Lavender Mead

[issack]

Was at my friends house last night, and they brewed a lavender mead.. I tasted the must before it went into the fermenter, and WOW.! what an amazing taste that was.. first time for all of us tasting this. But have heard of people doing it with great results.

They steeped a big bag of lavender flowers (maybe half pound or a pound) in 160 water for a half hour or so. then cooled the water down and added the 15 pounds of honey. it was a pungent almost tea like honey taste filled with that sweet lavender.

Has anyone else heard of this.? I might just try it next month when i do my next mead. I got a pound of it from the guy who brought the lavender.

 

[Arneba28]

I can taste this now. It really sounds great and most mead recipes do not sound this good to me.

 

[hooligansteve]

I don't think I would like it (for what my opinion's worth). I once had some chocolate concoction that was flavored with lavendar and all I could think about was that it tasted like soap.

 

[BigKahuna]

If I come to your house can I have some?

Sounds like it will be interesting...and if you like it...good going.

 

[Killinger]

I made one about a month ago. I did it pretty much as described above. I'm a mead novice, both in the drinking and the making, so I'm just playing around...

1/4 oz dried lavender flowers
9# wildflower honey
3 gallons spring water
1 pack Wyeast Sweet Mead yeast
yeast nutrient

1. Bring water to boil, add lavender, turn off heat.
2. When temp drops to 160, add honey and nutrient.
3. Stir, cool, pitch, sample.

OG 1.090

I did not filter out the lavender until it was racked to the secondary at 1 month. At that time (this weekend), the gravity was 1.050. Airlock activity was nil for a week or so. I expected it to be drier. I may pitch more nutrient and maybe even more yeast if it doesn't show signs of life after a bit longer. I'm guessing the agitation of racking may be enough to kick start renewed fermentation.

Anyway, I tasted the hydro sample, and it was still very sweet, of course, and I found the lavender to be almost too much, but not quite. I expect it will be very refreshing when it finishes.

 

[BigKahuna]

I would be afraid that the wildflower honey would over power the delicate nature of the Lavender. How does that work out?

 

[ChshreCat]

I've been thinking about making one. I have a good line on Lavender from Sequim.

 

[issack]

If I come to your house can I have some?

Sounds like it will be interesting...and if you like it...good going.

it will be ready to bottle in about 6 months i am guessing from how rod does his meads.. So see ya then BigKahuna..

I made one about a month ago. I did it pretty much as described above. I'm a mead novice, both in the drinking and the making, so I'm just playing around...

1/4 oz dried lavender flowers
9# wildflower honey
3 gallons spring water
1 pack Wyeast Sweet Mead yeast
yeast nutrient

1. Bring water to boil, add lavender, turn off heat.
2. When temp drops to 160, add honey and nutrient.
3. Stir, cool, pitch, sample.

OG 1.090

I did not filter out the lavender until it was racked to the secondary at 1 month. At that time (this weekend), the gravity was 1.050. Airlock activity was nil for a week or so. I expected it to be drier. I may pitch more nutrient and maybe even more yeast if it doesn't show signs of life after a bit longer. I'm guessing the agitation of racking may be enough to kick start renewed fermentation.

Anyway, I tasted the hydro sample, and it was still very sweet, of course, and I found the lavender to be almost too much, but not quite. I expect it will be very refreshing when it finishes.

Nice. I'm thinking it will be refreshing as well.. We shal see down the long road of waiting for meads.. lol

I'm like addicted to making meads lately. I just got 3 wine kits givin to me as well.. I am going to need more bottles down the road.. haha

 

[Killinger]

I would be afraid that the wildflower honey would over power the delicate nature of the Lavender. How does that work out?

The honey was really pretty neutral. The lavender comes through big time.

 

[Killinger]

I bottled my batch above tonight. Samples taken during bottling were awesome. Refreshing, floral (obviously, but not overpowering), and dry.

Oh, on the dryness thing, since I didn't know any better, I thought I would like a sweeter mead. I made this batch before I had my first sweet mead. I didn't like it. I pitched EC1118 after a few months to dry it out. Done. I doubt I would use EC1118 from the start, but the nearly finished product is great.

 

[david_42]

Haven't had a lavender mead, but last year Dave Wills made a Blonde Ale for the local lavender fest. HoV had a meeting at his brewery and he had us sample three different levels of dry 'hopping'. He also had some of his IPA that he added lavender to, very strange. The Blonde worked fine though.

