweeten without that sugar being itself eaten by the yeast. What you need to do is once you are ready to bottle - or keg your mead is to add K-meta and K-sorbate.

The addition of these two chemicals really only works effectively if the yeast colony is already small (because of course, you have allowed the mead to age and have been racking it every two or three months - thus continually removing a portion of the active yeast colony together with dropping sediment and lees). The K-meta and K-sorbate will together act to prevent yeast from budding (ie reproducing) and so this will significantly inhibit any remaining yeast from doing a number on any sugar (or honey) you add to sweeten your mead.