Hello all!
A couple weeks ago I started a small 4 - 6 month project for making several 1 gallon young meads and will be running a tasting party to try and get many people's impressions on the meads. I wanted to post the progress and results here for everyone to read.
Here is where it is starting:
Step one: I am starting this project like I do my skeeter pee / skeeter mead. I started a 3 gallon batch of wine with my favorite young mead yeast and will use the lees I rack off of to start each of the 1 gallon batches.
My starter wine is a simple Welche's white grape peach wine. Recipe is as follows:
3 gallon
12 11.5 fl oz Welche's white grape peach frozen concentrate.
3 TBS Earl grey black tea (loose leaf in the primary)
3 tsp pectic enzyme
3 tsp yeast nutrient blend
Water to 3 gallons
Yeast (lalvin 71b-1112)
OG is at 1.080
FG after two weeks is at .998
ABV is 11%
It is about 95% clear right now so in another couple weeks it should be ready to bottle. I am going to sweeten this batch to about 1.020 and let it bottle carbonate and then pasteurize the bottles when they hit the disired fizzyness.
The lees left begind will be collected and weighed. The lees will be split into 6 equal portions and that used to start the following batches:
Recipe 1: Strait traditional mead
Orange blossom honey (to a gravity of 1.060 so just over 1.5lb)
3/4 tsp potassium bicarbonate
2 tsp yeast nutrient
Water to 1 gallon
Yeast (71b slurry from white grape peach wine)
This one is simple. Mix water and honey well with a no heat method. Add 1 tsp yeast nutrient and potassium bicarbonate, aerate well and pitch yeast. Split the remaining yeast nutrient into two more parts and add every 24 hours. During which I will degas and aerate twice daily till the day after adding the last round of yeast nutrient. Rack every 30 days till no sediment drops. Back sweeten to 1.020 and bottle. I will heat pasteurize 3 different bottles at different times to get different levels of carbonation from still, lightly carbonated to heavy carbonation. This should be a nice 8% ABV light mead.
Recipe 2: Bochet
This one is exactly the same as the above but the honey gets a 2 hour slow caramelization on a low heat.
Recipe 3: Buttery mead
Orange blossom honey (to a gravity of 1.060)
1 11.5oz can of Welche's white grape frozen concentrate
1.5 tsp yeast nutrient
Water to one gallon
Yeast (71b slurry)
1 crushed Camden tablet
1tsp malic acid
1/4 tsp wine tannin
Malo-lactic culture (Wyeast 4007 Malo-Lactic culture)
(I posted this as a theoretical recipe a while back and really want to try it so here we are)
Mix the honey, white grape concentrate and nutrients. Top up with water to one gallon. Monitor closely every day. As soon as I notice the gravity hits 1.000 rack to a new bottle and cold crash the mead and keep it below 55*F. Also add in Camden. After 1 week and kept cool I should be able to rack off another bed of lees. Now add in tannin, malic acid and prepare and pitch Malo-lactic culture per package directions. Keep at room temp for one week. Then cool back down to 55*F and allow to clear. Once crystal clear rack off of any sediment. Should be able to back sweeten to 1.020 and bottle. I will do the multi carbonation level like the last two.
Recipe 4: Lemon mead
Orange blossom honey (to a gravity of 1.060)
20 fl oz real lemon lemon juice
3/4 tsp earl grey black tea (loose leaf in the primary)
3 tsp yeast nutrient
Water to one gallon
Yeast (71b slurry)
Half the lemon and nutrients go in up front with the honey and tea and the rest go in 3 days later. I will back sweeten to 1.020 and bottle/carbonate/pasteurize like the other recipes.
Recipe 5: cherry lemon mead
The same as the lemon mead but I blend in about 32 fl oz tart cherry juice to bring the ABV from 8% to about 6% before bottling.
Recipe 6: Cyser
The same as recipe 1 except I will add one 11.5 fl oz can of frozen apple concentrate pre fermentation and one after with additional honey & water to a gravity of 1.020 & ABV of 6%. Also I will add in 1/2 tsp of malic acid to the cyser primary to bottling to help bring out a little more apple flavor. Again with multi pasteurization as the rest of the recipes.
These are my plans. I am happy for any input on the work I am doing.
We will do blind taste tests at the party and do something like rating each mead from 1-10 based off of color, aroma, taste & the likely hood someone would buy this over similar commercial products they have tried.
