My version of Chocolate/Cherry/Vanilla/Pomegranate mead recipe

[Dan O]

My version of Chocolate/Cherry/Vanilla/Pomegranate mead recipe
2.25 gallon batch

INGREDIENTS...

3 lbs 8 oz wildflower honey
96 oz regular POM juice (not the flavored ones)
72 oz Marco Polo sour cherries w/the juice
1/2 gallon spring water
80 grams cocoa nibs....(mine were toasted @ 350°F/ five minutes....not enough...I will go 10 minutes next time I toast some)
2 Ecuadorian Vanilla beans from Shawn Darryl Harris
5 grams QA23, rehydrated in spring water with 6.25 grams of GoFerm
3.8 grams Fermaid K, one time addition @ pitch
8 grams Potassium carbonate, one time addition @ pitch
2 grams Opti-red, one time addition @ pitch
2 grams Booster Blanc, one time addition @ pitch
12.6 grams TOTAL Fermaid O , (4.2 grams @ pitch, 4.2 @ first sugar break, 4.2 grams @ second sugar break)
2lb bag of sweet & tart cherries
Pectic enzyme (as per package instructions)
K Meta & K Sorb, (as per package instructions)

PROCESS

Must was created with the spring water, honey, POM juice & sour cherries (in a brew bag) in a 5 gallon brew bucket. Added the bloomed yeast, (rehydrated with GoFerm) as well as the one time additions of Booster Blanc, Opti-red, potassium carbonate, Fermaid K & the FIRST addition of Fermaid O.
(Then Fermaid O @ 1st & 2nd sugar breaks----1.077 & 1.038)
OG 1.116
Started 2/3/23, by 2/7, it was @ 1.006
2/20, removed fruit
3/7, racked & stabilized with K Meta & K Sorb
4/2, added 2 lbs sweet & tart cherries, in a brew bag, 2 Ecuadorian Vanilla beans, & 80 grams toasted cocoa nibs.
As of last night, I think I can let it go 2-3 more days before pulling any of the additions.

WHAT WOULD I DO DIFFERENT FOR NEXT BATCH

Toast the cocoa nibs longer, for a darker chocolate flavor...the house smelled great when I toasted them, but, next time I will go more with the on the nose smell for when they're done.
I do want to try the Cherry flavored POM juice for the next batch.
I have some Yaupon Holly honey to try for the next batch, which I have read has Cherry notes.
I also have some Cherry staves arriving that I will be adding to give some extra tannins..I got the staves here...https://www.bbaging.com/

 

[SeanC138]

This sounds delicious and I plan to give it a whirl. Thanks for sharing!

 

[SeanC138]

What are booster blank and opti-red? I haven't heard of these and Google isn't much help

 

[Dan O]

Double post....whoops

 

[Dan O]

What are booster blank and opti-red? I haven't heard of these and Google isn't much help

https://morewinemaking.com/products/booster-blanc.htmlhttps://morewinemaking.com/products/optired.html
Don't forget the opti-white for your whites & light colors
https://morewinemaking.com/products/optiwhite.html

 

[MightyMosin]

These yeast adjuncts are some of simplest ways to improve your mead assuming that you have been working on your process. They won't make a crap mead good but they will subtlety help. The wine world has provided us some of these tools, so use them.

 

[Dan O]

This sounds delicious and I plan to give it a whirl. Thanks for sharing!

You're welcome. I hope it turns out as good for you as mine did.

 

[SeanC138]

Started this batch about 4 days ago. Using these additives, I'm noticing a more forceful fermentation and the smell coming off of this is amazing.

 

[Dan O]

Started this batch about 4 days ago. Using these additives, I'm noticing a more forceful fermentation and the smell coming off of this is amazing.

Mine has had the full 4 weeks for all the flavors to meld after pulling the cherry staves & I must admit, even though it seems dryer now than before I added the staves, it's one of the best I've made yet. I plan to keep part of it on the dry side for the folks that wish to try it dry, but there will be a larger portion of it that will be backsweetened with the cherry blossom honey that I bought for it, which is very cherry forward on the flavor.

