Caramel Apple Mead

[bernardsmith]

But cooked apple taste liked cooked apple.. Better might be to increase the amount of malt and so the amount of water and simply add that volume to the apple juice when cool enough. Folk on this forum (more associated with brewing than wine making) tend to want to heat everything they ferment. Wine makers tend to brew only their coffee and tea and try to ensure that their fruit remains uncooked.. But to each their own..

 

[Shine0n]

Didn't think of that, thanks a bunch.

Makes alot of sense tho.

bernardsmith, you have a wealth of knowledge and thanks for sharing the way you do.

 

[Bryceshu]

Hey guys, I got excited when i read this thread and decided to do a version of this.

Im doing 3 gallons.
-2 lbs of crystal malt
-8 lbs of honey
-Lalvin K1v1116
-OG1.139

Looking forward to this one. I was thinking of making some apple jack with it too.

 

[Shine0n]

Mine is still very young but imho it's wayyy too malted, I believe I could've went with .5lb malt and gotten the flavors I needed.

It may improve with some time and I hope so but for now it's just too much.

Are you going to use juice or cider?

 

[Bryceshu]

Mine is still very young but imho it's wayyy too malted, I believe I could've went with .5lb malt and gotten the flavors I needed.

It may improve with some time and I hope so but for now it's just too much.

Are you going to use juice or cider?

I used 1 gallon of Northcoast organic apple juice and 2 gallons of motts. I should have just grabbed some local Cider but went the juice route. Was it still drinkable with the amount of malt it had ?

 

[Shine0n]

I still have 2.5 gal aging, I haven't tasted it since I took the other half gal. Drinkable...yes
Too much malt...yes
I'm hoping with a year it becomes better and mingle with the cider more, you can still taste the cider from my last tasting and the malt was overpowering the thing as a whole.
Just not a good ballance on my end, that's why I said I'd personally lower the malt in the next one I do.

 

[Cavpilot2000]

I still have 2.5 gal aging, I haven't tasted it since I took the other half gal. Drinkable...yes
Too much malt...yes
I'm hoping with a year it becomes better and mingle with the cider more, you can still taste the cider from my last tasting and the malt was overpowering the thing as a whole.
Just not a good ballance on my end, that's why I said I'd personally lower the malt in the next one I do.

So I've been considering a crystal malted cider for some time and came across this.
Did you steep the grains in cider or water?
I don't know if you are a brewer, but 1-2 qt/lb of water to grain ratio is common in brewing, so for 2 lb grain, I could see using just 3-4 qt of water, which would dilute the mix overall, but you can just add honey back in to plus up the gravity (rather than cooking the cider).

 

[Shine0n]

I actually used the cider. My 2nd job is at a distillery and I use 2-2.25lb per gal for my beer.
But after some new batch recipes we've found a little specialty malt goes a long way.
3-7% is our max as it can easily overpower the grain bill and mask other flavors.

I thought 3 lbs would be much but I've just gotten into meads back in Aug last year. I'll know more in about 6 months or so.

 

[abeekeeper]

Recipe Type: Extract
Yeast: Lalvin K1v1116
Yeast Starter: yes
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.120
Final Gravity: 1.010
IBU: n/a
Steep Time (Minutes): 45
Color: golden brown
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 15 days at 68F
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 35 days at 68F

4 Gallons apple juice
2 lbs DME
3 lbs 60L Crystal malt
7 lbs Orange blossom honey
2 lbs clover honey
2 lbs buckwheat honey


2 vanilla beans

Steep grains in 1.5 gallons of apple juice at 155F for 45 minutes and remove from heat. Stir in the DME and honey. Rinse grain sack with 1/2 gallon apple juice. Add the remainder of the apple juice. Aerate by vigorous stirring for at least five minutes. Aerate some more. I now use oxygen with a diffuser stone to aerate (better). Pitch yeast starter (hydrated with Go Ferm per container instructions) directly into the primary (plastic pail fitted with an air lock).

At about 1.075 add 5g Fermaid K
At about 1.035 add 5g Fermaid K
(Dissolve your nutrients in water before adding them to your must. This helps to minimize foam.)

Within about two weeks this should ferment out to 1.012 or so. Rack to secondary and add vanilla beans. Allow to remain in the secondary for about a month.

Rack again onto 1 lb of buckwheat honey and 1/4t potassium metabisuphite or 5 campden tabs and 2 1/2t potassium sorbate to stabilize. Add Super Kleer to clarify. Bulk age for six months to a year before bottling.

I adapted this recipe from one I saw on gotmead.com. Mine is about 14 months old and tastes just like caramel apples. It's a medium sweet mead that's very drinkable. At about 13.75% alcohol and no alcohol bite one should exercise caution since it goes down so smoothly.

So after the clarifying agent do you rerack or just let it sit on all the nasty stuff on bottom of
thx for your reply

 

[Dan O]

So after the clarifying agent do you rerack or just let it sit on all the nasty stuff on bottom of
thx for your reply

Just in case he doesn't reply, the original poster hasn't been seen since Aug 30, 2020.