21 year mead

[Vermicous]

This is a traditional sweet mead that I intend to open when my daughter turns 21.

25 lbs. honey
2 tablespoons yeast nutrient
1 teaspoon acid blend

Prepare 2 gallons of starter beforehand, or pitch slurry from a previous batch. Make sure the starter is well oxygenated. Mix the honey with 1 gallon of water, apply enough heat to ensure a good mix. Add acid and nutrient and well oxygenate. Pitch yeast and move to a corner and forget about it for 3 months. Transfer to secondary and pretend it's a decoration for the next 2+years. Bottle when gravity has at least dropped below 1.010. Try not to drink for the next 19 years.

While I have made meads that are 15%, this is by far my biggest attempt. Chances are there will be stuck ferments and repitchings of yeast, oxygen, and nutrient.

The final gravity is an estimate, the yeast will probably poop out between 20-24%

 

[Rookie]

I made a 17% cherry mead for my grandaughter Cherry when she was 2 1/2 to lay down untill she is 21. I also made a 17% raspberry mead for her brother when he was 2 1/2. Their brother is a little over 2 1/2 now and I will soon be making a 17% blackberry mead for him.
Their baby sister is two months old so I have some time to plan hers.

 

[Judasbot]

I made a 17% cherry mead for my grandaughter Cherry when she was 2 1/2 to lay down untill she is 21. I also made a 17% raspberry mead for her brother when he was 2 1/2. Their brother is a little over 2 1/2 now and I will soon be making a 17% blackberry mead for him.
Their baby sister is two months old so I have some time to plan hers.

Holy crap....you guys have got some patients.

-Jbot

 

[Vermicous]

It has been three months. I did a hydrometer test last weekend and it is stuck at 1.140, roughly 9% alcohol. It's time for the first repitching of yeast, will be doing dried champagne yeast this time.

 

[VermVerm]

I admire the forethought and obvious care that you have for your grandchildren. I hope you would make enough bottles so that you can celebrate each of their birthdays with a bottle. Fantastic!
Cheers!
VermVerm

 

[TheDuke]

Awesome. I definitely would like to do something like this eventually!

 

[Redhawke]

Check out this link http://home.comcast.net/~mzapx1/FAQ/PotCarbonate.pdf it may help you with this high gravity mead. I suspect the initial high gravity (25LBS honey) and the use of acid blend lowered your PH too low. Check this link out and the other link on the same site about stuck fermentations.

Good luck and please give us an update on your really big mead.:rockin:

 

[scinerd3000]

It has been three months. I did a hydrometer test last weekend and it is stuck at 1.140, roughly 9% alcohol. It's time for the first repitching of yeast, will be doing dried champagne yeast this time.

so out of curiosity why did you decide to switch yeasts? and will the mead stay good for 20 something years? ive never been able to keep any of my batches longer than one...

 

[Nepsis]

Really curious for an update on this one!

 

[LightningInABottle]

I started 2 batches of mead one a blueberry melomel and the other a cyser with the intention of reserving 2 bottles for my 6 month old son's 21st birthday. Initial gravity reading show a 17.5% potential. 21 years is a long time, but it will be well worth it to pop open a bottle with his birth year on the label!

 

[discgolfin]

had 10# clover Honey so I gave this a try.. OG was 1.17 so I will give updates with FG. I was hoping for a bigger mead say 14 to 17% and be in the desert or sweet wine relm..

Jay

 

[Anubis]

Any update on this???

 

[Revvy]

Check back in 2028

 

[Reno_eNVy]

Check back in 2028

I lol'd

 

[centerfieldeight]

Holy crap....you guys have got some patients.

-Jbot

no kidding I am only 23 years old so to make a mead that is basically is old as I am is unfathomable to me.

 

[seven9st_surfer]

I'm expecting my first kid in December, and I think this is a great idea. It would be awesome to open up a bottle of something on his 21st that I made for him when he was born.

One thing though, I'm a Navy pilot, which means I'll be moving around about every 3 years for the foreseeable future. How well does mead hold up to changes in temperatures, and to simply being over 20 years old? Is it easy for a batch to go bad?

