What I did for/with Mead today

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Dan O said:
To those requesting the recipe, I will post my notes this weekend.
This was a 2 gallon batch of blueberry melomel that I split for different flavor profiles.
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My blueberry melomel, 3 different ways.... I was wrong, batch size was 2.5 Gallons

Ingredients for the base blueberry melomel....

3.25 gr Goferm with 5 gr of QA23 yeast rehydrated with warm water & a shot of blueberry juice from the thawed berries
13 lbs wild frozen blueberries ...(7 lbs for primary & the other 6 for secondary after stabilizing)
Brew bag big enough to hole all that fruit
5 Gal Food Grade Bucket
2.5 lbs my local wildflower honey
1/2 lb Clover honey
2+ tsp pectic Enzyme
2.6 gr Potassium Carbonate, one time addition @ must creation
2.5 gr Fermaid K, one time addition @ must creation
1 gr Booster Blanc, one time addition @ must creation
1 gr Opti-red, one time addition @ must creation
2.7 gr Fermaid O EACH addition, @ must creation, 24 & 48 hrs
OG 1.116
FG 1.000
Started 2/1/23, Stabilized with KMeta & KSorb on 3/7 23

Split into.......

1.5 Gal for blueberry cobbler w/ vanilla bean, graham crackers, nutmeg, Ceylon cinnamon
.5 Gal for blueberry/vanilla w/Medium toast American Oak Xoaker
.5 Gal for blueberry/lemon/vanilla w/Medium toast Hungarian Oak cubes

blueberry/lemon/vanilla...
4/16/23...Added 1/2 vanilla bean, split, not scraped, zest of 1/2 lemon
5/2/23....Removed lemon zest
5/6/23.... Added 6 gr medium toast Hungarian Oak cubes
5/12/23....Removed Vanilla bean
9/6/23....Removed Hungarian Oak

I have not back sweetened any of these yet, but the sweet spot for me is between 1.012 & 1.018. I have a lot of different honeys in stock that I can choose from, so not too sure yet which one (or a blend of honeys) I will use. Part of me wants to bochet some & back sweeten with that to do something different.
I hope this helps those that asked about it & others that were curious to, but didn't.
Happy meading :cool:
 
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Do y'all have any good sources for someone looking to get a crash course on mead making? Youtube link, thread here, etc.? The only kind of brewing that I really have done is with Apfelwein that I'm still waiting on. Other than that I'm clueless.

I still have a good bit of honey leftover from my hives earlier this year and figured why not make a drink.
 
Apis Mellifera said:
Do y'all have any good sources for someone looking to get a crash course on mead making? Youtube link, thread here, etc.? The only kind of brewing that I really have done is with Apfelwein that I'm still waiting on. Other than that I'm clueless.

I still have a good bit of honey leftover from my hives earlier this year and figured why not make a drink.
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Here's a good resource

https://www.youtobrew.com/mead-making-101
 
Thanks!

The more I read up on mead making, the more I realize I’ll need to learn some patience.

I’m hoping to get a batch or 2 going soon. A traditional to establish a baseline and something maybe more “fall-like” involving apple. I guess while I’m at it I need to look further into December as well.
 
Apis Mellifera said:
Thanks!

The more I read up on mead making, the more I realize I’ll need to learn some patience.

I’m hoping to get a batch or 2 going soon. A traditional to establish a baseline and something maybe more “fall-like” involving apple. I guess while I’m at it I need to look further into December as well.
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Eventually, you'll wind up like the most of us🤣🤣
 

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Scaled this up for a 5 gallon batch:

To make this lemon mead, collect the zest and juice of 6-8 lemons. Fill a gallon carboy halfway up with spring water. Add 2.5-3 lbs of your favorite honey, a handful of organic raisins (15 or so), black tea that’s been made from 3 teabags steeped and cooled (optional for tannin balance), and your activated yeast. Add your lemon zest and juice, and if you used organic lemons, toss some of the peels in as well (I put some lemon slices on top so my mead would look pretty for my pics – you can do that too).

After 10-14 days, whenever fermentation slows, rack off into secondary. Taste it, and if the lemon flavor isn’t prominent enough for your liking, add more zest and juice. Same goes for every racking you do.
 
