Black Raspberry Acerglyn

[HawleyFarms]

Was looking at the Good Morning Magpie recipe in the database and a poster having trouble finishing a hibiscus raspberry mel and decided to throw together a black raspberry acerglyn.

Used the fresh pressed juice from 12oz of thawed frozen organic black raspberries from our farm which gave me about 5oz of juice.

Used 1lb 12oz of grade b maple syrup from our own maple trees last spring.

6oz of clover honey from an apiary about 12 miles from me (normally I use a different honey but I was going all local on this one)

1 gallon of tap water (again trying to be local, would usually use a Pure brand fortified water for its mineral content)

1/2 oz Centennial hops grown about 3 miles from me

Juice of 2 navel oranges bought in cases for a local school fundraiser.

Really wanted this to be 100% local ingredients.

Gravity was 1.06 and this was a 1 gallon batch after boiling. Taste was excellent before pouring over us-05 yeast cake harvested from my hopped english cider that I bottled yesterday. Can't wait!

 

[HawleyFarms]

This stuff looks and tastes great! Ferment is over for the most part and it is finally starting to clear. It's a little sweeter than I like my drinks but this is something I might even be able to get my wife to drink. Has a nice black raspberry flavor with a very subtle hop finish with a hint of maple aroma.

Going to leave it be for at least another week or more and then going to prime with maple in 12oz bottles.

 

[HawleyFarms]

So its been quite awhile since I tasted this. It ended up finishing around .996 and I never back sweetened. Ended up bottling in wine bottles.

Just uncorked a bottle for a homebrew club meeting and it's honestly one of the best meads I've ever made. Will definitely be one of my first meads in my lineup when as I am starting the planning phases of opening a meadery. There is still some hop flavor but not a lot. When I get home from work I will pour a glass and post the pic. Unfortunately, I never wrote down the full instructions so I am going to try 3 different versions of it to nail down what my hop additions were.

 

[HawleyFarms]

I lied! I just remembered that one of my older brewing pads was in my truck. Says I boiled all ingredients with 1/2 gallon of water and added hops at flameout. I never boil my mead must, must have been in a beer mood.