Youthberry Tea Mead

[JoeyB612]

Pictures here:



This is an experimental recipe I tried out last month. I'm still pretty new to meadmaking so feel free to give me any advice on how to improve this recipe. I must say, out of the few recipes I've made so far, this is my favorite.

I made a mistake while bottling so there is a little more sediment than intended it did, however, clear nicely. I also lacked a hydrometer so I don't have the starting gravity or finishing gravity for this batch.

I keep all my notes and recipes in a journal, so the following is a direct transcription from there.

INGREDIENTS
3 lb honey
4 sachets youthberry tea
Red Star Champagne Yeast .5 pkt
1 Gal water

SETUP
Gallon bottle (Sanitized)
Bubble Airlock (Sanitized)

PROCEDURE
Reserve 3 cups of water
Brew tea, strong as possible
Add to honey
Mix and allow to cool
Add Yeast and shake/stir thoroughly
Seal with airlock

NOTES
Started ferment on 08/06/18 (day 1)
08/25/18 (day 19)
Added campden, as of 7pm next day still lots of bubbling, will wait longer before dosing again. (Side note: didn't need to)

BOTTLING
27/08/18 (day 21)
5 clean Flip top bottles and a clean wine bottle. Added a little pectic to each. Stored in fridge

TASTE
Sweet, slightly fruity. Kinda like a rosé. Slight alcohol burn.

AROMA
Fruity aroma. Smells like a mead.

AGING
1 bottle set for 1yr. open: 27/09/19.
Editing note: Everything else was given away or drank quickly. Picture is of the one year bottle.

 

[Frankenfoote]

How did it come out? My girlfriend loves youthberry tea. Did it really pull through alot of the flavor, or just kind of a secondary flavor?

 

[JoeyB612]

So, I've not had a chance to taste it after aging yet but the initial taste was pretty good. Fruity, and tasted a lot like a wine. I was hoping for a more concentrated tea flavour but it mellowed out quite a bit. I'm gonna try adding tea concentrate in secondary to see if the flavour comes through better. I'll post back here with how that comes out and I'll probably also post how this first batch turned out after aging.