 

[MightyMosin]

I might need to give this a try. It sounds good!

 

[Dan O]

I might need to give this a try. It sounds good!

I recommend it.

 

[MightyMosin]

I have the POM and the Marco Polo cherries coming soon. I'll check the local market for sweet & sour frozen cherries.

@Dan O what are your thoughts about substituting 1Lb of wildflower with Buckwheat? I'm thinking it may add a bit of a deep, slightly earthy flavor to the mix.

 

[Dan O]

I have the POM and the Marco Polo cherries coming soon. I'll check the local market for sweet & sour frozen cherries.

@Dan O what are your thoughts about substituting 1Lb of wildflower with Buckwheat? I'm thinking it may add a bit of a deep, slightly earthy flavor to the mix.

Hmmm. I guess that would depend on your personal taste. My experience with Buckwheat is somewhat limited, as in, I bought some a long time ago & still haven't used it yet. I have heard the difference between eastern & western Buckwheat can be drastically barnyardy ( is that a word yet?)...eastern being more so than western.
I bought western & still found it very earthy, not in a bad way, but still haven't decided on the right batch to use it for yet.
I suppose, if it's only 1 lb, it may add a certain level of difference to it.
I would say do a taste test will all the said flavors & see how they jive with your taste buds. If they taste good, or you think they would taste better fermented, then go for it.
I look forward to hearing your findings & results . Good luck!

Happy meading

 

[MightyMosin]

@Dan O do you have any notes on how you came up with your nutrient schedule for this?

I only rarely use Fermaid-K and when I have it has been with some added DAP at 72 hour and 1/3 sugar break. These have typically been some fast fermentations.

I don't want to mess with success, but I do want to understand so that I might incorporate other methods into what I normally do.

 

[Dan O]

@Dan O do you have any notes on how you came up with your nutrient schedule for this?

I only rarely use Fermaid-K and when I have it has been with some added DAP at 72 hour and 1/3 sugar break. These have typically been some fast fermentations.

I don't want to mess with success, but I do want to understand so that I might incorporate other methods into what I normally do.

I built the recipe using the batch builder on YouToBrew.......here....
https://www.youtobrew.com/mead-batch-builder
As Fermaid K already has DAP in it, it's the only time DAP ever gets added to any ferment.

By all means, mess with the recipe, tweak it to your own specs. I got the base recipe from a person in the Mead Hall on Discord, with my own minor tweaks, because I could only get the ingredients that I got, but it came out awesome, so I have no complaints.

I imagine other people may not be able to get the exact ingredients that I got, but like any other recipe, we, as mead makers improvise & adapt recipes to the ingredients that are available to us. Fresh fruit for one person's recipe becomes frozen fruit for another's because it's not in season or just unavailable fresh in their area of the country or their part of the world.

That's what makes this hobby so cool, to me. I'll never know how her recipe tasted, but with her base recipe I was able to create an awesome tasting beverage.
I hope I answered your question & this helps you .
Happy meading

 

[MightyMosin]

Thanks @Dan O . I might hybrid your recipe a bit. I finally have my ingredients.

I'll probably do a TOSNA schedule of 2.3g Ferm-O for the four feedings along with your initial Ferm-K dosage on pitch. The amounts might change once I see my musts O.G. I'll check the pH and based on my reading I will determine if I will do some Potassium Bi-Carbonate for the buffering.

I made up a tincture of cacao nibs that has an incredible chocolate aroma. I just may use that in secondary as it already has been filtered to be rid of the fat from the nibs. I'll just have to go very slow with it as I really don't know what kind of dosing I will need and I certainly won't be able to remove it.

 

[Dan O]

I just may use that in secondary as it already has been filtered to be rid of the fat from the nibs.

