Florida Mead

[epimortum]

Alright, I just moved back to Florida after living 3 years in KY. (I HATE this HEAT but SWMBO...). So, I want to make a mead to commemorate my moving back to FL.

Here's what I've got so:

-------------6.5 gal batch-------------------
Ingredients:
5# Orange Blossom Honey
5# Tupelo Honey
2# Wildflower Honey
1.5 gal Mango Juice
1 cup of Turbanado sugar(sugar in the raw)
1 cup of dried hibiscus flowers
1 cup strong black tea
some tea leaves
2x ale yeast (re-hydrated)
Water to make up the difference.

Procedure:
Make a tea with some of the water and hibiscus flowers add sugar and let it steep for 20min add prepared cup of black tea. Remove hibiscus flowers and set aside to cool.

Bring honey to a nice pouring temp in a large enough pot combine honey and water mix well.

Now pour honey/water, hibiscus tea, and mango juice in carboy.

Aerate the devil out of it and when cool enough pitch yeast and tea leaves.
-------------------End Batch------------------

Questions and comments please.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

If it were me, I'd drop the wildflower honey in favour of a good varietal, maybe another 2.5 lbs each of the varietals you're already planning on using. The reason being that wildflower honey is kind of hit & miss, at least it is out here in MT. It might turn out great, it might not; it might take an additional 6 months to a year to age out.

Also I think I'd drop the turbinado sugar. I think it has an odd, off taste to it & don't like it in my coffee, so I don't think I'd like it in a mead either; but if you like it, go for it! Afterall, it's about what YOU like.

I think the mango will overpower the hibiscus flowers, they have a rather delicate flavour. I think I'd use one or the other, but not both. I also think I'd add more flowers in secondary. Oh, and don't forget nutrients. That's my 2 cents worth, regards, GF.

 

[epimortum]

I've never had hibiscus in a mead but I do love Jamaica tea made from the dried flowers which is kinda tart, so I was hoping to bring that tartness through a little but not too much to kinda balance out the mangoness. Kinda like eating a green mango. Thanks for the suggestions. TBH I've never used " nutrients " in any of my other meads Just honey water tea and yeast for my basic meads and they've seemed to be fine thus far. I'd rather not put any artificially derived or heavily molested things in my brews (I'm weird like that). I'd love to learn where I can obtain foods or other plant matter which would naturally provide said nutrients like currant or oak leaves, tea, etc; any help in that area would be greatly appreciated.

 

[wayneb]

One thing you may not know, is that most modern yeast nutrients are derived directly from organic yeast that have been processed (i.e. freeze-dried) to make those nutrients more available to the living yeast in your brew. Yeast are essentially cannibals!

The one exception to that is diammonium phosphate (aka DAP) that is an inorganic mineral, naturally occurring in surface outcroppings in the middle east. So, nourishing your yeast isn't inherently "unnatural." It also results in faster, cleaner fermentation -- so it is worth considering. If you really must be certain that you know exactly what is in your nutrient, then make your own out of several grams of active dry yeast that you've boiled (in water) for 30 seconds to a minute. Let that liquid cool, and then add it directly to the must. It will work in a pinch, and does supply your live yeast with a good source of assimilable nitrogen, but many of the trace vitamins will have been denatured by the boiling, so you really would be better off using a commercial yeast nutrient.

Just thought you'd like to know.

 

[Freezeblade]

I have used Hibiscus flowers before in a mead, in a cranberry/hibiscus melomel, and I suggest a different treatment of them. I think that the hibiscus tea should be made and added when the mead is added to secondary. Most, if not all of the delicate floral flavors in hibiscus would be totally killed by the "scrubbing" of a vigerous primary fermentation, and any that would be left over would probably be demolished by the mango, IMHO.

 

[epimortum]

That is all great information thank you all very much. It is greatly appreciated.