Next batch advice

[wreboot]

I have 5 one gallon carboys that are about to get 5 different meads. These are the recipes that I have adapted from a google search picking my favorite parts of different recipes. If anyone has any comments or advice let me know.

Texas Pear Cyser

3 lbs Texas clover honey
2/3 gal Texas spring water
1 lbs Texas pears
1 lbs Texas ginger
1 tsp Yeast nutrient
Lalvin D47 Yeast

Plan is to skin and deseed the pears and skin ginger then puree them and bring to 165° F degrees in some water to kill off wild yeast. Skim off anything that doesn't look good on top mixture. Cool down mixture after at least 30 min and strain. Then add honey, remaining water, and pitch yeast with yeast nutrient.

In secondary, skin and chop 1/2 lb ginger (but do not puree) and add to carboy.

*Note* Buy half ginger with primary ingredients and buy 2nd half of ginger before moving it into secondary.

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Texas Blueberry Melomel

3 lbs Texas clover or wildflower honey
2/3 gal Texas spring water
2 lbs Texas blueberries (frozen)
1 tsp Yeast nutrient
.5 oz Texas vanilla extract
Lalvin D47 Yeast

Plan is to set blueberries aside to defrost to room temp. Then mix honey to half the water stir until dissolved. Add and lightly crush blueberries with potato masher or back of spoon. Add to carboy with remaining water, pitch yeast, and add yeast nutrient.

In secondary or before bottling, add vanilla.

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Texas Bochet

4 lbs Texas mesquite honey
2/3+ gal Texas spring water
Enough Texas lemons for 1 cup juice and 1 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp Yeast nutrient
Lalvin D47 Yeast

The plan is to cook mead on stove until honey becomes closer in consistency to caramel, stirring often. Add water occasionally to prevent burning. Once mixture becomes the correct texture (or will not stop trying to burn itself) add water to dissolve. Add lemon zest and lemon juice once mixture has cooled down. Add to carboy, pitch yeast, and add yeast nutrient.

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Texas 5 Spice Pumpkin Metheglin

12 oz Texas Black Amber Molasses
2.5-3 lbs Texas wildflower honey
2-3 medium Texas Pumpkins (the pie making kind) (about 2lbs cooked, skinned, and seeded)
2/3 gal Texas spring water
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon (or 1 cinnamon stick)
1 tsp toasted ground fennel seed
1 tsp ground star anise
1 tsp ground szechauan peppercorns
1 tsp Yeast nutrient
Lalvin D47 Yeast

Quarter and deseed pumpkins and bake at 350° F for 20-30 minutes. Skin will start to brown. Peel skin, then chop pumpkin. Cover in water and boil for about an hour then mash with potato masher. Allow mixture to cool and add honey and molasses. Carefully transfer to carboy, pitch yeast, and add yeast nutrient.

In secondary, add spices.

*Note* If you can't find szechauan peppercorns in your area you can use allspice for the 5th spice or even if you just like the taste of allspice berries.

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Texas Strawberry Melomel.

3 lbs Texas clover or wildflower honey
2/3 gal Texas spring water
2 lbs Texas strawberries (frozen)
1 tsp Yeast nutrient
Lalvin D47 Yeast

Hull and cut in half all defrosted strawberries. Puree 1 lb of the strawberries and strain into mixing vessel. Add 1 cup of water to the strained remains of the berries and strain again into mixing vessel. Add the remaining strawberries to carboy. Add honey and enough water to dissolve to mixing vessel. Transfer to carboy with remaining water, pitch yeast, and add yeast nutrient.

*Note* If you have a juicer you can use that instead of pureeing and straining.

 

[Kent88]

OMG we get it, you are from Texas and you are trying to source your ingredients locally.

Edit: Are you sure you can't also find Texas yeast nutrient and Texas yeast?

 

[Kent88]

Pear Cyser: I've made pear wine and you really need to add a lot of pear to get to the flavor to come through. Do you have a small bucket you can start fermentation in? If so, triple the pear content. Rather than pasteurize with heat, I'd recommend you use campden tablets.

Blueberry melomel: you sure you want the vanilla? I'd recommend that if you haven't made plain blueberry melomel, try that first. Use a really good yeast, I've heard that for some odd reason blueberries are hard on yeast.

Bochet: Not really sure what you're going for here. Burnt sugar/caramel flavors? I'm going to look this stuff up.

Pumpkin: Looks kind of complicated to me. Not sure what the actual pumpkin will contribute to the mead. When I've made pumpkin beer I baked it and then mashed it. I wonder if this will actually contribute some starch to your wine. I've read a couple disaster stories of people trying to make pumpkin wine. Maybe look into it a bit more, do some searches, try to find where others have gone wrong and see if they include what they'd do differently.

Strawberry: I don't feel I'm qualified to give advice here, I tried making strawberry wine once and it ended up tasting like bad strawberry jam with some alcohol.

