First mead - what should I make?

[dunleav1]

I have a gallon (12 lbs) of orange blossom honey.
I have 10# frozen sour cherries, 5# frozen blueberries, but I'm open to any recipe. I also have plenty of nutrient and I can add nutrient during fermentation.

Looking for a suggestion/recipe. SWMBO likes sweet wines or sour beers.

What should I make?

Thanks,
JD

 

[homebrewer_99]

Since it's your first mead I can only recommend making a traditional sweet (Sack) mead.

IMO, you need to know what real mead tastes like before adding (or wasting) fruit.

Save your fruit for another batch.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

IMO, you need to know what real mead tastes like before adding (or wasting) fruit.
Save your fruit for another batch.

+ 1, I'd go for a medium show mead. Regards, GF.

 

[jezter6]

With only 12# of honey, likely it will turn out fairly dry with most wine yeasts. Now, if you like dry wines, that may be good for you. If not, you may want to up the sugar content a little and either try to overwhelm the yeast, or let the 12# dry out, then backsweeten with a little more honey to get it to the sweetness you want.

 

[BierSnob]

With 12lbs of honey, for a sweet to semi-sweet use the wyeast american ale yeast (act1056). It has a clean finish and should work well. Be sure to make a starter with it.

 

[Fletch78]

I think you should make a half-batch so you have plenty of room in your bucket to shake it around to release CO2 during fermentation. In 6 months, if you want to do a fruit addition, then do a fruit addition. For now, focus on fermenting the honey. That's it's own challenge. You have nutrients, use them. Report back so I can learn from you.

FYI: I did a pyment recently. It was 1 gallon in a 5+ gallon bucket. When I shook it to release CO2 and "aerate" the foam reached the top and I got sprayed a couple of times.

 

[dunleav1]

I made a 3G batch of Shramm's sweet mead.
I'm going to split into 3 1 gallon jugs after fermentation completes and do the following:
1. standard sweet mead
2. vanilla addition - metheglin
3. sour cherry addition - melomel