Cherry Berry Mead

[TahoePowderHound]

I'm very new to all this, bit I have learned that even if it looks clear as glass.... If you bottle it too early you will find sediment on the bottom of your bottles in a month or two. Not the end of the world, bit it seems time is the only sure sullution to dropping all sediment.
I usually rack 3 or 4 times before bottling to remove sediment, which really improves the taste and look.
I cold crash my 1 gallons in the freezer for an hour before doing a final racking as well, it does help.

I second all of this. Rack, rack, rack, rack. Cold crash is a must imo to prevent that late sediment in bottle.

 

[user 30639]

This looks pretty good. I have 15 pounds of honey sitting in the pantry that my wife really wants me to do something with.

 

[TahoePowderHound]

I made two, one-gallon batches of this mead. One with D-47 and one with 71B-1122. (I need to use Dry yeast to make it gluten free)

The d47 was very cloudy for a long time, even in secondary. Afrer I racked it a few times and finally cold crashed it, it came out perfectly clear. I bottle about 12 oz of leftover mead that wouldn’t fill a wine bottle in a pop-top which makes it easy to tast. After three months it has mellowed significantly and the berry flavors are highlighted as the star of the show. It’s still young, but I can tell this will be a very well-rounded mead with perfect sweetness.

The 71b-1122 cleared up almost right away which had me calling it the early winner. However I realized later that it came out much drier, and acidic. It’s much sharper than the d-47 and the berry notes are almost completely masked. It’s possible this will change with more age. I plan to age them both for a total of 6 months or more.

The d47 batch tastes so good I want to make a full 5 gallon batch with it soon.

 

[BrewHogDeluxe]

Hello All,

I made a Cherry Berry Mead last year and loved it...so a couple of weeks ago I brewed up some more and thought I would share!

• 12 Pounds Light Amber Honey
• 12 Pounds of Frozen Strawberries
• 2 Quarts Welch's White Grape Cherry 100% Juice
• 2 teaspoons of yeast nutrients
• Wyeast 4184 Sweet Mead
• 1 Gallons of Water

For my base I start by boiling a gallon of water....while the water is boiling I pour the honey in to a mixing pot, then I use the boiling water to get the rest of the honey out of the jug...when jug is clear, discard the rest of the boiling water (the hotter you make your base, the more cooling you will need to do). Now you have honey and water, its time to add the Welch's Juice and Yeast Nutrient....mix everything together and pour in to fermenter...add cold water to bring up to five gallons...mix or shake to combine ingredients and aerate.
At this point you will want to add strawberries...I prefer to puree my berries and place them in to the fermenter, its my experience that it helps speed the process and really brings in the berry flavor...the draw back is that you will need to rack it another time to get it crystal clear.
Pour in yeast and primary ferment for 2 weeks, rack to a secondary for 3 weeks and finally rack again for 1 week for clarification.
Bottle and let age for 3 months and give it a try...at 6 months it's a piece of art!

So...Long time beer making guy here, up to 15 gal batches, rehoming it faster than I can make it. Trying my hand at mead now and decided to try this receipe first. Smells great out of the pot.
The question is, I added water up to the 5gal mark and added the 12lbs. of straberries and as you can imagine this did not leave much head space and this thing is rockin with the 4184 yeast, so much so that I had to add a second blow-off tube. They both have some slight foam travelling throgh them with me praying that it slows soon. So I will babysit until bedtime and hopefully the agent strawberry bomb does not go off [emoji23] [emoji23]

 

[BrewHogDeluxe]

That’s about what my buddy said. Plus the guy I bought the honey from said it pasteurizes at 117 degrees f, not sure if it would get that high before in the fermenter.

I’m thinking of starting this next weekend, second racking of a blueberry cider should be Friday or Saturday. Guessing.

Isn't the honey being added to boiling water to dissolve[emoji16]

 

[BrewHogDeluxe]

I'm new to mead making, but have been brewing beer for about 9 months now. I've noticed that in the pictures of this mead, its not very clear. Could you add whirl floc, or Irish moss to this, and would it have the same effect, as it does in beer. I used whirl floc on my last brew and it came out crystal clear.

I have added gelatin to my beers to get them to clear, wonder if it would work for this. But it seems that time is a meads best friend.

 

[BrewHogDeluxe]

Hello All,

I made a Cherry Berry Mead last year and loved it...so a couple of weeks ago I brewed up some more and thought I would share!

• 12 Pounds Light Amber Honey
• 12 Pounds of Frozen Strawberries
• 2 Quarts Welch's White Grape Cherry 100% Juice
• 2 teaspoons of yeast nutrients
• Wyeast 4184 Sweet Mead
• 1 Gallons of Water

For my base I start by boiling a gallon of water....while the water is boiling I pour the honey in to a mixing pot, then I use the boiling water to get the rest of the honey out of the jug...when jug is clear, discard the rest of the boiling water (the hotter you make your base, the more cooling you will need to do). Now you have honey and water, its time to add the Welch's Juice and Yeast Nutrient....mix everything together and pour in to fermenter...add cold water to bring up to five gallons...mix or shake to combine ingredients and aerate.
At this point you will want to add strawberries...I prefer to puree my berries and place them in to the fermenter, its my experience that it helps speed the process and really brings in the berry flavor...the draw back is that you will need to rack it another time to get it crystal clear.
Pour in yeast and primary ferment for 2 weeks, rack to a secondary for 3 weeks and finally rack again for 1 week for clarification.
Bottle and let age for 3 months and give it a try...at 6 months it's a piece of art!

Question: I am going on week 5 in the fermentation process and I am still seeing fermentation action. So since I am new to this mead brewing stuff what is my next step to get this to stop? Or will it stop in time? Just waiting for this to clear up and stop to be able to bottle and age and was wondeing if this was normal for mead?

 

[TahoePowderHound]

I finally popped a bottle of this mead today after aging for 6 months and wow!!! This is absolutely amazing. I made 2 batches, one with D-47 and one with 71b-1122. This bottle is from the D-47 and its absolutely delicious, I can't wait to share with friends and family. Slight honey and strawberry in the nose, very "clean" or "fresh" smelling. The taste of honey is very present, but not overpowering at all. The strongest notes of fruit I get are the strawberry followed by the grape. The fruit perfectly balances out the honey for a well-rounded mead with a decent residual sweetness. This was my first try at making mead and I'm glad I went for this recipe. I've only tried a few store bought meads and really didn't like them. Mad props to the OP!

 

[TahoePowderHound]

New labels for my batch of Cherry berry!

 

[hoikon]

Hello everybody. I just racked my mead this morning. I also got to taste it and it didn't taste like I had hoped for. It really tastes bitter a lot and you can not easily tell the fruit flavours. I used mangrove jack's m05 mead yeast. Started at 1.098 and finished at 0.99. This gives me an appx 14% abv, a bit high I think. I am thinking of backsweetening it before bottling. Any advice?

 

[Blacksmith1]

Stabilize it just in case. And my personal opinion is some of what people are looking for in a "fruit flavor" is the sweetness...which you just finished removing.

 

[MiBeerMan]

so, im lucky to live within a short drive to king orchards in michigan and was going to buy some frozen cherries but the lady there said that a lot of breweries use concentrate to do their meads. I've never made a mead yet but i'm highly considering trying this as my first recipe. Has anyone used concentrate for this recipe?

 

[SKBugs]

Has anyone used concentrate for this recipe?

 

[SKBugs]

I have used both. The biggest advantages is the control you have over the taste. With whole fruit you have to live with what you put in, but with the concentrate you can mix to taste to some degree.
Also much less mess and wastage with lees.
Stay away from purée tho - so much mess.