Game of Thrones Mead

[MisterZ]

Did you add the nutrients dry, or dissolve them first? There will be much less foam if dissolved first.

Dissolve first, eh? Cool. The guy at the LHBS says toss these in there, so I did. He may have assumed I'd know to do that. Not. I'll try that next time. Thanx!!

 

[CityOChampBrew]

The trick is to degas with wine/mead first, give it a good stir and let the gasses escape and then stir in the nutrient

 

[ErinRae]

Happy Game of Thrones Day!!! So excited to watch! My hubby and I picked up a bottle of b.nektars wildberry pyment a few weeks ago while driving through Michigan. Gonna try it tonight!!

 

[JustinCider]

I like their wildberry pyment. Unfortunately for me i wont watch the premier until tomorrow. Walking Dead season ender for me. :fro:

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

I like their wildberry pyment. Unfortunately for me i wont watch the premier until tomorrow. Walking Dead season ender for me. :fro:

I love how the Governor has completely changed over the coarse of the season, However the season finale had more of an episode before a season finale kind of vibe.

 

[TheWeeb]

Just took a gravity reading of mine after only 11 days, it is down to 1.024, already at 10.5% ABV. The smell is of hot peppers. The taste, really nice earthy fig/date sweet mingled with green pepper and only a hint of hotness in the back of the throat after, that then lingers on the back of the tongue. I really like it, and as the yeasties work through the sugars it should get hotter.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

Ill be starting mine the day my honey comes in. Probably the 8th of April or so.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

I brewed, The Cheesemonger's Reserve yesterday!

Blue’s Perry Pyment
3 lbs Orange Blossom Honey
20 oz Green Grapes
3 medium size Bartlett Pears
.5 oz Medium Toast Oak Chips
Red Star Montrachet

Chop up the pears and de-vine the grapes. Run the fruit through a food processor. Pour the fruit juice goop into a large fine strainer over a pot. Squeeze the fruit pulp to get all that juice out. I ended up with over 2 cups of juice. Eat the shreds or throw them out. Combine honey water and dissolve with a whisk. Add the juice and top up with water 1 gallon. Pitch yeast with ½ Tsp of yeast nutrient. Ill add the other half during the 1/3 break.

Starting Gravity is 1.086 (it’s likely higher than this as the bottom of the carboy was darker than the top and I didn’t realize it needed more mixing until after I poured the Hydrometer sample, and I wasn’t going to do it again.

I’ll add the oak when fermentation is wrapped up along with some more grapes. Who likes pictures!?

 

[Bearmaul]

I've been giving this Game of Thrones mead idea a lot of thought. Unfortunately I have a very limited brewing setup right now so it will take me forever to get through any of this stuff, but I have a basic plan lined up. I took a lot of inspiration from suggestions in this thread (particularly on the Lannister mead) but here's what I'm planning.

Winterfell/Starks - spiced cinnamon cyser with caramelized honey
Warm and inviting like the hospitality of the North. Imagine coming into a warm house after being out in the blustery cold and snow and getting a hot cup of it.

Casterly Rock/Lannister - Cherry vanilla melomel with 24k gold flakes
Heavy on the cherry so it's nice and deep red. 24k gold flakes a la Goldschlager for the classic red & gold Lannister color combo.

Eyrie/Arryn - strawberry melon melomel with mint
The Eyrie is high up on a mountaintop, with pretty consistent chilly winds. I wanted to represent that with an ultimately light, sweet and refreshing mead.

The Wall/Night's Watch - blackberry and black currant melomel racked over oak chips
Blackberry and black currant for obvious reasons

I'm totally stumped on Iron Islands/Greyjoy... a seaweed melomel with rocks and salt. yum.

 

[hillhousesawdustco]

The folks from the Iron Island pay the iron price- plunder your reserves and make a total mishmash maybe?

 

[Bearmaul]

The folks from the Iron Island pay the iron price- plunder your reserves and make a total mishmash maybe?

That's not a bad idea. I could go kill the shopkeepers and steal some fruits maybe?

 

[hillhousesawdustco]

Insert joke about their wives', daughters', and mothers' fruits. Those guys and their salt wives.

 

[Tombstone0]

The folks from the Iron Island pay the iron price- plunder your reserves and make a total mishmash maybe?

That's an idea I've been thinking about. Something like kraken's plunder mead, with an ingredient from each of the seven kingdoms. It would represent that they just steal everything they have from everyone else. Either that or you could make a fish flavored mead but I'm not sure how that would be received.

 

[CityOChampBrew]

The folks from the Iron Island pay the iron price- plunder your reserves and make a total mishmash maybe?

So you suggest we come steal all your mead, as is our right?

 

[hillhousesawdustco]

So you suggest we come steal all your mead, as is our right?

Oh my that gave me a chuckle. Not even the Iron born would try to plunder Babb, Montana. Unless they got word that my sister is a commercial beekeeper and produces 100k-200k pounds of honey per year!

 

[TheMadHopper]

The Iron Islands and its people are kind of based off of the Viking right? Well having spent a lot of time in Scandinavia the home of the vikings I can tell you that they really really like to drink things with the flavor of Anis (is kind of like a black licorice) which can taste similar to Jagermeister

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

Here's one for you iron island fans

The Salt Wife (per gallon)
3 lbs of honey
1 gallon of distilled ocean water
oak chips
your preferred yeast

 

[Bearmaul]

Here's one for you iron island fans

The Salt Wife (per gallon)
3 lbs of honey
1 gallon of distilled ocean water
oak chips
your preferred yeast

How much salt would still be in the water if it's distilled?

