Mojito Meadness

[FSH]

So I know it's late I the summer, but this thing was good 1 week after bottling so you may still have warm weather when it's done.

1st make a strong tea (approx, 20 oz.) with these two ingredients. I threw it all into a French press and let it sit until cool, then saved the tea in a sanitized jar.
- Zest of one whole lime (the zest gives great flavor, use a nice green one)
- Handful of mint leaves (yeah that's the precise amount, a handful)

Taste the tea, if it is lacking then fix it now. Then I took 3 lbs. of honey, 1/4 cup dark brown sugar, and the tea and added it to a gallon carboy. Shook like crazy, topped up with spring water, and pitched an ale yeast.

It fermented and cleared beautifully in 6 weeks. I didn't fuss with this one since it was just a random idea I thought I would try.

Went straight to bottling out of primary. Using some more dark brown sugar as the priming sugar, I bottled it. A week later I tried some and it was delicious. You get some nice line flavor off the zest, with some cool mint to follow. The brown sugar added some rum like flavors. Finally it all finishes clean and refreshing like the real thing does.

 

[AkTom]

Sounds good. I've been on a mead kick lately. I think this is up next.

 

[rlmiller10]

Looks like honey harvest will be good this year so this recipe is going on my list.

 

[imilburn]

Did you leave this in primary for 6 weeks?

 

[FSH]

Im sorry just getting back on here. Yep it was a one step fermentation for only six weeks. I had the last bottle today and it was great. I can tell the mint has dropped a little bit, so I wouldn't age these long at all.

 

[imilburn]

So aging this until summer is out the question haha

 

[wetwombat]

I made a batch of this yesterday using cotton flower honey. Started to strain out the bulk of the solids, then decided to throw the mint leaves and lime zest in the fermenter after all. We'll see how much I regret this life choice in about 6 weeks.

Also, threadromancy for the win!

 

[bboots]

Stoked to try this, 3 weeks and counting. Smelled amazing, a lot of mint and lime was being blown out of the airlock.

 

[bboots]

FYI Nottingham Ale yeast was recommended at my homebrew shop with ABV upto 14 abv

 

[rlmiller10]

Tried this and it is good. But, in my batch, the flavor faded fairly quickly. At 2 months it was a find drink, but my six months the flavor was very muted.

 

[lagerman71]

Just bottled my attempt at this recipe, abv at bottling was 17.1% had a taste and trust me it’s going to take more that a week to age this beast!!! Harsh as hell but the mint keeps taking you back for another sip!!

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

Taking a look at this recipe and I want to try it to have for the second half of summer.

A couple of people commented regarding the mint flavor deteriorating. My thought was to take extra mint and muddle it in with the top up water and then strain into the carboy to try and infuse mint flavor with more...staying power? Also thought that maybe infusing mint into a simple syrup and using that for bottling would help? Any thoughts or techniques folks have used to try and keep the mint around longer? I don't imagine this will stay around long at all but I am curious.

 

[Wiggy58]

"Taste the tea, if it is lacking then fix it now" maybe pretty ignorant here but what do I want the tea to taste like? Need it real strong and bitter from the tannin or make sure its really minty?

 

[rlmiller10]

You can always pour it onto some muddled mint and ice at drinking time

 

[begbie1976]

Guys, newbie here who is only 1 month into my first brews - a 1 gallon traditional mead and a 1 gallon JAOM, so go easy on me and my following questions! Is there a chance of some fermentation starting again when bottling straight from the primary with more brown sugar being introduced? I'm worried about glass bombs!

Also - Wetwombat, how did the mead turn out, with the solids being left in the fermenter?

 

[SKBugs]

If you use the correct amount of sugar you will be ok. There will need to be fermentation for the co2 to be created. The sugar is used to activate the yeast. If you use a good calculation then it will be fine. Check out Brewers Friend maybe.

 

[begbie1976]

If you use the correct amount of sugar you will be ok. There will need to be fermentation for the co2 to be created. The sugar is used to activate the yeast. If you use a good calculation then it will be fine. Check out Brewers Friend maybe.

Brilliant, thanks for the reply. I struggled to understand the inputs to the online calculators but managed to work it out. Definitely giving this recipe a try once my current brews are finished.

 

[rlmiller10]

Guys, newbie here who is only 1 month into my first brews - a 1 gallon traditional mead and a 1 gallon JAOM, so go easy on me and my following questions! Is there a chance of some fermentation starting again when bottling straight from the primary with more brown sugar being introduced? I'm worried about glass bombs!

Also - Wetwombat, how did the mead turn out, with the solids being left in the fermenter?