 

[bernardsmith]

One pound of ginger in a one gallon batch of mead sounds like overkill. Have you used that much ginger in any gallon of wine or mead or ginger beer before? You might find that a rhizome of about 2 inches is enough
Bochet (caramelized honey mead) is not really about changing the texture of the honey. Caramelizing honey changes the color. You want the color to become darker but you do not want to burn the honey. All that does is create bitterness. You need a pot about 3 or 4 times the volume of the honey (it will foam up and overflow if you are not careful) and you want to constantly stir the honey ( not like caramelizing sugar where stirring is not done). Do NOT add water. Caramelization is about the REMOVAL of water. Use a heavy pot and stir constantly to prevent scorching. Under a medium heat 30 -45 minutes (or thereabouts) should result in a caramelized honey (the temperature should be about 320 F if you want to caramelize the glucose that makes up about 30% of the sugar content of honey. Fructose (about 40% of honey) caramelizes at a lower temperature (about 230 F).

Never tried this but it seems you can also caramelize honey at far lower temperatures (122 F) but you need to apply this heat for 48 hours. You might use a slow cooker (crockpot) controlling the temperature with an Inkbird temperature controller which will switch the crockpot off when the temperature rises a degree or two above the set temp. and switch it on again when the temperature drops a degree or two below the set temperature. Honey will hold the heat so the crockpot will not be going on and off like crazy.

 

[wreboot]

Bochet (caramelized honey mead) is not really about changing the texture of the honey. Caramelizing honey changes the color. You want the color to become darker but you do not want to burn the honey. All that does is create bitterness. You need a pot about 3 or 4 times the volume of the honey (it will foam up and overflow if you are not careful) and you want to constantly stir the honey ( not like caramelizing sugar where stirring is not done). Do NOT add water. Caramelization is about the REMOVAL of water. Use a heavy pot and stir constantly to prevent scorching. Under a medium heat 30 -45 minutes (or thereabouts) should result in a caramelized honey (the temperature should be about 320 F if you want to caramelize the glucose that makes up about 30% of the sugar content of honey. Fructose (about 40% of honey) caramelizes at a lower temperature (about 230 F).

Never tried this but it seems you can also caramelize honey at far lower temperatures (122 F) but you need to apply this heat for 48 hours. You might use a slow cooker (crockpot) controlling the temperature with an Inkbird temperature controller which will switch the crockpot off when the temperature rises a degree or two above the set temp. and switch it on again when the temperature drops a degree or two below the set temperature. Honey will hold the heat so the crockpot will not be going on and off like crazy.

Awesome. That's great advice. Really appreciate it. All the youtube vids I've found have people periodically adding water so understanding the color change and all that makes a lot more sense.

 

[wreboot]

Pear Cyser: I've made pear wine and you really need to add a lot of pear to get to the flavor to come through. Do you have a small bucket you can start fermentation in? If so, triple the pear content. Rather than pasteurize with heat, I'd recommend you use campden tablets.

I am new to mead making and haven't leveled up to using a bucket fermented and there's no homebrew supply store here for me to get Camden tablets so I have to order large quantities over amazon or pay for shipping. I know it's not ideal to use heat, but that's what I got right now.

Should I go ahead and try to up the pear to 3lbs? That seems like a lot when I want it to be a pear ginger cyser...What about 2lbs pear and 1lbs ginger?

Blueberry melomel: you sure you want the vanilla? I'd recommend that if you haven't made plain blueberry melomel, try that first. Use a really good yeast, I've heard that for some odd reason blueberries are hard on yeast.

This is my wife's pick. Haven't definitely decided on the vanilla. I think I'll have her try it without it before I add it.

Pumpkin: Looks kind of complicated to me. Not sure what the actual pumpkin will contribute to the mead. When I've made pumpkin beer I baked it and then mashed it. I wonder if this will actually contribute some starch to your wine. I've read a couple disaster stories of people trying to make pumpkin wine. Maybe look into it a bit more, do some searches, try to find where others have gone wrong and see if they include what they'd do differently.

I've seen a few of these pop up since the fall started. Looks like a lot of people have had success with a few different variations. Only thing I am not sure about is mashing it. I know I'd have to cut it up rather small in order to get it in the carboy. Looks like most people just let it fall apart instead of mashing the pumpkin. I'll have to cross that bridge when I come to it I guess.

 

[wreboot]

One pound of ginger in a one gallon batch of mead sounds like overkill. Have you used that much ginger in any gallon of wine or mead or ginger beer before? You might find that a rhizome of about 2 inches is enough

I want ginger and pear to be equally present. I haven't done it before, but I really like ginger...I saw a full 1 gal batch recipe for Ginger Mead that called for over 3 lbs of ginger so that's why I decided on 1 lbs.

 

[bernardsmith]

Always easier to add more flavor than remove some if you find the flavor too intense. I would experiment using water and ginger to see the intensity of the flavor.