I got to feeling a little crowded with my piles of honey adding up here & there...sooo, I added a honey shelf to my mead room, aka the basement.
I still haven't consolidated all of my honey to the shelf yet, but it's getting pretty crowded already. Man, I gotta make more mead!

I finally managed to get it all on there...phew😵‍💫😅
 

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Preparing meads started this past summer, dandelion and honeysuckle for packaging. Dandelion seemed flabby so I’ve added some acid blend also K-sorbet will back sweeten lightly the flower is barely there. The honeysuckle smells wonderful and the flavor seems pretty good so just a light sweetness is all it needs. Competition is later this month. I have a berry mead out there that will be judged next weekend. 🤞🏻
 
Hello @Dan O

Faux Ice cider
Dan O said:
This sounds intriguing
Could you explain the faux ice cider, please?
Thank you, in advance, if you do reply.
Happy meading 😎
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I posted the recipe in the Cider recipe thread. - Also included is my last batch run notes for reference.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/faux-ice-cider.730008/
One additional note - I just started using Nutrients for this recipe (Included in the recipe) I have done the same recipe without using nutrients and it worked well. The addition often requires cold crashing to stop the ferment at the target FG then rack and clarify - Be sure to pasteurize immediately after bottling.

Edit
- I have used Cranapple juice and just recently Pink Lemonade in place of the 2 gallons of apple juice. Still used FAJC - Both turned out very well.
 
Feeding the 4 batches of mead that I started on Thanksgiving. Today is the last feeding they get.

My spouse wanted some more freezer room, so I was asked me to make use of the frozen fruits and make mead to provide the added space 😂. That's a new method to get me making some more.
 
I bottled my chocolate/cherry/vanilla/pomegranate tonight. I got (8) 16 oz Grolsch bottle @ 1.012.
I kept 1/2 gallon aside & back sweetened that to 1.022, which got me 4 Grolsch bottles.....(for the people in my circle that like them sweeter).
 
I racked a Pineapple mead made with Mesquite Blossom. Only 1 gallon as I was just using up frozen fruit so the spouse could have some more space in the other freezer. OG 1.130... I haven't checked the FG... will end up about 17% if it finished dry like the last batch.

Last time I made this, it came out incredible and I'm hoping for a repeat of that batch... hopefully I can get to racking the Mango mead later...

I managed to rack ~ 5 gallons of mango mead. It had a bit of a yeast like raft on the top... not sure about that, but I pulled the plug racking long before I had that near the siphon. I'll stabilize it tomorrow and take some gravity readings on that and the Pineapple mead.
 
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Bottled approx 5 gallons of my 15% spiced Christmas mead. 24 16oz bottles and 8 750ml bottles.
All crown cap with flip top lids.

Bottled about 3 gallons of a mixed berry mead... Ended up being 26 12oz bottles and a tiny bit left over.

Will need to start another batch of the xmas mead soon-ish. I didn't start this batch until almost april and at 15% I like to have as much aging add possible. This did come out pretty well though a bit more spiced than last year's which I like a bit better. Since i bottled so late, I expect I may have some leftover to try next year and compare.
 
On the list to be brewed soon, I also have a Christmas mead to get started, my wife still wants to try brewing so that's her project.

Today however, in the need to clear freezer space again, I prepped a fantasy brew I've been tweaking for a while. Final fantasy has a Rolanberry and it's referenced in a cook book for a few desserts so I thought it would be fun to turn into a wine or mead. A mix of light berries (strawberry, cherry, raspberry) and some citrus makes up the fantasy berry profile.
 
Frozen fruit soaked and thawed overnight in water, aerated with a drill mounted aerator, mixed in honey and pitched yeast. After about a week or the gravity drops below 1.020 I'll add a honey/water mix of the original gravity to the volume of 7 gallons. Leaving the extra airspace helps me avoid volcanoes when I forget to gently degas.

Images are before and after mixing. Frozen strawberries tend to puree after thawing and tend to cause headaches when I put them in a bag, I actually find it easier to punch the cap without the bag constantly ballooning. I should wake up to active fermentation if all goes well.
 

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