 

[issack]

Tasted this mead recently.. WAYYYY too much Lavender in there.. It was too overpowering for me.

Very light on the lavender and semi sweet would be the way they should have gone. After drinking a glass of that.. I don't think i could ever drink lavender again.. lol.. It ruined me it was that strong..

 

[digdan]

I've had success with lavender. I mixed a little saaz hops with the lavender in my mead, in very light amounts. Fermented it very dry and it was a big hit.

 

[Cider]

Was at my friends house last night, and they brewed a lavender mead.. I tasted the must before it went into the fermenter, and WOW.! what an amazing taste that was.. first time for all of us tasting this. But have heard of people doing it with great results.

They steeped a big bag of lavender flowers (maybe half pound or a pound) in 160 water for a half hour or so. then cooled the water down and added the 15 pounds of honey. it was a pungent almost tea like honey taste filled with that sweet lavender.


More info would be appreciated like the amount of fluids.

Has anyone else heard of this.? I might just try it next month when i do my next mead. I got a pound of it from the guy who brought the lavender.

I made one about a month ago. I did it pretty much as described above. I' a mead novice, both in the drinking and the making, so I'm just playing around...

1/4 oz dried lavender flowers
9# wildflower honey
3 gallons spring water
1 pack Wyeast Sweet Mead yeast
yeast nutrient

1. Bring water to boil, add lavender, turn off heat.
2. When temp drops to 160, add honey and nutrient.
3. Stir, cool, pitch, sample.

OG 1.090

I did not filter out the lavender until it was racked to the secondary at 1 month. At that time (this weekend), the gravity was 1.050. Airlock activity was nil for a week or so. I expected it to be drier. I may pitch more nutrient and maybe even more yeast if it doesn't show signs of life after a bit longer. I'm guessing the agitation of racking may be enough to kick start renewed fermentation.

Anyway, I tasted the hydro sample, and it was still very sweet, of course, and I found the lavender to be almost too much, but not quite. I expect it will be very refreshing when it finishes.

Thanks for something useful and hope that it tuns out great... I has (lool english) had alot of experience brewing but i always give out details if I'm doing something and I like that it's concise. I always rage about Context and conciseness but it is the "ways I goes" (ways I will go). Thanks pally?

 

[FilmLabRat]

Tasted this mead recently.. WAYYYY too much Lavender in there.. It was too overpowering for me.

Very light on the lavender and semi sweet would be the way they should have gone. After drinking a glass of that.. I don't think i could ever drink lavender again.. lol.. It ruined me it was that strong..

So Issack, I'm a little unclear on exactly how much lavender you added and at what stage?

Based on your experience, what would your adjusted recipe be?

Have recently discovered there is a lavender farm near our little town of Colfax, California, so I have a ready supply of whatever I need.

Sorry about your lavender overdose. Don't they have a 12 step program for that?

 

[issack]

i think they used a half pound of lavender.. i would only use an ounce tops

 

[deafcone]

One used fresh lavender flowers and the other dried flowers. big difference. the dried will be more pugnet with the flavors concentrated, hence the smaller amounts. Since the dried lavender recipe seemed to work out better between the two I'd use that as a reference. you could also Google "dried vs fresh Lavender" maybe, i'll be doing that after I post this.
So as far as the dried lavender, the recipe called for 1/2 tesp steeped, and left the lavender in primary. But how many gallons of mead was the final reault? 3 gallons, 5 gallons?
DC

 

[svengoat]

I grow lavender in my herb garden.. Might try this out in a gallon batch, to test the theory..Sounds good..

 

[Killinger]

DC, I used 1/4 ounce (by weight) dried lavender in a 3 gallon batch. It turned out great.

Love it.

 

[Feltshammer]

I think you guys are doing it the hard (and imprecise) way. Finish your mead as you would normally. Then take out a bottle's worth (750mL), and add half a cup of dried lavender flowers. Let it sit for three days, and you've got yourself a lavender extract that you can add at the exact rate you wish. I did this to a 20gal batch, and the 750mL was still almost overpowering. You can do this same extraction process for nearly any flavor you would like to achieve. The big wineries do this with oak chips. You get maximum extraction in minimum time, and you have total control over the end product.