TandemTails
Well-Known Member
This was the 3rd mead I attempted and my goal was to use proper SNA and temperature control to get the best mead possible based on the ingredients I was working with.
It was the middle of a hot summer and I had the idea to make a refreshing mead so I started brainstorming. I finally decided on a blueberry/hibiscus melomel with a little added lemon juice in an effort to mimic a nice fruity herbal tea.
Recipe:
Batch size: 1 gallon
OG: 1.110
FG: 1.006
Ingredients:
PRIMARY
SECONDARY
PRIMARY STEPS
SECONDARY STEPS
STAGGERTED NUTRIENT ADDITION SCHEDULE
MY FERMENTATION/RACKING SCHEDULE
LESSONS LEARNED
I'm drinking some of this now and it's amazing. The blueberry and hibiscus really go well together and create a really awesome color. At around 15% this is dangerously delicious. It's almost like drinking a really sweet red wine but the honey and blueberry/hibiscus flavor really lend their own take on it.
Images:
Adding water over strained flowers
All combined at primary, before pitching yeast
Topped up for secondary
Just before bottling
Drinking the hydrometer sample
All bottled up
It was the middle of a hot summer and I had the idea to make a refreshing mead so I started brainstorming. I finally decided on a blueberry/hibiscus melomel with a little added lemon juice in an effort to mimic a nice fruity herbal tea.
Recipe:
Batch size: 1 gallon
OG: 1.110
FG: 1.006
Ingredients:
PRIMARY
- 1 gallon water
- 3 lbs honey
- 2 oz hibiscus flowers (dried)
- Juice of 2 lemons
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 1 cup frozen blueberries
- Wyeast beer nutrient blend (¼ tsp intervals)
- yeast energizer (¼ tsp intervals)
- ¾ tsp pectic enzyme
- 2 grams Lalvin D47 Yeast
SECONDARY
- Pure blueberry juice
- Hibiscus tea (½ oz in 2 cups of water)
- juice of 1 lime
- 15 frozen blueberries
PRIMARY STEPS
- Heat 6 cups of water and add lemon zest and hibiscus flowers.
- |-> Remove from heat
- |-> Add lemon juice
- |-> Steep for 60 minutes
- Add honey to carboy (add hot water to honey container to get all of it out)
- Add 1 cup frozen blueberries to carboy
- Add hibiscus flower tea to carboy (put sanitized strainer over funnel to collect flowers)
- Top off with water to the 1 gallon mark (sparge the water over the strained hibiscus flowers to get every bit of flavor)
- Shake like crazy to incorporate everything
- Take OG
- Make sure solution is room temperature or lower (D47 likes temps in 59-68 degree range)
- Add ¼ tsp yeast nutrient and ¼ tsp yeast energizer to carboy
- Pitch the yeast
- Attach airlock
SECONDARY STEPS
- Make tea mixture with ingredients above
- |-> Strain mixture to remove blueberries and hibiscus flowers
- Measure SG of mead
- Mix blueberry juice and hibiscus tea to match the SG of mead
- Add new blueberry juice/tea mixture to mead in new carboy to top off and eliminate headspace
STAGGERTED NUTRIENT ADDITION SCHEDULE
- Yeast Nutrient Additions (combine with some of the must to avoid bubble-ups)
- |-> Add ¼ of yeast nutrient/energizer mixture after 24 hours
- |-> Add ¼ of yeast nutrient/energizer mixture after 48 hours
- |-> Add ¼ of yeast nutrient/energizer mixture after ⅓ sugar break
- Aerating - Shake the carboy vigorously 3x a day for first ⅓ of fermentation
- Degassing
- |-> Gently swirl 2x a day after ⅓ sugar break in primary
- |-> Gently swirl a few times a week in secondary
MY FERMENTATION/RACKING SCHEDULE
- Primary Fermentation: Aug 4, 2015 - Aug 27, 2015 (23 days @ 64'F)
- Secondary Fermentation: Aug 27, 2015 - Nov 19, 2015 (84 days @ 64'F)
- Tertiary Fermentation / Aging: Nov 19, 2015 - Jan 21, 2016 (63 days @ 62-68'F)
LESSONS LEARNED
- Don't shake the carboy to degas as this will cause a mead explosion (which is why i had to add so much more juice/tea at secondary)
- Clean and sanitize and have more bottles ready than you think you'll need. I had a brain fart and only had 7 bottles ready when I needed 8-9
- Even though they're a pain in the butt, use a bottling wand. I lost probably a bottle's worth of mead when moving the siphon between the bottles
I'm drinking some of this now and it's amazing. The blueberry and hibiscus really go well together and create a really awesome color. At around 15% this is dangerously delicious. It's almost like drinking a really sweet red wine but the honey and blueberry/hibiscus flavor really lend their own take on it.
Images:
Adding water over strained flowers
All combined at primary, before pitching yeast
Topped up for secondary
Just before bottling
Drinking the hydrometer sample
All bottled up