Would you be willing to share your process on how you made your tincture & filtered the oils/fats from it, please?
Thank you, in advance, if you do reply and/or share.
I rather like the idea of adding it to secondary, I think when added to primary some of the aromatics get blown out.
I think an eye dropper to dispense one drop @ a time would work very nicely for control of addition to achieve the perfect amount of Chocolate flavor to balance the other ingredients.

I look forward to reading about how this batch works out for you.

 

[MightyMosin]

The tincture was easy to make. I used two 600ml large mouth flip top bottles that have a silicone gasket. I filled each of these about 3/4 full with cacao nibs to get the amount I wanted. The nibs were then emptied onto an air-bake cookie sheet and placed into the oven at 350 for about 10 - 15 minutes... I don't remember exactly, though I did pop a few out of the tray to slightly cool and crunch on to where it seemed ok.

The toasted nibs were then put back into the flip tops. I then used some Tito's vodka to cover the toasted nibs about an inch over their tops. The vodka is neutral, so its not changing flavors and just extracting from the nibs flavor. I left these in the back of the cupboard for about 6 weeks; occasionally sloshing the vodka around to mix it up a bit.

After ~6 weeks the cacao aroma in the tincture was very strong and I decided to take it off of the nibs. I took another flip top bottle and used a coffee filter cut down to about 75% its normal size and fit it into the opening of the new 600ml bottle so it was drooping down into the bottle like a sump/catch basin. I then slowly poured from the first tincture bottle into a funnel and let it go through the coffee filter. I used a rubber band to keep the filter in place as I don't have a third hand. This was repeated for the last tincture bottle, but with a new filter as the fats had the first pretty clogged at that point.

This left me with ~480ml of cacao tincture.

Bottles I used:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B9BR8VTY?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_product_details

 

[Dan O]

The tincture was easy to make. I used two 600ml large mouth flip top bottles that have a silicone gasket. I filled each of these about 3/4 full with cacao nibs to get the amount I wanted. The nibs were then emptied onto an air-bake cookie sheet and placed into the oven at 350 for about 10 - 15 minutes... I don't remember exactly, though I did pop a few out of the tray to slightly cool and crunch on to where it seemed ok.

The toasted nibs were then put back into the flip tops. I then used some Tito's vodka to cover the toasted nibs about an inch over their tops. The vodka is neutral, so its not changing flavors and just extracting from the nibs flavor. I left these in the back of the cupboard for about 6 weeks; occasionally sloshing the vodka around to mix it up a bit.

After ~6 weeks the cacao aroma in the tincture was very strong and I decided to take it off of the nibs. I took another flip top bottle and used a coffee filter cut down to about 75% its normal size and fit it into the opening of the new 600ml bottle so it was drooping down into the bottle like a sump/catch basin. I then slowly poured from the first tincture bottle into a funnel and let it go through the coffee filter. I used a rubber band to keep the filter in place as I don't have a third hand. This was repeated for the last tincture bottle, but with a new filter as the fats had the first pretty clogged at that point.

This left me with ~480ml of cacao tincture.

Bottles I used:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B9BR8VTY?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_product_details

Awesome! Thank you so much for sharing the process & jars as well. I will be making some of that as soon as I get the jars .

 

[MightyMosin]

I started my version of this on 2/4/2024. I'm really close to yours. I added Booster Rouge as well.
I'm Clover in place of Wildflower, but only because my Wildflower is completely solid and I didn't heat it before hand; It will provide the sugars just as well for something that is getting profile from the juices and fruit and the Clover was cheaper than my Wildflower

I went with a straight TOSNA feeding schedule.

I screwed up on my notes and had the toasted cacao nibs listed in primary and secondary and dumped them in with primary. I decided to just leave it and I must say the aroma is pretty awesome. I'll add the tincture in secondary if it needs it.

It is fermenting strongly and it looks like it will be done in 3 or 4 more days and then be ready for racking soon after and the rest of the recipe will continue.

