Got Mead - Mead (honeywine) making, mead drinking, mead recipes - The NewBee Guide to Making Mead

The NewBee Guide to Making Mead - Appendix 8: Sample Recipe

Written by Angus
Sunday, 07 June 2009
The following recipe is from ‘The Complete Joy of Home Brewing’. The notes are basic, but point to what is needed to reproduce or improve on the recipe. Antipodal Mead Brew Date – 08/19/05Batch Size – 5 gal.Honey Varietal – CloverS.G. goal – 1.100%ABV goal – 15% Notes: The yeast can ferment this one dry Recipe: 15 lbs Honey (Grade A clover) 1 tsp Yeast nutrient 1 Tbs Acid Blend 1 tsp Irish Moss 0.5 tsp Gypsum Water to 5 Gallons Packet Pasteur Champagne Yeast 8/19/05 Heated tap water to 160ºF for 20 minutes; removed from heat. Added all ingredients and stirred well to mix honey. Cleaned 5 g carboy using water and 0.5 cup bleach. Let sit for 15 minutes, rinsed well with hot water and poured in must. Shook for less than a minute. When cooled to 80 F, rehydrated yeast according to instructions and pitched. S.G. = 1.102 Average brew temp = 68 F 8/20/05 Bubbling about 1 every 5 mins. Very slow! 8/22/05 Bubbling 1 every 2 seconds. 8/24/05 Posted question concerning speed and received comments from Oskaar. A must read. Future changes: Do not use Irish Moss or Gypsum in must. Use bucket for primary fermentation and aerate A LOT more. 9/14/05 s.g. = 1.010 ABV = 12.26% Taste is still sweet, but nice honey flavor. Some other flavors in there, none of which are unpleasant. Alcohol is not burning, but pleasantly warm down the throat. Would like it to be a little dryer, so will continue fermenting.Racked into 5 g carboy. Volume loss brings it down to just over 4.5 g. Concerned with oxidation so blanketed with CO2. Next 5 g batch I make, I will be sure to prepare some extra Must to save for top-ups. (Must get hold of the siphon pump to make this process easier) 8/25/06 F.G. = 1.010 This did not ferment any more. It probably stalled because of the lack of oxygen in the first 3 days, or because the acidity was too high. It actually tastes nice with the little bit of sweetness, so it came out good. Bottled the Mead into 18 bottles. It is sweet and the honey tastes really nice. [Return to INDEX]
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 23 June 2009 )

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