Here is what I made last night - Buckwheat/Wildflower Mead

[merhlyn]

I made another mead tonight. Started out making a 3 gallon batch, did not want to try 1 gallon as it goes to quick. Added 3 lbs. of Buckwheat Honey and 6 lbs. of wildflower then added enough water to bring the total to 3 gallons. I used 1 gallon of plain well water to add some minerals and such. I do like the taste of my water so thought not a bad idea and then made the rest up with RO water.



I used the Lalvin EC-118 as I thought I would try for a high alcohol %. I also thought that it might concentrate the flavors a bit also.



Had a sg of 1.103 and a brix of 26.4



I will then add fermK to feed and will aerate as it works its way down.



Anyways was a bit excited as I remember my Great Aunt using Buckwheat honey on her English muffins when I was a kid and I loved going to her house for breakfast growing up. So anyways feel free to comment and meet sometime for you all to taste.

 

[Pinebarrensbrew]

Subbing. I am interested in seein how this is to make it as well

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Sounds like a good recipe, you should have some very tasty mead in a couple years.
Regards, GF.

 

[fuelish]

Keep in mind that those 1118 yeasties will likely consume all your fermentables in that batch, so, it's going to be dry if you don't do the backsweetening route at bottling time....or you could likely bottle condition it for a nice dry sparkling mead.....either way, let it do it's thing in it's time, and then wait some more...and wait some more...biggest drawback with mead is the wait, so I try to have several in the pipeline as to give me something to sample now and again without drinking it all up before it's time At the moment, I have a batch of orange ginger in bottles, a batch of peach pyment in bottles, 5 gallons of plain mead in secondary, 5 gallons of mango melomel in secondary, 5 gallons of cranberry cyser in secondary, 3 gallons of habanero ginger in secondary, 1 gallon of kinda-sorta-Skeeterpee mead in primary, 1 gallon of lemon-lime-kinda-sorta Skeeter mead in primary, and 5 gallons of cinnamon cyser in primary.......and I just got back into the mead game last November...LOL....just now patiently waiting for a couple to clear so I have a free fermenter or two

 

[noblesquirrel]

I wouldn't have gone the 1118 route, personally. It'll dry it out and not leave much to enhance the honeys and likely will strip them a bit. That being said, if you follow good nutrient and yeast health procedures, you should have a very drinkable mead in 8 mths and getting it's stride in 12-18. Those dry 1118 meads are tough to tame quicker than that.

 

[merhlyn]

Thanks everyone, I love the comments. I learn more from the people here than reading any book..At a minimum I am able to put what I read in to context.

Went to take my first sg reading and dropped my hydrometer. Amazing how a short 3 inch fall will cause ti to break.

I got a new one after work last night and took my first reading. Was interasting. Via the hydrometer I am getting a reading of 1.134 which is higher than when I took my initial reading.

My initial reading was taken with one of those look through tubes that give the sg and brix. This is the first time that I used this and now cannot find the instructions. Not sure if their was a correction that I should have applied.

For now though I will keep up with the bobber type hydrometer and track my progress.

I have added a poor quality picture of the reading.

Thanks again for the great comments




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[loveofrose]

Well, 1.134 is likely due to bubbles holding your hydrometer up. Highest gravity you could get is 1.118 with. 9 lbs of honey in 3 gallons of water. Either way, EC1118 will take that dry. Nothing wrong with dry, I like dry. You can always step feed sweet.


Better brewing through science!

 

[merhlyn]

Hi all,

Last couple of days the SG has been coming along nicely. SG is at 1.090 now and I think that my last post was an odditie.

Mead starting to have a nice flavor beginning to show though and can definitely taste the buckwheat honey. Has a nice earthy taste to it. My wife called it dirt, but she also did not hesitate to finish of the test amount I took out for my reading.




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[merhlyn]

Todays reading is 1.068 and while airlock is not bubbling vigorously, it is steady. The buckwheat flavor sort of hiding in the back ground and starting to have a bit of a tart taste to the end. Not a bad tart but something I was not expecting.




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[merhlyn]

Hi Everyone,

Thought I would pull this out at the 6 month mark and show what it is looking like. Taste is very nice as the initial (earth) taste has mellowed out a lot. The high alcohol of this is also blending in with this very well.

When I first moved it over to the secondary, the earthy taste was very strong. I think this taste may be what some have called BarnYard. The high alcohol also was very pronounced then. I thought back then that I may have to back sweeten a bit too bring the sweetness back in but know I am nit sure. Guess we will have to see what another 6 months brings out.

Michael

 

[brottman]

Wow that is some great looking Mead! What additions if any have you made to it in the way of stabilizers or clarifiers?

 

[merhlyn]

Wow that is some great looking Mead! What additions if any have you made to it in the way of stabilizers or clarifiers?

For this batch I did not use any stabilizers or cltarifiers. It has been sitting perfectly still for 5 months now.

Michael