Tupelo mead advice

[sheepcat]

Mead friends,

My best friend is getting married in a year and has asked me to provide mead for the reception. I have plenty of melomel and cider lying around, but I thought I'd create something special for the occasion. After hunting around I've found some tupelo honey and am looking to use it to make a straight mead.

I've not tried to make a high ABV mead before, so advice is appreciated, especially in the area of yeast. I'm hoping to take it to 18%+, so maybe 1116 or 1118?

The recipe I'm looking at:

12 lbs tupelo honey
6 lbs OB honey, plus whatever else is needed to reach OG 1.15
water to five gallons
Ferment dry, step feed/backsweeten with tupelo honey.

Any advice is appreciated!

 

[loveofrose]

Tupelo is a different honey. It has a very flowery aroma and a strong implied sweetness (even when bone dry). I actually would not suggest it for a wedding mead despite the fact that I love Tupelo mead. This is because it is ridiculously, sugary sweet.

A wedding mead needs complexity. Good now, better years from now. A straight OB would be a better crowd pleaser. Even better if black locust/acacia honey.

You can look up my Wedding Dwojniak for an example of my take on a wedding mead.

Ask more questions if you need clarity!

Yeast: Do you need fast drinking or high ABV? It depends..,

Edit: If your friends love sugary sweet, ignore me!

 

[sheepcat]

Thanks for the advice. There's about 10 months between when I'd start this and the wedding. I'm shooting for high ABV above quick drinking.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

A high ABV mead won't be ready to drink in 10 months. Good mead takes time, think of mead in terms of years, not months. You might be able to pull off a BOMM, JAOM or similar recipe in that amount of time & have it turn out tasty.
Regards, GF.

 

[madscientist451]

I agree with the above that 10 months turn around is short for a high ABV mead.
Here's a wild idea though:
Since you have plenty of cider around, how about taking 3 gallons of dry cider, get about 5 lbs of fresh sour cherries, (in season now)
rack the cider on to the cherries, your cider yeast will kick off again if you haven't used chemicals, once fermentation re-starts, feed in some of the honey and yeast nutrient with the target of making a clone if B.Nektar's Zombie Killer. May have to back sweeten , but 10 months should be plenty of time.
Serve cold from a keg, should be good for a reception.

 

[skadalajara]

Personally, if I were tasked with making any kind of wedding beveeage, it would be served in corked and waxed bottles. This is a wedding, man. It's a once (or twice, maybe thrice) in a lifetime event.

 

[sheepcat]

Thanks all for the advice, folks. I'm probably going to be corking, waxing, labeling, etc. All the fancy extras!

So, I'll probably end up doing something like your wedding mead for this event. That said, I still do have the tupelo honey, and perhaps I could use it for other special occasions down the road, but need yeast advice. Any advice on 1118/1116/other strains or brands?

 

[loveofrose]

Tupelo is very floral. I prefer a very clean yeast to avoid muddying the aroma. Wyeast 1388 and DV10 are very good with Tupelo honey. I prefer it dry because it has an implied sweetness even at 1.000.