Need Help - Celebration Mead

[nate85]

My wife and I are expecting our second rugrat in December.. mead was likely involved .. That being said, I would like to make a mead to celebrate. I am attempting to be creative here and need suggestions and even recipes for 2 possible meads.

Here is what I would like to do:

- Take suggestions on what Melomel's to make (recipes are welcome and appreciated!)

- I need one Melomel for if its a Boy and another for if its a girl.

Please take into consideration I have never made a Melomel but love the challenge. So far I am 3 for 3 on Metheglins.

Thank you in advance. I'm looking for ward to your suggestions!!

 

[bernardsmith]

Congratulations Nate85. Best melomel you can make is one that uses a fruit you love. Best way to make that melomel is to add the fruit to the secondary. That allows the alcohol in the mead to extract the flavors from the fruit and typically results in a fresh fruit tasting mead. There are exceptions (Cysers, for example tend to be made using the juice pressed from apples and so often the honey is diluted with apple juice rather than water).

 

[RPh_Guy]

As usual bernard offers great advice.

If you're looking for something gimmicky, would you be on board with a pink or blue mead? A little food coloring would go a long way.

I'd pick one fruit.
Blue: blueberry, plum, grape, blackberry, açaí
Pink: watermelon, strawberry, dragonfruit, raspberry, cherry, grapefruit, apple, pomegranate, papaya, cranberry, passion fruit, guava

Assuredly some fruits will be much more difficult to extract the flavor or might present other problems. I can't help you much there.

And congrats!

 

[nate85]

First off thank you both!

Best way to make that melomel is to add the fruit to the secondary.

I've seen arguments go both ways, but was wondering if secondary wouldn't be the way to go. Still being pretty "green" my thought process tells me that putting fruit in primary might take away from the honey flavor/notes (but that is just an assumption).

If you're looking for something gimmicky, would you be on board with a pink or blue mead? A little food coloring would go a long way.

Defiantly looking for that gimmicky vibe! Pink or blue for sure, but may try to achieve it with out food coloring.

Fruit wise I would probably be looking at the following options:
Blue: blueberry, blackberry or acai
Pink: strawberry, raspberry, guava

Trying to keep it simple with the fruit. All of the berry's I can get fresh in season and local as I'm sure that will help with the taste.

If your wondering about the Honey, I am fortunate to have a bee keeper a mile from my house (as the crow flys). Amazing wild flower honey!

 

[loveofrose]

Take a look over at https://denardbrewing.com/blog/category/mead/
Lots of ideas!

 

[bernardsmith]

In my opinion you want to use as little water as possible when using berries. That may mean using as much as 10 lbs of strawberries to extract a gallon of juice but store bought strawberries are invariably tasteless. Hand picked at the peak of ripeness are best, farmers' markets come next, frozen is in third place. You want to freeze the fruit and then allow it to thaw. The freezing creates ice crystals inside the fruit and those crystals damage the cells releasing more of the juice...

 

[Steveruch]

Are you planning to have some of this mead last until the kid is 21?I
I made some cherry mead to lay down for my granddaughter Cherry's 21st birthday. I made it 18% and at 16 years it is fantastic.

 

[growlrr]

My daughter had twins last month (one of each flavor ). The day we found out that she was having "the variety pack", I put down a batch of blueberry for my grandson and I'm trying a Rhodomel (rose mead) for my granddaughter. We should be able to crack into them both for their first birthdays. One will be a dark bluish purple and the other a dark pink.

 

[JimRausch]

For pink, I'd suggest Papa P.'s recipe for prickly pear mead. I did a batch this past February and it's a beautiful reddish pink. Used PP syrup instead of the fruit, because hey, I live in Maine. What's a cactus???
For blue, maybe blackberry? My blueberry beers (2 lb per 2 gallons) tend to turn out pinkish.

 

[RPh_Guy]

I've used blackberry in cider and it didn't add any color. The flavor is good though.

 

[Lefou]

18% ABV?
Too strong for me.
I made a version of JOAM that gave me a 14% drink and being the wuss I am, pawned it off to my wife as cooking wine. It makes some darned fine sautéed shrimp, let me tell you. On the other hand, I've frozen several pounds of dark, sweet cherries and have been kicking around the notion of making a nice session mead closer to table wine strength.

 

[bernardsmith]

But there is no law that says you must quaff mead by the pint even when it's 18% ABV. No reason why you can't fill a scotch glass and sip the mead. Unless... of course... the mead is too hot even for sipping, but that points to flaws in the process and not a problem with the amount of alcohol in the mead...

 

[nate85]

Ok so I have it narrowed down to either a Blue Berry Mead (for a Boy) or Raspberry Mead (for a girl).. we will be finding out this Wednesday (7/18). If anyone has any links or input on recipes im all ears!