A couple weeks ago I started a small 4 - 6 month project for making several 1 gallon young meads and will be running a tasting party to try and get many people's impressions on the meads. I wanted to post the progress and results here for everyone to read.
Here is where it is starting:
Step one: I am starting this project like I do my skeeter pee / skeeter mead. I started a 3 gallon batch of wine with my favorite young mead yeast and will use the lees I rack off of to start each of the 1 gallon batches.
My starter wine is a simple Welche's white grape peach wine. Recipe is as follows:
3 gallon
12 11.5 fl oz Welche's white grape peach frozen concentrate.
3 TBS Earl grey black tea (loose leaf in the primary)
3 tsp pectic enzyme
3 tsp yeast nutrient blend
Water to 3 gallons
Yeast (lalvin 71b-1112)
OG is at 1.080
FG after two weeks is at .998
ABV is 11%
It is about 95% clear right now so in another couple weeks it should be ready to bottle. I am going to sweeten this batch to about 1.020 and let it bottle carbonate and then pasteurize the bottles when they hit the disired fizzyness.
The lees left begind will be collected and weighed. The lees will be split into 6 equal portions and that used to start the following batches:
Recipe 1: Strait traditional mead
Orange blossom honey (to a gravity of 1.060 so just over 1.5lb)
3/4 tsp potassium bicarbonate
2 tsp yeast nutrient
Water to 1 gallon
Yeast (71b slurry from white grape peach wine)
This one is simple. Mix water and honey well with a no heat method. Add 1 tsp yeast nutrient and potassium bicarbonate, aerate well and pitch yeast. Split the remaining yeast nutrient into two more parts and add every 24 hours. During which I will degas and aerate twice daily till the day after adding the last round of yeast nutrient. Rack every 30 days till no sediment drops. Back sweeten to 1.020 and bottle. I will heat pasteurize 3 different bottles at different times to get different levels of carbonation from still, lightly carbonated to heavy carbonation. This should be a nice 8% ABV light mead.
Recipe 2: Bochet
This one is exactly the same as the above but the honey gets a 2 hour slow caramelization on a low heat.
Recipe 3: Buttery mead
Orange blossom honey (to a gravity of 1.060)
1 11.5oz can of Welche's white grape frozen concentrate
1.5 tsp yeast nutrient
Water to one gallon
Yeast (71b slurry)
1 crushed Camden tablet
1tsp malic acid
1/4 tsp wine tannin
Malo-lactic culture (Wyeast 4007 Malo-Lactic culture)
(I posted this as a theoretical recipe a while back and really want to try it so here we are)
Mix the honey, white grape concentrate and nutrients. Top up with water to one gallon. Monitor closely every day. As soon as I notice the gravity hits 1.000 rack to a new bottle and cold crash the mead and keep it below 55*F. Also add in Camden. After 1 week and kept cool I should be able to rack off another bed of lees. Now add in tannin, malic acid and prepare and pitch Malo-lactic culture per package directions. Keep at room temp for one week. Then cool back down to 55*F and allow to clear. Once crystal clear rack off of any sediment. Should be able to back sweeten to 1.020 and bottle. I will do the multi carbonation level like the last two.
Recipe 4: Lemon mead
Orange blossom honey (to a gravity of 1.060)
20 fl oz real lemon lemon juice
3/4 tsp earl grey black tea (loose leaf in the primary)
3 tsp yeast nutrient
Water to one gallon
Yeast (71b slurry)
Half the lemon and nutrients go in up front with the honey and tea and the rest go in 3 days later. I will back sweeten to 1.020 and bottle/carbonate/pasteurize like the other recipes.
Recipe 5: cherry lemon mead
The same as the lemon mead but I blend in about 32 fl oz tart cherry juice to bring the ABV from 8% to about 6% before bottling.
Recipe 6: Cyser
The same as recipe 1 except I will add one 11.5 fl oz can of frozen apple concentrate pre fermentation and one after with additional honey & water to a gravity of 1.020 & ABV of 6%. Also I will add in 1/2 tsp of malic acid to the cyser primary to bottling to help bring out a little more apple flavor. Again with multi pasteurization as the rest of the recipes.
These are my plans. I am happy for any input on the work I am doing.
We will do blind taste tests at the party and do something like rating each mead from 1-10 based off of color, aroma, taste & the likely hood someone would buy this over similar commercial products they have tried.