Caramel Apple Mead

[BeerMeDuffMan]

I made this tonight, only I have no idea what kind of honey I put in it. When I acquired some used homebrew equipment the seller threw in five 5# containers of honey. It's somewhat dark in color and says pure honey on the label. The guy I bought it from hadn't brewed in over 10 years, so it had some age on it and was pretty well crystalized. I did a lot of rinsing and soaking in hot water to get it pourable.

I have the buckwheat honey on order, so I missed adding the first pound of it in primary. I figure I will add it when I rack to secondary and add the vanilla beans.

This is my first attempt at a mead, so I'm pretty geeked. Hopefully it will be ready by the time my birthday rolls around in May.

Cheer!

It might be ok by May, probably 1 year beyond that and it would be great! Within that time frame you want to be sure that you use finnings of some nature if you are worried about clarity. I would let that stuff sit in with the finnings for a few weeks prior to bottling.

 

[h0psnobery]

This looks great! Can't wait to make some.

 

[TexasWine]

Gonna get this going today. It will be my first mead/cyser. Plan is to substitute clover honey for the OB honey since that's what I've got.

Also, maybe this is obvious, but do you all crush the 60L before steeping/mashing? This sounds just like a partial mash beer, but no boiling and hops involved.

 

[TexasWine]

Got this started on Saturday. A few things of note.

My volume was way short of the desired 5 gallons. Thankfully I had some FAJC in the freezer, so I added it with the recommended amount of water indicated on the package.

Even with the added volume my SG was 1.132. Thought this was odd to begin with, but came to the conclusion that I extracted quite a few sugars from the steeping/mash step.

Speaking of the mash, I crushed the malt with my Barley Crusher at its factory set gap and used part of my BIAB set up. 2 gallons of "strike juice" at 161°F, temp came down to 153 at dough in and dropped to 151 over the 45 minutes.

Also, used all clover honey in lieu of the OB honey.

I made a silly mistake and pitched the yeast before the must had a chance to cool down. Not sure what the temp was, but guessing in the 90s. Hopefully that doesn't come back to haunt me. Fermentation started within 2 hours and was incredible active all day yesterday.

 

[TexasWine]

Oh and a pic of fermentation going wild.

 

[TexasWine]

Anyone have a timeline for when this stuff clears up? Just three weeks in, so early still, but boy howdy is this stuff muddy looking.

 

[Hanso]

No idea myself, I've been curious about this one and appreciate any updates on your experience. I'd expect it to clear suddenly as that's been my experience with other cloudy honey-influenced fermentation however you never know when it will finally clear.

 

[TexasWine]

And my experience with AJ has been that it clears quickly. But of course I never mashed any grain in apple juice until this batch.

Not sure what I would use to clear it. Wouldn't classify as pectin haze. Maybe sparkolloid would help? If it doesn't start to clear on its on in a couple weeks I'm gonna try to assist it somehow.

 

[Hanso]

Oh I guess the OP does say "use Super Kleer to clarify" after a month in secondary but before bulk aging.

 

[TexasWine]

Oh I guess the OP does say "use Super Kleer to clarify" after a month in secondary but before bulk aging.

Whoops! Guess I should read a little more carefully. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

[TexasWine]

Anybody else have a problem with a stuck fermentation? Down to 1.020, been there for two weeks.

Thinking of pitching some EC-1118 to finish the job.

 

[Beek]

I feel like 1.020 is good. Just keep it there and back sweeten it with less.


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[TexasWine]

I feel like 1.020 is good. Just keep it there and back sweeten it with less.


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That's a good idea too. It's pretty sweet right now, and I want the buckwheat honey flavor. Gonna be a balancing act on this one.

 

[TexasWine]

I feel like 1.020 is good. Just keep it there and back sweeten it with less.


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Double post. Phone got wonky.

 

[TexasWine]

I feel like 1.020 is good. Just keep it there and back sweeten it with less.


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Good grief. Triple post?

 

[mcc]

So I just made this last night. I added GoFerm per the yeast re-hydration instructions. Am I supposed to add Fermaid K now that fermentation has begun? I've seen many wildly varying yeast nutrient schedules so I'm confused.

 

[Newsman]

Going to have to try this!

 

[Beek]

I don't know if this has come up yet, but is there something that can be used in place of Super Kleer? It's derived from shellfish which SWMBO is allergic to.


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[SteveOBrews]

All right, I made it this morning. Made a few changes but nothing major... Below are the ingredients that I used.

4 Gallons of Brown’s Orchard Apple Cider
2 lbs Plain Light DME

3 lbs 60L Crystal malt

4 lbs Wildflower Honey
5 lbs Clover Honey
1 lbs Buckwheat Honey
Sweet Mead Wine Yeast WLP720

Now the hard part, waiting!

 

[Strut]

I'm planning a batch of this soon. In researching this further, I discovered the infamous Graf malted cider recipe, which is very similar, minus the honey of course. I decided to try the Graf first to get the process down before I committed a full pound of my precious local honey. I have high hopes for both the Graff and this recipe!

Has anyone tried this carbonated yet?

 

[thasista]

Reviving this thread. I just got this recipe going. Dear God it tastes good!

 

[Roadie]

I'm going to try this as my first mead batch coming up. I'm thinking of serving it sparkling from a keg. Has anyone tried that with this recipe?

 

[Newsman]

I don't know if this has come up yet, but is there something that can be used in place of Super Kleer? It's derived from shellfish which SWMBO is allergic to.


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Seems to me you could use regular unflavored gelatin or agar, if you don't want to use an animal product

 

[ben93p]

Hey I wanted to give this recipe a try but right now I'm out of dme and clover honey so I was thinking of increasing the orange blossom honey to 9pounds and using a 3 pound bottle of Maillard Malts Amber Malt Extract. think that will get the same kind of flavor as the original?

 

[Homebrewer1]

Would like to know what I could do to carbinate this.

 

[Roadie]

Would like to know what I could do to carbinate this.

Put it in a keg... easy peasy. I made my first mead last May and bottled 12/26/16 but instead of this I made a raspberry, chipotle mead.

 

[Boomer]

Bulk aging - does it need to be relatively temperature controlled or can I throw it in the garage somewhere?

 

[Shine0n]

Just curious, what's the DME for, gravity points?
I've rarely ever looked at it so excuse the not knowing.

I have already 5 gal of cider, 71B or D47, fermaid o, caramel malt, clover and wildflower honey. Could I up the grains per gal to achieve the same goal. I understand that the darker the roast the less starches are there for conversion, is that the reasoning for the extract?

I'm giving this a go next weekend and can make the trip to the lhbs if needed.

 

[bernardsmith]

Hard to determine what the DME is for. This is not supposed to be a braggot unless it is... and if it is a braggot then the DME is to add grain to the mead - which is what a braggot is (a hybrid of beer and mead). But some one in 2009 talks about this being a cyser - which is a mead made with apple juice - not grain. But using DME is a good way to make a braggot because you are not trying to make a beer by style but simply want the malt flavors that the extract can provide (saves you from mashing and boiling and spending all day producing the wort. With DME that's all done for you.

 

[Shine0n]

Thanks, I think I'll skip the DME and still use the caramel malt for flavor anyway. Heat the cider to 153, pour over the malt in my insulated cooler and hold for an hour+
During that time I'll make my yeast starter and crush some other grains I need for another brew.
I'll also just use one type of honey (clover) for the primary.
With the cider being at 1.050 by itself I don't believe I'll have to use 3 lb per gal honey as it would go well above 1.120 so I'll just use the hydrometer to read when I'm there.

This seems like it will taste very good and I'm hoping so and will find out in a couple months.