I did the following with my chocalate recipe:
1 gallon honey (use a light bodied honey)
22 pounds honey (White Clover)
4 gallons water
Add water to bring to 5 gallons[/COLOR]
If you prefer your mead boiled, do so before adding any cocoa from this recipe as the foaming will remove the chocolate from the mix. Boiling is optional in mead and if you would like the pro’s and con’s, please ask. I personally boil nothing in mead making.
To your standard must, before adding the yeast, add 16 oz of Cocoa Powder (Nestles works great). Mix well before adding yeast. You will notice a lag in the start of the yeast; however this is common and due to the oils in cocoa. It will start bubbling madly in a few days, but never as much as normal mead.
Use Dutch processed cocoa powder (will help reduce time needed to erase bitterness) (Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Cocoa)
So breaking it down I used:
21 lbs White Clover Honey
Enough water to bring to 5 gallons
16 ounces Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Cocoa
1 lbs honey added to .5 gallon to create a starter (used the Lavlin d-47)
then staggered yeast nutrients.
Primary was stated on 9/14/2014
Moved to secondary on 10/17/2014
can't seem to find my Hydrometer notes but it is a sweet mead and has a semi-bitter chocolate taste going now but I expect that to mellow over time.
I have been told this is something to let set for a year 2 would be better.
Michael