Blackberry Cherry Mead Port

[JDWebb]

In the fermenter right now... (I made some adjustments to the process in red)

Primary Fermentation:

2 cans Alexander’s Merlot
1 can Alexander’s Red Zinfandel
9 lbs honey (I used a very floral wildflower from my local beekeeper)
1 ½ lbs very ripe bananas cut in 1” pieces (skin on)
8 oz dried Montmorency cherries
Wyeast 4946 (high gravity yeast to 18%ABV)

Boil the bananas and cherries in 1 gallon of water for 5 minutes, let cool to room temp.
Fill the fermenter with 3 gallons of water.
Add the grape juice and honey and mix well.
Add the boiled bananas and cherries including the liquid and stir in gently so as not to destroy the bananas.
Add 2 ½ tsp yeast energizer (honey has little to no nutrients)

Starting gravity should be 1.160+, whatever it is, go with that. Mine was around 1.170
It may start off slow, my pitch temp was 73ºF, after it started, I slowly took the temps down to 68º.

Aerate first 2 days, and stir.
Stir to degass gently until gravity hits 1.060

Secondary Fermentation:
When the gravity hits 1.042, rack to secondary leaving bananas and cherries behind, add 3 lbs more of honey and continue fermentation.

Tertiary Fermentation:

When gravity hits 1.020, prepare a carboy and add
2 lbs Blackberries lightly crushed (freeze first)
2 lbs mixed sweet & tart cherries lightly crushed (frozen)
3 lbs honey Add the honey and stir gently, you don’t want to introduce oxygen into the must at this point.
Continue fermentation until it quits.

Aging:

Rack to fresh carboy
Add 750 ml brandy or cognac to kill yeast.
4 oz brandy/cocgnac soaked French Oak cubes
Age for 1 year. (this is the hard part!)

 

[growlrr]

How big of a batch does this make? I'd like to try it but it looks like a $200+ investment for the batch so I'm wondering what you'll yield. Thanks!

 

[JDWebb]

How big of a batch does this make? I'd like to try it but it looks like a $200+ investment for the batch so I'm wondering what you'll yield. Thanks!

Its 5 gallons exactly in the fermenter. It's an intense project, needs to be watched over. The cost so far is around $140, plus I spent about $65 on some cognac, so yeah, around $200 bucks. The honey runs me $160 for a 5 gallon bucket from a local beekeeper, and I used 15 pounds, you do the math! His winter wildflower is like no other, really sweet, very floral, I'm counting on the floral notes and residual sweetness from the grape juice and honey. It's 11 days into fermentation, and it's at 1.050 now, about 15.7% ABV, have a little ways to go to get to at least 18%, hoping for 19. It was a rough start, gravity was 1.170, and had to play around with temps for a bit to get it going. After a year of aging, it will be bottled in 375ml bottles, then put in a small brown paper bag tied with twine and set back for another year. This is not a short drinker, this is meant to age a long time.

 

[joesc1119]

Hi JD, recipe looks intense. I'm assuming this is the same JD from the Mead House podcast? Love the show. Started listening to it a few weeks ago and really enjoy it, makes my 45 minute drive to work less painful. Please keep up the good work.

 

[JDWebb]

Hi JD, recipe looks intense. I'm assuming this is the same JD from the Mead House podcast? Love the show. Started listening to it a few weeks ago and really enjoy it, makes my 45 minute drive to work less painful. Please keep up the good work.

Yep, it is! Thanks for listening!

 

[JDWebb]

I made some changes to the process in case anyone was brave enough to start it.

 

[fossilcat]

I made some changes to the process in case anyone was brave enough to start it.

JD - Appreciate the update. I copied your recipe a few days ago for future use - near future, I hope. A lot of resources there to gather but I am serious about making it. I can almost taste it by just reading the ingredients.

One other thing, your recommended starting gravity of 1.160 would give you more than 18% alc if it finishes around 1.020, yet you add 6 more lbs (3 in secondary, 3 in tertiary). Just wondering how the yeast is gonna eat that too when
Wyeast 4946 tops out at 18%. Am I reading the recipe wrong?

BUT! It does make sense to me when you add together all your honey additions - you get a total of 15 lbs. Which is about 3 lbs per gal, something I'm more comfortable with.

I apologize before hand if I'm confusing something, and I don't want to mess anyone else up, but I can't start this project with out knowing these things - I'm a pain in the neck like that.

 

[JDWebb]

Gravity - actually, mine started out more than 1.160, more like 170, my hydro bottoms out at 160, and my reading was below that! And yes, the yeast is supposed to top out at 18%, but I'm trying to coax it past that. You need it to be right on the edge because the 750ml of 40% ABV cognac is supposed to help kill the yeast. So, trying to get it right to the edge where the alcohol buildup of the must is just about to kill the yeast, and at the same time, max out the ABV as much as possible. Port wines are usually around 20% ABV give or take, and sweet. Thats where the last 3 lbs of honey comes in. I'm looking for leftover sweetness after the alcohol terminates the yeast without having to backsweeten. I hate to backsweeten. This is a total experiment, the recipe is heavily modified from a port wine recipe on a wine site. I keep a close eye on it every day, taste it every day, and although I have no expectations, I do have high hopes! I hope that explains my methodology or my process. But again, this is a very intense project, be sure you want to spend the money and attempt this, it surely isn't for beginners. Make sure you have a precise way to control your temps, I recommend a stainless steel fermenter, airtight, I have 2 SS BrewTech units I ferment in, and for this project once I get to tertiary with the addition of the fruit, it's going back into one of them for 14-20 days, or longer. Then rack one final time, add the wood and cognac, and let her sit. I'm not worried too much about how clear it will be, it's a very dark wine.