 

[Reno_eNVy]

I believe that due to the typical mead having a very high alcohol content, the honeys natural preservative nature (I don't know if that's altered in fermentation), plus a low pH, that meads last for a long time. I believe there is some little anecdote in "Complete Joy of Homebrewing" about C. Pap having some mead stored in crates buried at the top of a mountain that requires a couple-day hike to reach; and I think my 3rd edition book said it was 15 or so years at that point and that was published a couple decades ago IIRC.

 

[trubled]

Sorry to sound like a wet blanket -- but if there hasnt been age (ability) considerations in regard to protein stability, potassium meta bisulphate additions, pH, residual sugars, filtration, etc I would be celebrating her 1st or 2nd birthday without disappointment.

 

[TheBusiness]

I made a 17% cherry mead for my grandaughter Cherry when she was 2 1/2 to lay down untill she is 21. I also made a 17% raspberry mead for her brother when he was 2 1/2. Their brother is a little over 2 1/2 now and I will soon be making a 17% blackberry mead for him.
Their baby sister is two months old so I have some time to plan hers.

Haven't you guys ever seen Vacation? Chevy Chase gives Russ his "first" beer and he takes to it like a fish in water. I gotta respect anyone waiting 21 years for anything but my kids would probably sneak some by age 14!

I am very impressed though.. keep it going.

 

[trich]

I was wondering what your starter consisted of? Just sugar, nutrient and yeast like wine starters? What kind of yeast is best for the job?

 

[cbulman]

Funny thing, I just posted a separate thread that's very similar to this topic. I'm seeing a lot of high-alcohol meads being mentioned here, and I'm wondering if that is due to the long aging of these meads? I could see how high ABV could act as a preservative for such a long aging process, or perhaps it's entirely coincidental here.

 

[Penguinetti]

This is something i definitely plan on doing for my daughter's 21st (she'll be born in May), although if it's possible I'd prefer to make a medium, rather than a sweet, mead. Would this just be as simple as cold-crashing it / bottling it sooner, along with a little less honey?

 

[Hazroth]

Longer aging requires a low ph and higher alcohol content for sustainability along with cold storage and limited light. Remember this has a long time for the flavors to mull together, therefore taste test a lot!

Cheers!

 

[fatbloke]

Longer aging requires a low ph and higher alcohol content for sustainability along with cold storage and limited light. Remember this has a long time for the flavors to mull together, therefore taste test a lot!

Cheers!

Not necessarily. Some of the older vineyards of France make their products so they've still got an appropriate level of alcohol (12 to 14% ABV), but are fermented dry, with high levels of tannins (tricks like fermenting on the pulp and then just punching down the cap and leaving it to finish until the skins etc sink to the bottom, before draining off the wine and pressing the skins). They keep their products ageing in wine cellars that aren't at room temperature but certainly aren't refrigerated - in the low to mid 50's F.

They've ended up with wines that are a number of decades old i.e. 20, 30 and sometimes longer.

Hence something like a sack mead with added tannin would probably be successful in a project like this......

 

[Penguinetti]

Wait a minute...

are you saying mead can go bad during the ageing process?

 

[USMCMatt]

Yeah can we get a better explanation of your starter? And what's the total batch size?

 

[discgolfin]

Well it wasnt a 21 year mead..but my berry melomel is around 18.5% abv. It was 21# honey and 18# fruit. Was drinking it at 3 months...sure it will get better with age but Its darn good now.

The dark fruit tannins and hi abv should let this age nice for a long time.

Jay

 

[Hazroth]

So what was the consensus? What did you guys go with?

 

[LightningInABottle]

I've bottled 2 batches I started during my sons birth year 2009. The first was a 18% blueberry blossom mead the second a 17.5% blueberry mead. One of the bottles of the blueberry blossom mead that I gave away was reported as bad. I'm not sure what happened but it could have been the recycled wine bottles I used or bottling equipment was contaminated. So I bought all new bottling equipment and new bottles from the brewing store before I bottled the blueberry mead. Hopefully these will not go bad. I will have to keep testing the blossom mead just to see if it was a one off bottling mistake.

I have 2 more meads I started that year in carboys. The cyser is stalled and I plan on mixing it with cider this fall. The carmel apple mead has been ready to bottle for some time, but I don't need the carboy for anything so I have been letting it sit. Eventually I will get around to bottling it, but having a toddler is time consuming.

 

[Padj]

Wondering how this project is fairing.