God of Thunder

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MxWhiskey

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This is the first mead I made, and it was a hell of a start. This one is currently just over 6 months old and is bottle aging in my closet until Yule. This is going to be kind of a brewlog and my thoughts on what I've learned from this batch

God of Thunder (Oak-Aged Great Mead)

Starting S.G: 1.142
Final S.G: 1
Estimated ABV: 18%


  • ~5.53 lbs. local raw honey (sourced from KCK and Peculiar, MO)
  • 1 gallon of water
  • 5g Red Star Premier Blanc
  • 5.25g Go-Ferm
  • 6.86g Fermaid-O
  • 1/3 Medium+ toasted American Oak spiral
So the last blog I was a part of gave some good advice, but I feel like the advice given was intended to deter high ABV meads in favor of "get good fast, get drunk faster." Instead, I feel like the advice is good to understand this is NOT going to be a short term mead. High ABV mead can really stress yeast, even if the yeast can tolerate it. From their experience and mine as well, great meads (also called sack meads but that sounds gross and great mead sounds cooler) tend to have a lot of rough flavors while they're green, and it takes a long time to not be green. As for my nutrients, I followed a staggered nutrient addition schedule (24hr, 48hr, 72hr, and then either 1/3 sugar break or 7 days).

After it fermented, I racked it off and aged it for about 2 months with 1/3 of my American Oak spiral and then racked it off into another vessel to get it off the wood and let it bulk age for another 4 months before bottling. Now it is bottle aging until Yule and will be a year old in January. When it comes to aging with oak, you seriously do not need a whole spiral unless you are scaling this to a full 5-gallon batch. 1/3 is plenty, and if you've never had an oaked wine or mead before, taste FREQUENTLY. I'm talking like once a week. Oak is a powerful flavor (although a toast is much milder than a char. I don't recommend using charred oak like you would for whiskey) and its fairly easy to overpower the mead with oak flavor. Remember, alcohol is a solvent and is used for making extracts, so while this isn't vodka or Everclear strength the alcohol present will accelerate the extraction of flavor.

Tasting notes progressed interestingly. Fresh off ferment, it was very punchy and alcohol forward. Ultimately very unpleasant from a drinking standpoint BUT green wine/mead is rarely tasty. 2 weeks into aging and its went from tasting like alcohol to tasting like mead. The oak was present but thin and didn't really lend itself to the whole drink but as a top note that faded very fast. By the time I stabilized and back sweetened, it had taken an odd turn that I both liked and didn't. The honey flavor was lightly floral and rich, the oak had matured into a slightly bitter, slightly sweet vanilla that had gone deeper into the drink (if you don't know, as alcohol breaks down the wood it converts it into sugars, which can lend a sweeter flavor), and the alcohol harshness had all but disappeared. BUT the alcohol became way hotter and started making my tongue weirdly numb. I am differentiating between "hot" and "harsh" in that I don't consider alcohol burn "harsh". Harsh means, at least to me, fusil alcohols are more present. Fast forward to bottling day and that numbing has faded out and the sweetness came back forward. It's a richer mead for sure, but still very tasty. Definitely more of a sipper than and guzzler. In the 4 months it aged after the oak, the mead took on some genuinely whiskey-esque character. The oak is much more reminiscent of an aged whiskey, albeit much less than a whiskey would actually be.

This one is going to sit in bottles for a while yet, and due to having had a gastric bypass my ability to drink is greatly diminished so I anticipate this batch lasting a long time. I'm looking forward to a glass of this by the fireplace when its 2 degrees outside.
 

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I'm a big whiskey fan so this is intriguing. I've always wanted to make a mead that has that oak tinge to it but never found the right combo.
 
I'm a big whiskey fan so this is intriguing. I've always wanted to make a mead that has that oak tinge to it but never found the right combo.
I did one last year as a 3 gallon batch, we’re talking 3 pounds to a gallon, not 5 - and I filled just about 30 375s. It sat on bourbon soaked oak cubes for 7 months. Its wonderful. Not very name creative, I called it Odin’s Delight.
 
  • ~5.53 lbs. local raw honey (sourced from KCK and Peculiar, MO)
  • 1 gallon of water

Holy……….
Yeah its hefty. He packs one hell of a punch. We are rapidly approaching Yule so I'm getting excited to crack a bottle and see how it tastes. The Red Star yeast I used is known for being able to exceed 16% with healthy nutrition and this thing absolutely fermented dry when I started so he has some heft, much like Thor and his hammer does.
 
I did one last year as a 3 gallon batch, we’re talking 3 pounds to a gallon, not 5 - and I filled just about 30 375s. It sat on bourbon soaked oak cubes for 7 months. Its wonderful. Not very name creative, I called it Odin’s Delight.
That's still a hell of a good name though! I'd buy it if I saw it on a shelf somewhere, not gonna lie.
 
I've tried a few things. ABV of around 18 and using various staves from Barrel Char in a Jar. I've only left the staves in around 1 month at the most. I have tried shorter and longer times and it seems like the longer wait times produce some 'off' flavors. I have made mead and add whiskey for fortification which tastes great, but that's kinda cheating :)
 
I've tried a few things. ABV of around 18 and using various staves from Barrel Char in a Jar. I've only left the staves in around 1 month at the most. I have tried shorter and longer times and it seems like the longer wait times produce some 'off' flavors. I have made mead and add whiskey for fortification which tastes great, but that's kinda cheating :)
Are you using full char staves or toasted? I'm not sure how fully charred staves affect meads/wines, but I learned that most wine makers that oak age use toast levels as chars tend to be too strong for wines.
 
Are you using full char staves or toasted? I'm not sure how fully charred staves affect meads/wines, but I learned that most wine makers that oak age use toast levels as chars tend to be too strong for wines.
I'm using toasted staves of various degrees. Mainly medium toast. I also tried spiral staves (not sure if it matters), but I'll give your recipe a go and see how it turns out!
 
I'm using toasted staves of various degrees. Mainly medium toast. I also tried spiral staves (not sure if it matters), but I'll give your recipe a go and see how it turns out!
I use the spiral staves, but it may be worth it to look into one of those metal barrels from Bad Motivator Barrels. It's essentially a stainless-steel pot with an oak lid. The description on the sight is a bit confusing, as they say toast and char in the same description (Light Toast, Char 1 for example) so it may take some trial and error. But may be a great way to get some long oak aging and really add some whiskey-esque notes. It's something I really want to do at some point.

Also, just so you are aware, I would not call this recipe a whiskey flavored mead. But to me, I felt it had some notes that reminded me of whiskey. There are many variables that could be influencing the flavor, including the local raw honey that I used. I might recommend finding darker, heavier flavored honey as opposed to lighter and more floral honey. I'm curious to see how this goes for you though! Keep me in the loop on it if you try this one out!
 
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