OK, one more edit - I'd rather you ask questions, than come back to me later and call me an A-hole for doing this! And remember to take into consideration the gravity of the wine concentrate too...so together with 15 pounds of honey, thats a crapload of sugar!

 

[JDWebb]

The first 3 lbs of honey went in during racking at 1.042, about 16%, so not alot of room to move in my attempt to max out at around 19-20%. This might be a real struggle. I hate to use any kind of yeast energizer for fear of creating off flavors. What I'm thinking now is, I may omit the next 3 lbs if the residual sweetness sticks around. At this time, it is fermenting VERY slowly, but it's still fermenting. I monitor daily, and at the level of sweetness it has right now, there may be plenty left over to finish with. It tastes really good, a little too sweet for a port, but has a nice flavor.

 

[JDWebb]

After the 3 lbs of honey went in, the new gravity was 1.064, up from 042. Fermentation is very slow, currently at 1.048. Will take it as far as it will go, next step is to put it on cherries and blackberries for a month, then rack again for the cognac addition. So far, so good.

 

[fossilcat]

Thanks for the update JD. I, for one, am VERY interested in how this turns out.

I've had very good success step feeding beyond a yeast's stated alcohol tolerance. I've pushed 71B to 18 a couple of times, and 1116 to 21, and that was an acidic cranberry juice environment. I've never tried Wyeast 4946.

When you racked off the initial fruit to secondary, did you try to include some of the lee's? To help continue the ferment?

I think the drop from 1.064 to 1.048 is encouraging.

 

[JDWebb]

Thanks for the update JD. I, for one, am VERY interested in how this turns out.

I've had very good success step feeding beyond a yeast's stated alcohol tolerance. I've pushed 71B to 18 a couple of times, and 1116 to 21, and that was an acidic cranberry juice environment. I've never tried Wyeast 4946.

When you racked off the initial fruit to secondary, did you try to include some of the lee's? To help continue the ferment?

I think the drop from 1.064 to 1.048 is encouraging.

Just a little, I wanted enough to push it to it's max, and at the rate I'm going, I think it will hit between 18 & 19 easily which is fine with me. It will have one more chance with the next and final 3lb addition, but this will be more for sweetening I think. At that time it will sit on the cherries and blackberries for a while, and I think even if it hits 20%, that would be perfect. The cognac addition should bring the alcohol up enough to basically kill the yeast, then...time to let it sit and mature on some oak!

 

[JDWebb]

UPDATE: About 4 weeks ago, I added the 2 lbs of cherries and 2 lbs of blackberries. They were both gently mashed, then placed in a nylon bag and added to the fermenter. It bubbled a few times, I'm sure it was the surviving yeast trying to eat their last meal. After 4 weeks, I racked into a carboy on top of 750ml of cognac and 4oz of French Oak cubes I had soaked in cognac. It tastes amazing, now I have to keep my frickin' hands off the wine thief...thats gonna be hard.

EDIT: The full recipe can be found here

 

[growlrr]

OK - you win! I am going to try it - I did notice however you skipped the step about explaining why you dropped over $200 on grape juice and honey to your wife. That would be a really good step to add!

 

[JDWebb]

You got to brew the stuff she likes to drink! Mine loves a good stout, so I always have one on tap at home!
Make sure you go to the website for the recipe, don't use the one at the top of this thread, I made some changes.

 

[RNaka]

The first 3 lbs of honey went in during racking at 1.042, about 16%, so not alot of room to move in my attempt to max out at around 19-20%. This might be a real struggle. I hate to use any kind of yeast energizer for fear of creating off flavors. What I'm thinking now is, I may omit the next 3 lbs if the residual sweetness sticks around. At this time, it is fermenting VERY slowly, but it's still fermenting. I monitor daily, and at the level of sweetness it has right now, there may be plenty left over to finish with. It tastes really good, a little too sweet for a port, but has a nice flavor.

Hi There,

Been lurking. This sounds delicious. Are you Not using any nutrients/energizers?

Thanks

Reed

Edit: Never Mind. Just look at you website

Cheers

 

[JDWebb]

Nutrients went in up front with the 9 lbs of honey. About 2 1/2 tsp of yeast energizer. The grape juice has nutrients already, but the honey needed a kick in the ass. It was tough getting it going, had to play around with the temps a bit, but once it did, there was no problem fermenting at 66-68ºF.

 

[growlrr]

OK JD...I've been rereading this thread for nine months...I've decided to take the plunge and just ordered the Alexanders concentrate, Wyeast and 15# of Ukranian wildflower honey. Any updates you can share so I don't make $150 worth of cough syrup?

 

[growlrr]

OK - Day 7 into the ferment and it landed on 1.060. Racked it and added another 3# of wildflower. Taste and smell is amazing...It is doubling as a best air freshener I've ever had in my office. Quick question on last steps - you say to add the cognac and oak cubes on the last rack and then leave it alone. If the mead going to sit on the oak cubes for the full year of aging? It'll be going into a carboy as opposed to a fermenting bucket. any need to sink them or just let them float around and do their thing? Thank you!

 

[AkTom]

He hasn’t been on since December. You might try sending him a message.

 

[madscientist451]

JD can also be contacted though his Mead House web page....