 

[TheWeeb]

How much salt would still be in the water if it's distilled?

zero!

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

yup, the salt doesn't evaporate with the water. I wonder if any oceany essence would be carried over though =/. It was originally a joke, but now I'm thinking about it.

 

[Bearmaul]

Maybe you could make a mead with caramelized honey, and then add sea salt at bottling? So you get kind of a caramel flavor with a bit of salt. How would a salted mead taste?

 

[p4ttythep3rf3ct]

I call it 'Taking the Black'. For those long nights on the Wall.

Type: Wildflower Bochet
Honey: 6 quarts Raw Wildflower Honey (mostly Tallow)
Water: 4 Gallons
Yeast: Lalvin ICV D47
O.G: 1.110
F.G: 1.012
ABV: 13%

Made as a traditional Bochet, except we used a lower heat over a longer time to caramelize the honey. About 6 hours of cooking time.

I always make a 1L yeast starter.

Once pitched (2/10/13), followed this SNA:
2/10: 2g FermK + 13g DAP
2/11: 2g FermK + 1g DAP
2/12: 2g FermK + 1g DAP
2/13: 6g FermK + 1g DAP
2/14: 12g FermK + 1g DAP

FYI, I work off of YAN calculations and not someone else's recommended SNA. This batch had about 290 YAN, not counting any GoFerm YAN addition.

Additional Steps:
3/13/12 - Racked into 5Gal Carboy, added 12oz Toasted Coconut, 2 split Madagascar Vanilla beans, and 4oz French Oak Dark toast cubes. Attached blowoff tube.

4/9/13 - Racked into new 5Gal Carboy.

The pic you see is from 4/10/13. Aroma is rich and wonderful, you can tell that this one will be amazeballs after it ages out for a bit.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

I love bochets! Can't wait until mine is done. Just another couple months now.

 

[Swarley88]

I call it 'Taking the Black'. For those long nights on the Wall.

Type: Wildflower Bochet
Honey: 6 quarts Raw Wildflower Honey (mostly Tallow)
Water: 4 Gallons
Yeast: Lalvin ICV D47
O.G: 1.110
F.G: 1.012
ABV: 13%

Made as a traditional Bochet, except we used a lower heat over a longer time to caramelize the honey. About 6 hours of cooking time.

I always make a 1L yeast starter.

Once pitched (2/10/13), followed this SNA:
2/10: 2g FermK + 13g DAP
2/11: 2g FermK + 1g DAP
2/12: 2g FermK + 1g DAP
2/13: 6g FermK + 1g DAP
2/14: 12g FermK + 1g DAP

FYI, I work off of YAN calculations and not someone else's recommended SNA. This batch had about 290 YAN, not counting any GoFerm YAN addition.

Additional Steps:
3/13/12 - Racked into 5Gal Carboy, added 12oz Toasted Coconut, 2 split Madagascar Vanilla beans, and 4oz French Oak Dark toast cubes. Attached blowoff tube.

4/9/13 - Racked into new 5Gal Carboy.

The pic you see is from 4/10/13. Aroma is rich and wonderful, you can tell that this one will be amazeballs after it ages out for a bit.

Damn that looks awesome man.

 

[TheWeeb]

Just shy of four weeks, racked to secondary to get it off the fruit/peppers and start the clarifying. Gravity reading an amazing .992 which puts this one at 14.9% ABV, and I am not sure it is done yet. The taste, earthy dates and green peppers, only a touch of heat, cannot tell it is so high in alcohol. Interesting for sure..

another reading 05/01/13 .990

 

[strangegreenman]

That bochet practically looks like squid ink! Very cool! Did you get that color just by cooking the honey? How does it taste?

It occurred to me that perhaps for Castle Black/ The North in general, that Breitsamer Forest honey (it's kinda tangy, and a little hard to describe. I think it come from aphids that live on pine trees that the bees shake down for honeydew? Not sure.) and spruce tips, with a light hopping of chinook for preservative, would make a very interesting hydromel. Has anyone played around with Forest/pine honey? (it is expensive, alas)

Edit: That bochet looks like Kraken ink...

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

The bochet I have also absorbs all light until you pour it into a glass. Then it's a beautiful dark amber brown with a bit of red. Very tasty that one is.

My perry pyment is wrapping up about now, haven't checked the gravity or anything yet. But I will in a week or so.

 

[TheWeeb]

I also have a bochet that has been going for about nine months now, created long before this thread It is interesting, how slow it is fermenting, as I check it monthly and it continues to drop a few points at a time. Crappy cell phone pic, but here it is on the right, with the GOT mead on the left.

 

[ErinRae]

I was super boring for my GOT mead. I couldn't help it though..the wildflower honey where I live just tasted so good and I'd never made just a honey mead.

So here's my plain ol' recipe!

For 3 gallons:
Started Apr.12/13
Approx. 9-10 lbs of wildflower honey
71-1122 yeast starter
fill rest with spring water
SG: 1.18 sg
Staggered nutrient and stirred till 1.05.

Today its still bubbling and last time I checked (few days ago) the gravity was at 1.05. Now I'm leaving it alone. I'm hoping that it will poop out
between 1.000-1.015 for a semi sweet.

I also just picked up a can of Vinters Harvest Sweet Cherry puree..so I'd like to mix that with some Wildflower or apple blossom honey for my next batch! Will post some pics when its crystal clear!

 

[Tomico]

I would have added blood orange juice and zest to the red wedding wine.