JAOM adopted to other fruits? Blackberry Vanilla Mead.

[JD0296]

I’ve made Joe’s Ancient Orange Mead recipe several times and I’m a huge fan of how simple it is. I’ve dressed it up just a bit (prestarting the yeast and using yeast nutrient in place of the raisins) but after three gallons of orange spice over the last six months I gotta say I’m a little sick of it. I’m thinking of doing a one gallon batch of a similarly simplified mead following JAOM’s process but using blackberry, elderberry, and vanilla as my flavor components. However, I’m unsure of the kind of honey or ratios of the ingredients, and I’m worried the recipe won’t turn out quite right if I use different ingredients.
What I’ve got so far;
-1 pound blueberry honey
-2 pounds blackberry honey
-1 pound puréed blackberries
-1/2 pound puréed elderberries
-2 vanilla beans, finely chopped then steeped in hot water

I’m fairly new to brewing so any advice is very much appreciated!

 

[clone63]

It's all a little hit and miss when doing your own mead recipe since honey (especially the mashup you've got) tastes vary by producer, etc..
Fruit ratios are also tough, so I try to find a recipe close in gravity and fruit flavours that I'm after and adjust ingredients if it sounds like my personal tastes will vary. "Gotmead" had a thread going of successful JAOM variants I'm pretty sure... I'd check there.