aiptasia
Well-Known Member
I had to make this mead in the middle of the winter blizzards of 2014. Fresh berries were impossible to source so I used frozen. It's useful to have a nylon paint strainer bag to handle the fruit and a big large funnel makes pouring must and cold water into a carboy a breeze.
Ingredients:
12 lbs. of local honey (I used Gallberry. Tupelo or Orange Blossom preferred)
4 twelve oz. bags frozen mixed berries (blue, straw, black, rasp.)
1 sixteen oz. bag of frozen mango
2 clementine oranges
1 meyer lemon
1 tsp. yeast energizer
1 tsp. yeast nutrient
2 packets Lalvin RC-212 Bourgovin yeast (D-47 also works fine)
5.5 gallons bottled water
Equipment:
1 five gallon stock pot
1 long metal spoon
1 nylon paint strainer bag
1 large funnel
1 six gallon carboy (I used a plastic better bottle)
1 #10 bung
1 airlock
1 tablespoon sanitizer for airlock
1 food thermometer
1 sanitized small soup pot (for pouring)
Sanitizer (star san, iodophor, whatever you use)
Frozen fruit crusher (I used a food processor, but a blender might work)
A solo cup
Process:
Slice and quarter clementines and meyer lemon and de-seed. Freeze all of the fruit to help sanitize fruit and burst fruit cell walls. Clean and sanitize your brewing equipment with sanitizer. Place 2.5 gallons of bottled water into the stock pot and heat to 180 degrees and hold at that temperature. Place frozen fruits into food processor and chop to bits.
Add 16 oz. of room temperature bottled water to a sanitized cup (I used a solo cup) and re-hydrate both packets of yeast per instructions.
Remove stock pot from heat and add honey. Pour some warm water from the stock pot into the honey container to dissolve remaining honey and pour into stock pot. Stir with long spoon into must. Return to heat and warm&hold must at 180 degrees. Add chopped fruit to paint strainer bag. Insert strainer bag into the stock pot. Swirl and dunk repeatedly. Warm/hold temperature of must at 170f for ten minutes. Steep fruit and skim off any film with spoon.
After ten minutes, remove strainer bag of fruit and allow to drain, then remove completely from must. Stir the must well. Add yeast energizer & yeast nutrient and stir again. Turn off heat. Insert funnel into the neck of your carboy and pour remaining 2.5 gallons of water into carboy. Use the sanitized soup pot as a ladle and ladle the must from your stock pot into your carboy using the funnel. Pour carefully as spilling the must is a sticky mess. Keep ladling until you can pick up and pour the remainder of the must from the stock pot directly into the funnel.
Sanitize the thermometer and check must temperature. Pitch yeast into the must when the must temperature falls below 80 degrees f.. Sanitize the bung and attach. Rock and shake the carboy by tilting it on it's bottom edge and shake it up good for five minutes to aerate. Sanitize and insert airlock. Add sanitizer to airlock. Carry carboy to a cool, dark, dry place to ferment.
*At 24 hours, added 1 white labs servomyces capsule contents + 1 min pure O2 after degassing.
After every 30 days for three months, rack to a fresh carboy to condition and clear. If the mead doesn't clear to your satisfaction, you may use super kleer or KC finings.
Target FG: 1.010
Can be back sweetened if desired.
*indicates edits.
Ingredients:
12 lbs. of local honey (I used Gallberry. Tupelo or Orange Blossom preferred)
4 twelve oz. bags frozen mixed berries (blue, straw, black, rasp.)
1 sixteen oz. bag of frozen mango
2 clementine oranges
1 meyer lemon
1 tsp. yeast energizer
1 tsp. yeast nutrient
2 packets Lalvin RC-212 Bourgovin yeast (D-47 also works fine)
5.5 gallons bottled water
Equipment:
1 five gallon stock pot
1 long metal spoon
1 nylon paint strainer bag
1 large funnel
1 six gallon carboy (I used a plastic better bottle)
1 #10 bung
1 airlock
1 tablespoon sanitizer for airlock
1 food thermometer
1 sanitized small soup pot (for pouring)
Sanitizer (star san, iodophor, whatever you use)
Frozen fruit crusher (I used a food processor, but a blender might work)
A solo cup
Process:
Slice and quarter clementines and meyer lemon and de-seed. Freeze all of the fruit to help sanitize fruit and burst fruit cell walls. Clean and sanitize your brewing equipment with sanitizer. Place 2.5 gallons of bottled water into the stock pot and heat to 180 degrees and hold at that temperature. Place frozen fruits into food processor and chop to bits.
Add 16 oz. of room temperature bottled water to a sanitized cup (I used a solo cup) and re-hydrate both packets of yeast per instructions.
Remove stock pot from heat and add honey. Pour some warm water from the stock pot into the honey container to dissolve remaining honey and pour into stock pot. Stir with long spoon into must. Return to heat and warm&hold must at 180 degrees. Add chopped fruit to paint strainer bag. Insert strainer bag into the stock pot. Swirl and dunk repeatedly. Warm/hold temperature of must at 170f for ten minutes. Steep fruit and skim off any film with spoon.
After ten minutes, remove strainer bag of fruit and allow to drain, then remove completely from must. Stir the must well. Add yeast energizer & yeast nutrient and stir again. Turn off heat. Insert funnel into the neck of your carboy and pour remaining 2.5 gallons of water into carboy. Use the sanitized soup pot as a ladle and ladle the must from your stock pot into your carboy using the funnel. Pour carefully as spilling the must is a sticky mess. Keep ladling until you can pick up and pour the remainder of the must from the stock pot directly into the funnel.
Sanitize the thermometer and check must temperature. Pitch yeast into the must when the must temperature falls below 80 degrees f.. Sanitize the bung and attach. Rock and shake the carboy by tilting it on it's bottom edge and shake it up good for five minutes to aerate. Sanitize and insert airlock. Add sanitizer to airlock. Carry carboy to a cool, dark, dry place to ferment.
*At 24 hours, added 1 white labs servomyces capsule contents + 1 min pure O2 after degassing.
After every 30 days for three months, rack to a fresh carboy to condition and clear. If the mead doesn't clear to your satisfaction, you may use super kleer or KC finings.
Target FG: 1.010
Can be back sweetened if desired.
*indicates edits.