 

[Dan O]

I'm Clover in place of Wildflower, but only because my Wildflower is completely solid and I didn't heat it before hand; It will provide the sugars just as well for something that is getting profile from the juices and fruit and the Clover was cheaper than my Wildflower

I'm sure it will do just as well with the Clover, as it is considered by many as a carrier honey, like you said, just providing the sugars instead of bringing unique flavors to the table.

I added Booster Rouge as .

I'm going to have to look into that. I've never used it.
I have questions though......
You added the booster rouge in the beginning. This is what I pulled from my LHBS's website...

"Booster Rouge is a fermentation activator developed by The Institut Cooperatif du Vin (ICV). It is made up of inactivated yeast cells from the natural yeast cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Add at the end of fermentation to reduce sulphur compounds, optimize malolactic fermentation, increase initial mouthfeel, and highlight fresh fruit flavors. Booster Rouge provides a minor supply of yeast nutrients but does not replace the yeast program for the nutritional needs of yeast strains. Booster Rouge does not contain any inorganic nitrogen (DAP).

USE: At a rate of 1 gram per gallon dissolved in approximately 1/2oz of water. For 6 gallons mix 6 grams, or one package, of Booster Rouge in 2-3 ounces of water. Add to the wine must towards the end of fermentation."

Then, off of the Lallemand website, I got this.....

Instructions
• Mix the product in water or must (10x its weight in juice or water).
• Ensure the product is well suspended, free of lumps before adding to the juice/ must early in fermentation.
• The efficacy of the product is optimised by adding early during fermentation (within the first 48 hours).
The results may not be as significant if added late in fermentation.

I tend to lean towards the manufacturer's directions, but the LHBS data is right from the label??? Still, weird.

Also, what color is it? I see pictures of it being red, then I see pictures of it being the color similar to Fermaid O.
Thank you, in advance, if you do reply.

 

[MightyMosin]

I go with the manufacturers data sheet.
I have seen that portion about Malolactic conversion, but I don't think that Lallemand or Scott Labs lists that.

I'd have to double check, but I believe its a redish color

 

[Dan O]

I go with the manufacturers data sheet.
I have seen that portion about Malolactic conversion, but I don't think that Lallemand or Scott Labs lists that.

I'd have to double check, but I believe its a redish color

After looking around for it, it's not available on MoreBeer or MoreWine, & where I can find it, it's for sale in either 6 or 8 gram packages....or....2.5 Kg...WTF!

 

[MightyMosin]

More Inc has changed a distributor and they don't carry anymore. Same with Noblesse.

I have to look around to see has it.

 

[Dan O]

More Inc has changed a distributor and they don't carry anymore. Same with Noblesse.

I have to look around to see has it.

Anything to make a better mead. Thanks, @MightyMosin

 

[Dan O]

More Inc has changed a distributor and they don't carry anymore. Same with Noblesse.

I have to look around to see has it.

Closest I've found to the quantity I'm looking for... 1/4 lb or about 113 grams.

 

[SeanC138]

Well I finished my batch of this and it came out amazing and probably the best mead I've ever made since I started tinkering with mead in 2020. I did add a bit more cacao nibs than your recipe, but overall I followed it. This opened me up to looking into these additives I've never used or knew about before so thanks! I had my mom try it (who doesn't drink) and she told me to put a bottle in the fridge lol. Cheers!

 

[Dan O]

Well I finished my batch of this and it came out amazing and probably the best mead I've ever made since I started tinkering with mead in 2020. I did add a bit more cacao nibs than your recipe, but overall I followed it. This opened me up to looking into these additives I've never used or knew about before so thanks! I had my mom try it (who doesn't drink) and she told me to put a bottle in the fridge lol. Cheers!

That's awesome! I'm glad it turned out well for you. I, too started making mead in 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic & never looked back.
Cheers

 

[HBT_Admin]

@SeanC138 Congratulations on it all working out well for you. Great that your mom liked it.