Honeybush Vanilla B3DM (Bray’s 3 Day Mead)

[Scientific hippie]

Followup: 3-day mead came out great; I like a darker honey, though, and have made subsequent batches with mixtures of South American honey from Target or other inexpensive honeys with 1/3 buckwheat honey added. I made a 3-gal three-day mead batch two weeks ago; it was troublesome, because I misweighed the honey. After adding KCO3 and Fermaid-O and more honey and letting it sit in the basement, it tasted good; I have labeled it "10-day mead." I am ready to bottle another, properly-made 3-day mead; I may not have cold-crashed it enough because the gallon jugs were foaming; I'll let it sit overnight in the bottling bucket to let the sediment drop after adding more sorbate and k-meta. The BOMM was OK; I like the 3-day better; it may be the tea. I mixed the Montrachet ciders together in a 3-gal carboy; the flavor is so-so; it may need more time. My husband just said it wasn't sweet enough; I actually opened the corked bottles (not the swing tops) and added sugar and recorked. I had also done a 1-gal batch with supermarket apple juice and Wyeast cider and mead (I think); it was similarly thin-tasting, even though I followed the directions to bottle with AJ concentrate. Kombucha is great; the gallon of pinot I made actually tastes quite good. I gotta stop because we have so many bottles now (I got a good deal on two 6-gal kits); I must limit myself to kombucha until we figure out storage and temp control.

 

[Scientific hippie]

The 10-day doctored-up mead now tastes like beer; hubs said he'd enjoy it this summer. The properly-made 3-day mead I did next tastes wonderful; I brought a bottle to a post-Thanksgiving party yesterday, and it was very well received.

 

[z-bob]

I just answered my own question; growlers blow up.

(I know it's an old question) Did you try a growler and leave the lid a little bit loose? That's what I'd do.

 

[Scientific hippie]

(I know it's an old question) Did you try a growler and leave the lid a little bit loose? That's what I'd do.

No, I just degassed it and added k-meta/sorbate and bottled it. I still have some from the last batch.

 

[NeverDie]

Just when you thought I couldn’t make mead any faster... Bray’s 3 Day Mead.

8/24/2018
1. Brew vanilla honeybush tea by adding 1/4 cup honeybush tea and 1 broken vanilla bean to a French press.
2. Allow to brew until cool.
3. Add 1.5 lbs Palmetto honey, 1 tsp Wyeast Beer Nutrient and strained tea to a carboy.
4. Add water just shy of 1 gallon and mix.
5. Add 1 activated smack pack of Wyeast 1388.

8/26/2018
The gravity hit 1.010, so I put it in the fridge to cold crash and stop with residual sweetness. I also added 2 more vanilla beans.

8/27/2018
I’m drinking it straight out of the carboy now. It has a nice body due to yeast, vanilla and tea tannins. The honey like flavor of the tea enhances the honey aroma far beyond what a short mead would be capable of. The tea also has a nice spiciness to it that complements the overall beverage. A wonderful and blazing fast summer quencher!

Specs
SG 1.060
FG ~1.005
7.2% ABV


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What brands of loose leaf vanilla honeybush tea and Palmetto honey did you use, and where did you procure them? The rest I think I can find on my own.

Also, based purely on the FG, this sounds like it would be a pretty dry mead. Is that how it tastes?

 

[Scientific hippie]

I have been getting Tealyra. I was unable to find pure honeybush tea in stores. I think I got the palmetto honey from Amazon, too. I didn't care for it, and now I just use a mixture of 1/3 buckwheat honey and 2/3 random honey. I skip the vanilla beans; I just couldn't taste them. The mead is dry but has a very sweet aroma; it's great chilled in the summer.

 

[NeverDie]

I have been getting Tealyra. I was unable to find pure honeybush tea in stores. I think I got the palmetto honey from Amazon, too. I didn't care for it, and now I just use a mixture of 1/3 buckwheat honey and 2/3 random honey. I skip the vanilla beans; I just couldn't taste them. The mead is dry but has a very sweet aroma; it's great chilled in the summer.

I ordered this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003BGRUPI/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
and
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HP8LC49/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I hope the Palmetto is different from what you ordered, since it sounds like you were disappointed by it.

Maybe you couldn't taste the vanilla because the tea you got wasn't Vanilla Honeybush?

