Help with a simple Blueberry mead recipe

[MikeRLynch]

Gotmead.com has a great calculator for figuring out gravities based on volume, as well as a bunch of other factors. It's a little complicated, but if you spend some time with it, you can figure it out. Just plug in your honey amount and total volume of liquid and it should spit back an estimated OG

 

[arthertonjohn]

I've got some Glucosamine Sulfate ... fed the cinn/ginger a little bit seems to have helped also going to get some brewers yeast from local health food store as a supplement for the little yeastie buggers lol they are hungry. Cinn/ginger still going strong

 

[wayneb]

If you use dried brewer's yeast as a nutrient (as I sometimes do when I'm making a "show mead," - just honey, water and yeast), I've had better success when I take some, mix it with water in a pan, and then put it on the stove to bring it to boiling. THen allow it to cool with the pan tightly covered, and pitch it into your must at room temp. That does two things - first it pasteurizes the yeast so no nasties come along for the ride - and then it helps many of those micronutrients to get into solution more completely. It is likely that some vitamins are denatured by the heat, but you can't have everything when you're going for show!

 

[arthertonjohn]

woohoo! added 1/4 tsp Diammonium phosphate to the cinn/ginger and wow it took off with renewed activity! Almost got all the supplies for the 3 gallon blueberry batch, still waiting for the K1V-1116 yeast. Gonna go 12 lbs clover honey in 3 gallons with 2 lbs frozen berries ... might finish semi-sweet ... just started a gallon of pear/peach with EC-1118 and it is going strong within an hour!

 

[arthertonjohn]

will rack the peach/pear onto another 1 lbs honey in about a week lol i didn't have enough honey so substituted sugar to get it going. haha thats prob why it started so fast lol worried about blow-off its going so good. got it in a bucket to catch blow-off ...

 

[arthertonjohn]

been 4 hours and airlock bubbling every second now bet pear/peach finishes before the cinn/honey (been going 7 days still bubble ever 4 sec) lol

 

[arthertonjohn]

Here goes:
The Ingredients i am using are
10 Lbs Clover honey $40.00
1 Gal Unfiltered Apple juice $6.00
3 Lbs Cascadian Farms Frozen Blueberrys $12.00
24 oz Cascadian Farms Frozen grape juice concentrate $9.00
1 Gal Bottled water $1.00
1 Lb Granulated white sugar $4.00
1.5 tsp Diammonium Phosphate yeast nutrient $0.50
10 gm Lavlin K1V-1116 dry yeast $2.00

Total cost of ingredients $74.50

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For my primary fermentation I am starting with 8 Lbs Clover honey,
2 Lbs Blueberrys, 1 Lb Sugar, 24 oz grape concentrate, 1 gallon apple juice, 1 gallon water and 3/4 tsp DAP.

OG calculated to be 1.135

Pitched 10 gm K1V-1116 starter and it is already going after 2 hours.

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For my secondary fermentation I plan to add 2 Lbs Clover honey and 1 Lb Blueberrys, and 1/2 tsp DAP. This should raise the SG by about 0.016 making the Total OG to be approx 1.151 ferment this out to FG of 0.990 and i should overwhelm and kill the yeast before sugars run out if it goes completely dry it calculates to 21% alcohol but K1V-1116 should die somewhere between 18-20% so I'm hoping for a semi-sweet cyser.

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I should be able to get 15 750ml flip-top bottles out of this batch, that works out to approximately $5.00 a bottle

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OK how long do you guys think primary will go, I don't have a vinometer/hydrometer yet. Also I need to get pectic enzyme by the time I do secondary right? Anyone that's more experienced, please check my calculated OG Thanks.

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Yippie it's started! BTW should this be called a Cyser or a Pyment?

 

[arthertonjohn]

Pramary after 3 hours fermentation

Blueberries and Krausen

2 Lbs Clover honey to use for secondary

1/2 Lb (use 2 bags) Frozen Blueberries

 

[liquiditynerd]

thanks for chronicalling your batch, i was trying to find out where I was at and having your brewlog (if you will) has helped. First, i guess I would lean to a pyment. second i am comparing to what I just whipped up. last session we ended up mixing blueberry wine with mead and you can see where this went.
being a backyard brewer, I try to use what I have or can find at the farmers market. so, 5g, 13# miel, 8.8 oz blueberry, 2 sticks cin, 4 sprigs peppermint, 6 sprigs rosemary, 1 large rose blossom, and lavalin d47 w/nutrient. After seeing what has been posted here I am way under on BB. Hopefully when racking time comes the bushes will be putting out another pound. Anyway thanks for keeping up with the project, lets see how it comes out! Soorry about the spelling, last years mead is in the glass and wicked strong!