I have a apple pie cyser in the primary but have another 15# of honey left. Looking for a pumpkin pie mead to use it up with. I would like something semi sweet using Lavalin 1116 (only yeast my local store carries. Well that and 1118). Thank you
Anyone have a good proven pumpkin pie mead recipe
- Thread starter Izzie1701
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Dr_Floyd
Well-Known Member
I tried my hand at a Pumpkin Pie Mead last year. It wasn't to my liking however that is due to a few mistakes I made. I feel as if I got it to taste like pumpkins (most pumpkin flavors people like are actually due to spices rather than the actual taste of pumpkin). So you actually like the taste of pumpkin? I've been making pumpkin pie from scratch my whole life so I actually like the taste of pumpkin.
Use Pumpkin Pie pumpkins (Sugar Pie Pumpkins), cut them in half and bake them making sure to brown it so some of the sugars get caramelized and won't ferment out. It's up to you to figure out how many pumpkins to use but please place the skinned mush after baking and cooling in to a Hops Bag as you will clog your racking cane with pumpkin bits.
I would also recommend putting some more cooked pumpkin in to Secondary (also place inside of a Hops Bag) as most of the pumpkin flavor will ferment out in Primary. Remove before it starts breaking down because this can ruin your Mead. Using pumpkin will add to your time before it's ready to drink as the cooked Pumpkin can leave very small particulates behind.
It takes more cinnamon than you think it will (assuming you add any). Ginger can be very potent, same goes for nutmeg, cloves and allspice. This is all dependent on what YOU think goes in to a pumpkin pie.
Let me know if you have any questions, I think it could be very good tasting as long as you don't make the same mistakes as me. I'd also like to think you'd want it to be a little sweet at the very least and I'd say pick a honey that compliments and isn't overbearing.
Question on your cyser, did you back sweeten it at all? I've made one as well and ended up way dryer then expected (0.994) I've been debating on back sweetening it with honey or organic apple cider. I plan on serving it in my 3 gal keg with a bit of carbonation at our Halloween party. I'm not worried about clarity because I doubt our guests would care.
No I didn't. It's only 2 weeks old. My fermentation stopped at around 1.005 and its actually pretty sweet right now. I had planned on back sweetening but not sure if I am going to have to. I racked it tonight so we will see where it's at it 4 weeks.
One thing that has helped to make the pumpkin flavor come through is to add a couple of sweet potatoes in to the must.I like to use purple ones if I can get them. They really add to the color nicely. Good luck!
15lbs honey
10 liters Apple juice (9 in primary 1 to top up airspace in secondary)
Water to top up to 23 liters
Pectic enzyme as per package instructions
Yeast nutrient
Yeast energizer.
I used 5 cloves, 2 cinnamon sticks, 5 whole allspice and 1 full nutmeg (grated) into primary
Lavalin 1116
Racked onto campden tablets at 8 days (1.005 fermentation had slowed)
Wasn't happy with amount of spice so boiled 2 more cinnamon sticks, 5 cloves , half a vanilla bean, and another grated nutmeg added to secondary. I'm aging this for 4 weeks and will rack onto stabilizing and back sweeten as it's now below 1.000 and I want a semi sweet mead
10 liters Apple juice (9 in primary 1 to top up airspace in secondary)
Water to top up to 23 liters
Pectic enzyme as per package instructions
Yeast nutrient
Yeast energizer.
I used 5 cloves, 2 cinnamon sticks, 5 whole allspice and 1 full nutmeg (grated) into primary
Lavalin 1116
Racked onto campden tablets at 8 days (1.005 fermentation had slowed)
Wasn't happy with amount of spice so boiled 2 more cinnamon sticks, 5 cloves , half a vanilla bean, and another grated nutmeg added to secondary. I'm aging this for 4 weeks and will rack onto stabilizing and back sweeten as it's now below 1.000 and I want a semi sweet mead
I should add this is my first ever mead and put a few recipes together to create what I thought might taste good so it is not a proven recipe. Also forgot I had 2lbs brown sugar. I wanted to try and darken the color a bit and add a little molasses flavor. From reviews though I don't think this is going to add the flavor but I do think it added to the color.