Two questions, how are you bottling? crown caps or wine bottles? And did the mead ferment totally dry? Last year I had a problem with mead which had been in bulk aging for over 6 months starting to re-ferment. The fermentation had stuck with about a 1.020 FG and I assumed after 6 months it was OK. I put it in wine bottles and no bottle bombs but it did push out the corks and make a mess. Another wrinkle I cannot explain is that 80% of the bottles that did this were clear bottles, although only about 20% of my bottles where clear.

For the bottles that had not pushed the cork before I caught them and put them in the fridge, the mead from them is excellent, carbonated and definitely more alcohol.

So make sure it fermented dry before adding any sugar.

 

[begbie1976]

Two questions, how are you bottling? crown caps or wine bottles? And did the mead ferment totally dry? Last year I had a problem with mead which had been in bulk aging for over 6 months starting to re-ferment. The fermentation had stuck with about a 1.020 FG and I assumed after 6 months it was OK. I put it in wine bottles and no bottle bombs but it did push out the corks and make a mess. Another wrinkle I cannot explain is that 80% of the bottles that did this were clear bottles, although only about 20% of my bottles where clear.

For the bottles that had not pushed the cork before I caught them and put them in the fridge, the mead from them is excellent, carbonated and definitely more alcohol.

So make sure it fermented dry before adding any sugar.

Hi rlmiller10! My question was aimed at what to do when I get around to the Mojito Madness. Maybe you could advise on my current brews though, on a similar vein. They are about 3 weeks (traditional mead) and 2 months (JAOM) away from bottling. I'll be bottling them into wine bottles with corks.

I will need to backsweeten my traditional mead though, as I racked it at the weekend into a secondary and it was very dry (it had been in the primary for 5 weeks). The SG is bang on 1.0. I took a 200ml sample and added some honey, a little at a time until it was sweet enough for me. So, once it has cleared in the secondary (it's still a little cloudy), I'll rack again into another carboy with some honey to backsweeten.

Once backsweetened, how long should I leave it before bottling? Immediately, or give it a day or two to check that no further fermentation has started?

 

[rlmiller10]

Hi rlmiller10! My question was aimed at what to do when I get around to the Mojito Madness. Maybe you could advise on my current brews though, on a similar vein. They are about 3 weeks (traditional mead) and 2 months (JAOM) away from bottling. I'll be bottling them into wine bottles with corks.

I will need to backsweeten my traditional mead though, as I racked it at the weekend into a secondary and it was very dry (it had been in the primary for 5 weeks). The SG is bang on 1.0. I took a 200ml sample and added some honey, a little at a time until it was sweet enough for me. So, once it has cleared in the secondary (it's still a little cloudy), I'll rack again into another carboy with some honey to backsweeten.

Once backsweetened, how long should I leave it before bottling? Immediately, or give it a day or two to check that no further fermentation has started?

If you are going to back sweeten you will need to do something to knock down the yeast or it will start refermenting. What I have done before and didn't have problems until last year was to let it sit for several months (3 to 6) so most of the yeast had fallen out. I then add campden tables and Potassium sorbate to stun any additional yeast before bottling.

Now I make no promises as those I had trouble with, I fermented, added fruit juice, fermentation kicked up, let sit for 3 to 6 months, added campden and potassium sorbate and bottled and they still restarted fermentation. I am wondering if my campden and Potassium sorbate are getting old so the yeast restarted. Although there is still the question of why it had been still, no fermentation for several months before bottling and then started up again.

This does not apply to JOAM as the bread yeast can't take high alcohol so it commits suicide via alcohol poisoning so should not restart fermentation.

 

[begbie1976]

If you are going to back sweeten you will need to do something to knock down the yeast or it will start refermenting. What I have done before and didn't have problems until last year was to let it sit for several months (3 to 6) so most of the yeast had fallen out. I then add campden tables and Potassium sorbate to stun any additional yeast before bottling.

Now I make no promises as those I had trouble with, I fermented, added fruit juice, fermentation kicked up, let sit for 3 to 6 months, added campden and potassium sorbate and bottled and they still restarted fermentation. I am wondering if my campden and Potassium sorbate are getting old so the yeast restarted. Although there is still the question of why it had been still, no fermentation for several months before bottling and then started up again.

This does not apply to JOAM as the bread yeast can't take high alcohol so it commits suicide via alcohol poisoning so should not restart fermentation.

Thanks for the reply. So, what I'll do then, is when back-sweetening, I'll add a campden tablet and potassium sorbate to the carboy along with the honey, before racking and bottling...then keep my fingers crossed!

 

[rlmiller10]

I would also let it sit for a month in the carboy if you can get rid of air. That will give it a month to prove it has not re-started fermentation.

I will say, if it does restart, the carbonated bottles you catch in time, before the corks blow, are a real treat, very good.

 

[Wash07Nats]

Great recipe and what I've been searching for.

Does anyone have a rookie version of this ? I'm just starting and not confident on the winging it approach.

Any help would be greatly appreciated !!