I think I'd prefer something sweet rather than dry, so I may have to refigure the recipe a bit. Maybe a higher OG and FG would get me to an equivalent sweet version. Maybe using Hornindal yeast I could blast through it in just one day:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...S1_8cQ6QuJ3nnqCdy_S1g0pSUk/edit#gid=189348009

 

[Scientific hippie]

The original recipe used vanilla beans, not vanilla-flavored tea; maybe the vanilla in the tea is stronger; I don't know. I wasn't disappointed by the honey; I just found it not to my liking; I like a darker honey, but wanted to adhere to the recipe the first time. I can't advise you on the yeast; I used a different yeast once and it came out tasting like beer. Loveofrose is very specific about using the Wyeast 1388. You could always back sweeten it after adding the k-meta and sorbate.

 

[NeverDie]

The original recipe used vanilla beans, not vanilla-flavored tea; ...

You're right! I misread it. Thanks for the feedback. I bought the vanilla bean too. Well, if I don't taste vanilla, it won't be for a lack of trying.

@OP Why vanilla bean rather than vanilla extract? There's quite a cost difference.

 

[loveofrose]

The tea I use comes from mountain rose herbs. Palmetto honey has various sources, just google it. The mead ends with residual sweetness because cold crashing prevents the fermentation from continuing. Vanilla bean is added after cold crashing because actively fermenting yeast can eat vanillin compounds. Hope that helps!

 

[Scientific hippie]

I was reading a few weeks ago that there was a shortage of vanilla beans and the rise in price is affecting bakeries.

 

[NeverDie]

I ordered this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003BGRUPI/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
and
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HP8LC49/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I hope the Palmetto is different from what you ordered, since it sounds like you were disappointed by it.

Maybe you couldn't taste the vanilla because the tea you got wasn't Vanilla Honeybush?

I think I'd prefer something sweet rather than dry, so I may have to refigure the recipe a bit. Maybe a higher OG and FG would get me to an equivalent sweet version. Maybe using Hornindal yeast I could blast through it in just one day:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...S1_8cQ6QuJ3nnqCdy_S1g0pSUk/edit#gid=189348009

Reporting back: the tea I ordered from Amazon doesn't taste like honey or like vanilla, so I'm not too optimistic about moving ahead with it.

 

[Scientific hippie]

My first batch was with some kind of citrus honeybush from Whole Foods; I couldn't find pure honeybush in stores. But the first batch was a success, anyway; I would go with it. Most of the flavor comes from the honey and the tea; as I said, I stopped using the vanilla beans because I couldn't taste them (possibly due to my preference for darker honey). Make a couple of batches; try the tea I recommended; see if you like the palmetto honey (most people do; I'm just weird).

 

[NeverDie]

Just when you thought I couldn’t make mead any faster... Bray’s 3 Day Mead.

8/24/2018
1. Brew vanilla honeybush tea by adding 1/4 cup honeybush tea and 1 broken vanilla bean to a French press.
2. Allow to brew until cool.
3. Add 1.5 lbs Palmetto honey, 1 tsp Wyeast Beer Nutrient and strained tea to a carboy.
4. Add water just shy of 1 gallon and mix.
5. Add 1 activated smack pack of Wyeast 1388.

8/26/2018
The gravity hit 1.010, so I put it in the fridge to cold crash and stop with residual sweetness. I also added 2 more vanilla beans.

8/27/2018
I’m drinking it straight out of the carboy now. It has a nice body due to yeast, vanilla and tea tannins. The honey like flavor of the tea enhances the honey aroma far beyond what a short mead would be capable of. The tea also has a nice spiciness to it that complements the overall beverage. A wonderful and blazing fast summer quencher!

Specs
SG 1.060
FG ~1.005
7.2% ABV


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Does your honeybush tea taste like honey? I'm debating whether to scrap the tea I sourced from amazon (which I find doesn't taste like honey at all) and use your tea source instead.

 

[loveofrose]

Nope. It has a spicy note with heavy tannins when brewed as described.

 

[NeverDie]

At first I was truly disappointed with the tea I received from amazon. It seemed too weak to be worth anything, let alone the basis for a mead. Then last night I tried it with honey and lemon, and wow, then it soars to a much higher level.

 

[Scientific hippie]

I really haven't tasted the tea alone; I don't know how much the tea contributes and how much the dark honey blend contributes, but together they make a fantastic drink.