Hello everyone. New to the forums and fairly new to brewing in general. Had my first shot at a mead with the caramel apple recipe which is about a month in. I can already see that I am going to be a mead/melomel/cyser enthusiast. So I had an idea since I will be getting married next summer. I am going to start 5 gallons of a melomel now so it will be ready to drink by next summer but we will only share 1 bottle. Every anniversary after that we can open one bottle which should last us 24 years or so. I thought it would be a nice thing to look forward to every anniversary. She is crazy about apricots so I was thinking about an apricot/vanilla melomel. I came up with a game plan and thought I would share.
12 cans old orchard apple juice
1/2 wildflower and 1/2 orange blossom honey to 1.100
8lbs total apricots that have been sliced/pitted with skins on and frozen
5tsp yeast nutrient
3tsp pectic enzyme
1tsp grape tannin
water to 5 gal
1/4tsp Kmeta
Lalvin 1116
2 vanilla beans
So the plan is to mix all ingredients together but only add 2lbs apricots at the primary at initial ferment. Pitch yeast starter 24hrs later after Kmeta and let er rip. Then going to add 2 more lbs of apricots at 1.050. Once closer to 1.010 rack to secondary and add vanilla beans. Let sit for 4 weeks before racking again off sediment. Once cleared, I am then going to stabilize with K sorbate and add the final juice from the remaining 2lbs of apricots after steam juicing. Let bulk age for 10months or so.
So my question for you experts who are well seasoned with meads, is there anything that you would do differently to this recipe or any tweaks needed. Thanks in advance.
12 cans old orchard apple juice
1/2 wildflower and 1/2 orange blossom honey to 1.100
8lbs total apricots that have been sliced/pitted with skins on and frozen
5tsp yeast nutrient
3tsp pectic enzyme
1tsp grape tannin
water to 5 gal
1/4tsp Kmeta
Lalvin 1116
2 vanilla beans
So the plan is to mix all ingredients together but only add 2lbs apricots at the primary at initial ferment. Pitch yeast starter 24hrs later after Kmeta and let er rip. Then going to add 2 more lbs of apricots at 1.050. Once closer to 1.010 rack to secondary and add vanilla beans. Let sit for 4 weeks before racking again off sediment. Once cleared, I am then going to stabilize with K sorbate and add the final juice from the remaining 2lbs of apricots after steam juicing. Let bulk age for 10months or so.
So my question for you experts who are well seasoned with meads, is there anything that you would do differently to this recipe or any tweaks needed. Thanks in advance.