I basically used Papazian's "Barkshack Ginger Mead" recipe, with some variations. Heated 2.5 gal. of water, added all ingredients up to the fruit. Brought slowly to 210 degrees F., skimming off the foam (and much of the ginger). Washed, pitted, and "juiced" the apricots to produce 1 1/2 quarts of delicious juice - added to hot must and turned off the heat for about 1/2 hour. Temperature was 190 degrees after adding fruit - dropped to about 180 degrees. Ran the must through my (new, counterflow) wort chiller - in 15 minutes brought the temperature down to 80 degrees - and into 7 gallon glass carboy. Pitched yeast and fit the carboy with a fermentation lock.

Comments:

The must looks like raw apple cider at this point - cloudy and orangy/brown. I drank the must used for the gravity sample, and had a hard time stopping myself from sampling more - it was sweet, with a strong tartness of ripe apricots and undercurrents of ginger complimenting it nicely - tastes much better than beer wort! I was worried about too little fruit or too much ginger, but it seems very well balanced at this point - I hope the finished product keeps the same blend of tastes. Next morning: vigorous fermentation (3-5 bubbles/second) and about 1/2 inch of "kreusen" on the must. The smell is heavenly - like concentrated apricots, a little bit yeasty. I plan on racking to a secondary after a week, at which time I'll take another sample for gravity and tasting.

Since then I have racked it off the fruit pulp and junk (after a week) and, bottled (I debated letting it age longer in the carboy, but since there was considerable head room, I didn't want problems with oxidation, so I figured I'd let it age in the bottle). I primed with 3/4 cup corn sugar dissolved in 2 cups of boiling water (let it cool before adding to the mead, or course), and filled and capped 50 12 oz. beer bottles. The mead at this point smells and tastes rather alcoholic, but if you can get past that, there is a wonderful bouquet of apricot and ginger. It's
pretty undrinkable right now, but we'll see how it is in six months. I'm not worried - I'm drinking homebrew.

As of 1/1/94, it smells heavenly, but still tastes a bit mouthwashy. I'm still waiting for it to age.

Specifics:

O.G. 1.052
F.G. unknown
(last estimated at 1.000, a couple of days before bottling. Since my hydrometer only measures down to 1.004, I didn't bother with any later readings.)

Source: Mike Lindner ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )
Mead Lover's Digest #190, 11 August 1993