The local Amish sell keep bees/sell honey, and I’ve been wanting to make mead from it for a while. As the title says, I’ve never done this before, so I’m trying to make sure all my ducks are in a row.
I know to use staggered nutrient additions, but I’m curious what others are using.
I’m not sure if I want to just do a straight mead, or add fruits. Strawberries and rhubarb are in season, and I’m wondering if they might work nicely in a mead…though perhaps I’ll just stick to plain. Other than those two, there isn’t much yet in season.
I don’t plan to boil, is any heating required at all?
I just made my first last night basically clean, clean, clean. I heated 1.25 in two batches to 110 degrees cooled poured into my fermentation bucket then added spring water while your brew is getting hot rehydrate your yeast. Yes use nutrient.
I think a strawberry rhubarb mead sounds delicious. I don’t boil or heat the honey up, except I put the honey container in warm water and try to get every bit of it out (usually more of a problem in winter months).
We have actually made a nice rhubarb melomel a few times. Strawberries are tricky in that their flavor and aroma are hard to capture. You are on the right track using fruit in season though and personally I would go for it with a rhubarb strawberry melomel. The tartness of the rhubarb will help the strawberry flavor. Use a ridiculous amount of strawberries. Unless you sulfite the cooler will fade to a sort of brownish red, a small amount of raspberries helps.
When using fresh fruit in mead I put the fruit in a mesh bag and put in the fermenter after mixing the honey with hot water. Just remember to leave a ton of headspace. If you don’tuse a bag plan on losing some liquid to the trub.
A tip for a first timer is to make an extra half gallon. That way you can put the extra in a half gallon glass milk jug or Mason jar with an airlock so that when you rack into tertiary you can top it off.
I would use lalvin 71b for this mead. It complements fruit body and aroma and mellows acidity.
If large amounts of strawberries are needed, I may opt to just do straight rhubarb, or go plain. With all the rain we’ve had the strawberry crop has been lousy, and they’ll be out of season within a week, maybe two. The former is more likely, as the forecast is again calling for rain most of this week.
Blackberries are great in mead. They taste great and it doesn’t take too long to pick enough. I really like mixing berries. Most years we are able to make a big batch with a mixture of blueberry, raspberry, blackberry, and elderberries. the combination makes a nice dry red melomel that is as good as any nice red wine.
Can I suggest Tasting the honey before you decide. Some wildflower honeys can throw medicinal notes that you may or may not like. I tend to do a small batch with new Honey sources. This could also help direct how much fruit you might need. It should also give you an idea of the acidity of the honey. I prefer people’s first mead be a traditional as there is so much to learn and understand about fermented honey. Then again - big berry melomels are just awesome.
I agreee that strawberries are tough. The time I tried a strawberry melomel I used 3 lb/gallon pre-ferment and another 3 lb/gallon post-ferment. It still was lacking in strawberry character in the end. I did find that adding some acid helped boost the strawberry note, but still not enough.
I’m a melomel guy myself, and I really like blackberries, raspberries and currants. Sadly, it looks like I’m going to lose my black currants to mildew yet again this year. I might try a ginger-lime mead along the lines of my ginger-beer recipe for my next one. I’d really like to brew a golden raspberry mead, but it will be tough/expensive to acquire enough of those for even a small batch.
As far as SNA goes, I have been using a mix of Fermaid K and DAP divided into 4 additions roughly at day 0,1,3 and 5. I just picked up some Fermaid O and I will be using that in my next few meads instead of the Fermaid K/DAP mixture.
ugh, this reminds me that I made a no-water-added Alpine Strawberry/Tupelo and managed to bury the Tupelo character. About $100/gallon for alcoholic strawberry jam.
well right now the project is on hold: I want to try a small container to see what the honey tastes like first. Thing is, they had already sold everything smaller than a quart last time we were there. Going to wait and try again.
I’m also thinking about just waiting it out till blackberry season…
