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Cranberries, Blueberries and Mead, oh my ...

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KiltishWill

NewBee
Registered Member
Feb 23, 2005
1
0
0
I’ve been reading up on making mead for a while, and I’ve helped a friend make a few batches. Been meaning to start my own, and recently I was inspired by one of my favorite beverages: the cape cod (my special version). Blueberry juice, cranberry juice, vodka (about 40/40/20). My problem is that I’m not experienced enough to guess at what would be a good recipe to follow for mead, and what proportions I should use. I can get a good blueberry honey from a friend of a friend, and have organic 100% juice in blueberry and cranberry. Frozen blueberries already in the freezer, and a place I can get decent fresh ones. I’m addicted to tea, and have a flavored tea with cranberry, orange and rose for the tannins. Do I need to add lemon, or is the cranberry acid enough? I’m thinking about a wine yeast, because of all the sugar in the juice ... any suggestions? A 3 gallon batch is what I’m looking for, with a bit more to start due to racking losses and etc. Any ideas would be swell, and if you can anticipate any problems that would be great too as I don’t even know what questions to ask at this point.
Thank you!
 

CosmicCharlie

NewBee
Registered Member
Nov 15, 2004
284
1
0
Part of the fun of meadmaking is experimenting with recipies. You can try to fine tune it, or try to make it different every time.

Here's my 2 cents though. I recently made a 1 gallon batch of blueberry - I used about 2 and 1/2 lbs of honey, fermented for a couple weeks, then juiced 3 lbs frozen blueberrys and added them to the secondary (its on the brewlog page if you want to check it out). I havent bottled it yet, so I dont know how its going to turn out, but my guess is that it'll be good!
 

CosmicCharlie

NewBee
Registered Member
Nov 15, 2004
284
1
0
You might want to shoot for 2 to 3 (maybe closer to 2) pounds of honey per gallon of water. I tend to add 2 to 3 pounds of fruit per gallon, and as I mentioned, I juice them. I tend to use wine or mead yeast, but there are some other threads in which people talk about possibly using beer yeast if you want residual sugars and sweetness.
 

jab

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 15, 2004
557
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0
50
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And don't forget, unless you know what you are doing is going to work use baby steps. It's easy to add more, impossible to take out.
 
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