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Mt. Dew Mead

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knowlesbrew

NewBee
Registered Member
Dec 8, 2008
47
0
0
I know it sounds stupid but awhile back I found a recipe for a Mt. Dew beer, so I thought why couldnt I make a Mt. Dew mead. Here is what I was thinking.

One gallon batch
3 lbs of honey
Enough Mt. Dew to top up to a gallon
.5 tsp of Nutrient/Energizer
Lavin EC-1118
Priming Sugar, or maybe I will make it still, havent decided yet.

Has anyone tried anything like this before? I though it might be worth a shot.

I suppose if I wanted to be cheap and not waste 3 lbs of honey I could just use sugar to bring the gravity up to 1.095 or so.
 

jt852

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 23, 2007
84
0
0
42
Never heard of such a thing, nor do I know how well it would work. The thing to keep in mind is that most soft drinks contain preservatives and it might be hard or impossible to start fermentation.
 

knowlesbrew

NewBee
Registered Member
Dec 8, 2008
47
0
0
Never heard of such a thing, nor do I know how well it would work. The thing to keep in mind is that most soft drinks contain preservatives and it might be hard or impossible to start fermentation.

Yeah, I thought of that. The beer recipe I found on the internet said the preservatives and the caffeine didnt affect they yeast or fermentation.

But one problem I might foresee is the beer recipe is about half water half mt. dew so maybe if it was 100% dew it would cause problems.

Check it out
http://www.byo.com/stories/recipes/article/indices/51-recipe-exchange/1172-mountain-brew
 

TheRabidKumquat

NewBee
Registered Member
Nov 21, 2007
97
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39
Chicago
Would mt. dew, w/o the sweetness even be worth drinking? And, if I made it, I'd definitely re-carbonate it. Flat pop is not something I enjoy.

That link mentions that there isn't a real flavor contribution, so I think your idea of using more pop is a good idea. Maybe even throw in some OJ?
 

knowlesbrew

NewBee
Registered Member
Dec 8, 2008
47
0
0
Would mt. dew, w/o the sweetness even be worth drinking? And, if I made it, I'd definitely re-carbonate it. Flat pop is not something I enjoy.

That link mentions that there isn't a real flavor contribution, so I think your idea of using more pop is a good idea. Maybe even throw in some OJ?

Right but I pretty much have to make a choice do I want a sweet still Mt. Dew wine, or a dry sparkeling Mt. Dew wine. Personally like you would rather sacrifice the carbination for the sweetness because I think Mt. Dew would probably be gross without the sweetness.
 

Zarathustra

NewBee
Registered Member
I made a Mountain Brew last year for a friend's wedding. It was a hit. The only problem I had was that it finished sweet, presumably because I spoiled the yeasts with all the simple sugars from the soda. I later did one with Dr. Pepper, but added it when fermentation was near complete sort of like feeding a fermenting mead to coax the yeast and it femented almost completely dry. There were no problems in either case with preservatives or any other ingredients. The citrus flavor of the Mt. Dew was definitely present and in fact quite impressive when matched with the Cascade hops I used.

Point is, it should ferment quite easily. I think I'd steer clear of making it overly soda-sweet, maybe off-dry so that it doesn't just taste like Mountain Dew. I would suggest that you also stabilise and force carbonate it if you can. As for drying it out to carbonate it naturally, I don't really know but the Dr. Pepper beer that dried out was just plain nasty- like drinking perfume!
 

knowlesbrew

NewBee
Registered Member
Dec 8, 2008
47
0
0
So i whipped up a batch on sunday and its going well. i put my recipe below. I decided to use sugar instead of honey for the fermentables. I was worried that the preservatives would hender the yeast. If it works alright I will do another batch with the honey.

4 Liters of Mt. Dew
Added sugar till I got a gravity of 1.090 (About 2.5 cups)
.5 tsp of DAP, and Yeast Energizer
Lavin D-47

The Mt. Dew had a gravity of 1.050. It is def fermenting at the moment. I will check and see where it is at this weekend.

I am planning on back sweetening and obviously serving it still. I decided that flat sweet Mt. Dew wine would be better than dry carbinated stuff.

I have no idea if it is going to be any good or not. But I thought it was worth a try.
 

knowlesbrew

NewBee
Registered Member
Dec 8, 2008
47
0
0
So the Mountian Dew wine didnt really work. It went from .09 to .07 and then got stuck. The PH was 3.6, I added energizer and nutrient but it never kicked up again. I am thinking the preservatives from using 100% Dew was too much.

But this gave me another idea. I made a 5 gallon batch of mead about 4 months ago that fermented .0096. It is in the bottles and I think I can spare a few , what if I cracked a gallons worth of these and then used the Mt. Dew to sort of back sweeten it/flavor it. The gravity of Mt. Dew is .05.

I think I will start with 25% dew and 75% Mead, then sample to see if I should add more. I will have to stabalize it as well because I didnt before.

I dont know if this will work and I would appreciate any advice.
 

Medsen Fey

Fuselier since 2007
Premium Patron
I don't know exactly what preservatives are in Mt. Dew, but overcoming them might be possible by pitching a large mass of yeast.

The Mountain Dew might be stable enough that you don't need to stabilize the mead. On the other hand if fermentation does kick off, you'll know how to get the rest of the Mt. Dew fermented.
 

knowlesbrew

NewBee
Registered Member
Dec 8, 2008
47
0
0
I don't know exactly what preservatives are in Mt. Dew, but overcoming them might be possible by pitching a large mass of yeast.

The Mountain Dew might be stable enough that you don't need to stabilize the mead. On the other hand if fermentation does kick off, you'll know how to get the rest of the Mt. Dew fermented.

I have thought about trying the same recipe with Lavin EC-1118, maybe with 10 G. I am thinking it might be a little stronger fermentor than D-47.
 
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