Joe's Quick Grape Mead

[f4mnect]

aghhh, well had a 1/2 bottle left over after bottling, so opened it up and offer the wife and 2 neighbors a sample telling them it was just bottled and will get much better with aging. i think its amazing, even though i know it young and needs aging. wife hated it made bad faces, neighbor said it smelled horrible and waste of time. lol i think its great and after 6 months to a year in bottle, they wont be included when i start cracking them open

 

[Fletch78]

aghhh, well had a 1/2 bottle left over after bottling, so opened it up and offer the wife and 2 neighbors a sample telling them it was just bottled and will get much better with aging. i think its amazing, even though i know it young and needs aging. wife hated it made bad faces, neighbor said it smelled horrible and waste of time. lol i think its great and after 6 months to a year in bottle, they wont be included when i start cracking them open

Try 6 weeks. Unless something went wrong, it should be perfect. It ages really fast. Unless you tried to up the gravity.

 

[f4mnect]

i will thank you

 

[f4mnect]

ok 5 days in bottle and i have my new degassing set up, so 1st degassed the 2nd batch thats got another week until bottling and took a 5 day old bottle and degassed it, thinking i should wait, but think i might pop that bottle open and try her.

 

[jak1010]

Awesome... Please post tasting notes and pictures.

 

[f4mnect]

lol i left it to age and instead had some of a great port i have. but i'm thinking of trying it this weekend. i'll post about it then

 

[dieri007]

I am a beginner with mead. Does this recipe age well? Or is it meant to be drank right away?

 

[bob1852]

It ages really well. Sure, it is drinkable in a few months, but after a year or longer, it is great.

 

[f4mnect]

ok let it sit in bottle for a week, then degassed the heck out of it, i really enjoyed it, will age the rest but it was very good

 

[bwhupp]

Definetely need to make this up... will go for the 6 gallon carboy when i get it emptied from the cherry berry mead.

 

[HopHeaven]

Just put a bottle in the fridge I bottled on 12/8/12. Here's to hoping it tastes great!

 

[dhammers91]

So I am planning on mixing this up in a couple days. I have been reading through the thread and no one seems to have the same question as me, so I must be an idiot, but I am really confused by this part of the recipe...

Balance water if you need it to make 1 gallon after adding honey mixed in water (don't use too much water in honey mix or you'll end up with more than you bargained for.

Am I supposed to mix the honey with a certain amount of water before mixing with the juice? Why can't I just add it to the juice and shake? If I'm supposed to use water, how much is too much? I DONT want more than I'm bargaining for!!!

TIA!

 

[bob1852]

Well, ~12 lbs of honey is ~1g in volume. So 2lbs honey and 1/2g juice will equal roughly 2/3rd of a gallon. So you'll need less than 1/3g of water.

Keep in mind you want a gift of head space in the primary. It won't form huge krausen like beer, but it will foam a bit as the grape juice is very nutritious.

Mixing the honey with the juice and then topping off with water is what I do.


I just made a 3g batch of this but used the white grape and cherry juice instead. After primary, racked to a 3/4 liter of black cherry juice. Looking forward to it.

Need to crack open a bottle of '11 vintage as well.

 

[dhammers91]

Well, ~12 lbs of honey is ~1g in volume. So 2lbs honey and 1/2g juice will equal roughly 2/3rd of a gallon. So you'll need less than 1/3g of water. Keep in mind you want a gift of head space in the primary. It won't form huge krausen like beer, but it will foam a bit as the grape juice is very nutritious. Mixing the honey with the juice and then topping off with water is what I do. I just made a 3g batch of this but used the white grape and cherry juice instead. After primary, racked to a 3/4 liter of black cherry juice. Looking forward to it. Need to crack open a bottle of '11 vintage as well.

So in other words, yes I'm an idiot! Lol for some reason I had in my mind that 64 oz was a gallon. Obviously it's half a gallon... Dunno where my mind goes some times... Thanks for clarifying the obvious for me! Haha

 

[HopHeaven]

Wow. After about a year in the bottle this stuff mellows out nicely. No more clawing sweetness and overly welches flavor. And man is it pretty strong. I thought I was going to dump this. Will be making another gallon once things quiet down from the holidays.

 

[bob1852]

Wow. After about a year in the bottle this stuff mellows out nicely. No more clawing sweetness and overly welches flavor. And man is it pretty strong. I thought I was going to dump this. Will be making another gallon once things quiet down from the holidays.

Use orange blossom honey and just a very tiny pinch of tannin (~1/16th tsp). It'll be even better!

 

[dhammers91]

I have a 1 gallon batch of this fermenting right now... Probably been going for close to a week and a half. I am just wondering about back sweetening... I'm assuming the 6 oz of juice is measured by volume, but what about the 6 oz of honey? Volume or weight?

 

[johngottshall]

When I made this I measured the honey by weight. And it turned out great

 

[dhammers91]

When I made this I measured the honey by weight. And it turned out great

Ok cool... I can't wait... I'm not a total wine person so hopefully this will taste good! Did you mix the sorbate and campdem with the honey and juice mixture before racking on top of it? It scares me adding more fermentables and the preventatives at the same time...

 

[RegarRenill]

The default weight of honey is 12 oz per cup, just as an FYI

 

[dhammers91]

Good to know, thanks for the info... Looks like I'll be adding half a cup then!

 

[mindiB]

I started a 3 gallon batch of this on 1/14\14 its been five days I wanted to take a gravity reading and ggive it a taste but im chicken anyway im new to this it had a viggerous first 3 day ferment and now it iis like head on a beer I used black cherry grape juice and was wondering if anybody else has too and if it came out good .... thanks

 

[mindiB]

Well I got brave and took a gravity rading after 7 days its almost to 1.000 took a taste and to my surprise it wasn't half bad smelt like crap but was sweet and boozy can't wait to check again in 7 days back sweeten

 

[bboykin87]

I just made a 1 gallon batch of this today and I can't wait for it to be done. This is my first mead so I hope it turns out good. From what I've read throughout the thread I think it will be great. My OG is 1.099 and I used the EC-1118 called for in the recipe, so I'll probably check on it in a couple weeks.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[davemo]

So i have a 5 gallon batch of this i have had in secondary for 11 days now with sparkolloid,sorbate and k meta added.However i was going to add the honey and extra grape juice when i got it in my bottling bucket(just before bottling).Can i still do this or not ???? I realized the original instructions said add honey and juice to secondary

 

[jak1010]

You'll be OK adding it now. The additional honey and juice are to back sweeten. If you already have the sorbate and k meta, you're ready to add the additional honey and juice.

 

[rideincircles]

Has anyone carbonated this recipe yet? That sounds like an interesting idea. My homebrew store regularly makes wine batches and carbonates them and they come out really good.

Aside from that, my bottles of this are getting close to 2 years old and I think they are awesome. I still have yet to bottle my batches of white cherry grape juice, but they are ready to bottle whenever I feel like doing it. No clue how that will be yet.

 

[Doed]

So I made this on Monday and was wondering if the separation between the honey and the grape juice will disappear as it ferments?

 

[jak1010]

So I made this on Monday and was wondering if the separation between the honey and the grape juice will disappear as it ferments?

Yup, the mixing/shaking is to get oxygen into it. Try as hard as you can, it will usually (90% of the time) separate. The yeast will chew through it with no trouble at all. Post a few before and after pics.

 

[Doed]

Here is what it looks like now.