I haven't made mead in about ten years but I had a lot of honey left over this year from my bee hives and decided to make four one gallon test batches to see if i wanted to make more next year.
All of these used Lalvin D47 yeast, yeast nutrient, yeast energizer and enough water to get up to 1 gallon. I used my own honey so I did not boil it. I only heated the honey enough to dissolve it in the water.
-Juniper berries flavored mead:
4 pounds of honey, 2 handfuls of cracked Juniper berries, 4 cloves, 1 whole star anise, lemon zest boiled for 10 minutes and strained before adding (essentially making a spice tea).
-Blackberry mead:
3.5 pounds honey, 3 cups of blackberries and 2 cloves boiled before adding to honey (Going to need a blow off tube). In hind site putting it in my ninja blender first and straining the juice would have been a WAY better idea. Lessons learned.
-orange mead:
3.5 LBS honey, Handful of raisins, 1 orange sliced up and put in whole with skin.
-Sweet orange mead:
5 LBS honey,1 orange sliced up and put in whole with skin.
All are bubbling away. I'll probably give them at least three months and then bottle when they clear. Probably bottle age for another six months and test and then test again at a year. By then I'll have more than enough honey with my six hives to do some full batches and maybe more test batches.
All of these used Lalvin D47 yeast, yeast nutrient, yeast energizer and enough water to get up to 1 gallon. I used my own honey so I did not boil it. I only heated the honey enough to dissolve it in the water.
-Juniper berries flavored mead:
4 pounds of honey, 2 handfuls of cracked Juniper berries, 4 cloves, 1 whole star anise, lemon zest boiled for 10 minutes and strained before adding (essentially making a spice tea).
-Blackberry mead:
3.5 pounds honey, 3 cups of blackberries and 2 cloves boiled before adding to honey (Going to need a blow off tube). In hind site putting it in my ninja blender first and straining the juice would have been a WAY better idea. Lessons learned.
-orange mead:
3.5 LBS honey, Handful of raisins, 1 orange sliced up and put in whole with skin.
-Sweet orange mead:
5 LBS honey,1 orange sliced up and put in whole with skin.
All are bubbling away. I'll probably give them at least three months and then bottle when they clear. Probably bottle age for another six months and test and then test again at a year. By then I'll have more than enough honey with my six hives to do some full batches and maybe more test batches.
