3rd batch - Tupelo honey

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Shodan

NewBee
Registered Member
May 13, 2013
11
0
0
Chicago, IL
Started my first batch less than a months ago and already planning my third. My wife is beginning to look at me oddly - more oddly than usual.

Anyway, I have 24 lbs of tupelo honey on the way. My current plan is to use enough of it to make a 6 gallon batch with SG of 1120, using 71B. I will use SNA, aerate the first few days then airlock it. My basement temperature is at 64 degrees F.

I'm hoping this will result in a semi-sweet mead. I've played with the mead calculator but am less than confident with it right now. Will this plan produce a semi-sweet mead?

Also, does anyone recommend throwing in a couple teaspoons of tannin to give it more mouth feel? I've seen conflicting advice on this in the forums.

Thanks.
 
If you don't run into a problem, the final gravity should end up between 1.010-1.020 which should be a little sweet. If you want it semi-sweet, you might want to start with the gravity a little lower, perhaps around 1.110. If it winds up being not sweet enough, you can add a little more honey when it is finished.

I wouldn't add tannin initially. It will have 14% ABV and residual sugar so it should have plenty of mouth feel.

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Thanks. I went with the 71B for the Tupelo batch. OG of 1115. It's fermenting, maybe a bit slowly but it's going along. Smells great.

I picked up 15 lbs of Thistle honey at the farmers market in downtown Chicago, it's from an apiary in Indiana. I have some K1V I will use for that.

I've decided 6 gallon batches are the way to go for me - that way I can fill my carboys right up to the neck. My first 5 gallon batch, using Orange Blossom honey, came up short in the carboy, so I topped it off with about a half-gallon of my second batch, which was 15 lbs Orange Blossom and 5 lbs Buckwheat in 6 gallons.

So far so good.