blue and blackberry mead

[carl engstrom]

This will be my first time and I am looking for a recipe for a 5 gal. batch of Blue and blackberry mead.
Thanks for any help,
Carl

 

[Randy Dykema]

A five gallon batch will require a lot of Honey. 10-12 1/2 lbs.

Mix that with 2-3 gallons of water. Heat until warm and bubbly but NOT boiling.

Pour the mix into your carboy. You can then either use raisins or fivs tsps of yeast nutrient. Raisins work really well and you'd need about 25 per gallon.

Add about a cup of fruit per gallon. It may help to lightly crush the fruit before you add it to maximize the flavors. I did this with a raspberry mead and it worked out well. Freeze them first then crush them.

Add all of this to your carboy or fermenting bucket and shake it up for 1 - 2 minutes in order to get the oxygen going.

If you don't have five gallons, top it off with either distilled or spring water until you get there.
The type of yeast to use is up to you. I have used a packet of bread yeast which worked well.
I have also used a packet of Red Star Premier Blanc. This will help give it more of a wine flavor. I will note that my wife actually prefers the mead made with bread yeast....

Let it ferment for a month or so. When your airlock slows down, I racked mine to secondary for another month and let it clarify.

When it is completely done fermenting, give it a taste. Mine actually came out so strong I had to dilute it with spring water before bottling.

Let me know how it goes...

 

[SeanC138]

This recipe seems simply and easy to follow. I am going to use it for my first mead as well. I may do a mix of blueberry, blackberry, raspberry, and cherry.

 

[Dan O]

This recipe seems simply and easy to follow. I am going to use it for my first mead as well. I may do a mix of blueberry, blackberry, raspberry, and cherry.

Seems like a nice mix of fruits, but, also be aware that will change the recipe.
So a word of caution, when you change the recipe that has already been proven to work, & you throw in a bunch of variables that weren't part of the recipe, expect it to not work, but, hope that it does. If you keep good sanitizing habits & do everything else according to good mead making practices, it should & probably will turn out fine.
Different fruits give of different amounts of sugars. Adding more fruits or even different ones will change the sugar content in your must. Another thing that will change is the tannic values. Blackberries & raspberries both give off tannic values from the seeds. The longer they are left in, the more bitterness they will extract from the seeds, as well.
Make sure to remove the pits from the cherries first. All stone fruit, (anything with a pit) needs to have the pit removed beforehand.
I hope this works out for you & you wind up with a delicious, drinkable product.
Hope this helps you.
Happy meading

 

[SeanC138]

Thanks for the reply Dan. I've learned a lot in the last couple of months and will probably just stick to blue/black and leave out the cherries

 

[Dan O]

Thanks for the reply Dan. I've learned a lot in the last couple of months and will probably just stick to blue/black and leave out the cherries

No problem, man. Every day's a school day