Do you have good taste?

[Elwood]

I a looking for some recipes for mead that people have used and found to be very good. If you have a winning combination, don't keep it to yourself, pass it along! Also welcome would be recipes for cisers, pyments, melomels and the like. :lookout:

[AndrewSchwab]

20 lbs Blueberries picked, cleaned and crushed
20 lbs Blueberry Honey
03 gal H2O
.5 gal dark berry juice of your choice
16 grams Lalvin Bourgorouge RC212 Yeast (see rehydration instructions below)

Mixing your must:
Put three gallons of the room temperature water into a stainless steel vessel or food grade plastic bucket.

Add in any supplemental juices you would like (be aware of your volume)

Add the honey checking your gravity until you reach between 1.140-1.145.

Add the crushed blueberries and mix them in well.

Aerate well with pure oxygen/oxygenation stone, or by stirring with a lees stirrer.

Yeast:
This recipe is designed with Lalvin Bourgorouge RC212 in mind. RC212 has high nitrogen needs relative to other yeasts in the Lallemand family, so you'll need to supplement the must at the end of the lag phase and at the 1/3 sugar break.

Yeast Rehydration:
Prepare a solution of 200 ml H20 @110 F + 20 g Go-Ferm. Add 16 g of RC212 when temperature drops to 104 F mix well being sure to eliminate clumps and let stand 15 minutes. Stir and allow to stand 10 – 15 minutes more. This should not exceed 30 minutes total. Ensure that your must temperature is within 10C (50F) of the rehydrated yeast. If it is not, you’ll need to atemperate. Pour the yeast slurry into the must as you are stirring. Keep stirring the must for at least 3 minutes after inoculation. Cover with sanitized cloth and secure

Check the vessel about every two hours or so for foaming which indicates the end of the lag phase

Batch Management:
At the end of the lag phase aerate well and add a mixture of 4 grams Fermaid K + 2 grams DAP rehydrated in 50 ml H2O.

A review of cap management:
Cap management is especially important in the primary as there are key factors that contribute to the "loss" or "burn off" of fruit flavor during primary when using fruit (whether fresh, frozen, dried, etc.) if the cap is not broken up regularly throughout the fermentation.

Heat - For every 1 degree brix drop in your must there is a 2.3 degree F increase in temperature. The temperature can build up very quickly and kill off the yeast living in the "heat zone" below the cap when the temperature rises above 100 degrees F. You'll literally cook off a lot of the floral, fruity characters from the berries/fruit you're using. You'll also lose a good percentage of your yeast and have a stuck fermentation to boot. Along with that you'll have off flavors from the yeast being stressed out before they kick off. Finally by mixing the berries back down into the must you infuse the must and the final mead with more of the flavor of the fruit. It is key to punch down that cap frequently in order to get color, flavor and aroma extraction.

CO2 - If the cap is not broken up or "punched down" the CO2 buildup under the cap will deprive your little yeasties of the much needed oxygen for them to be happy and healthy. Again, the yeasts will be stressed and produce off flavors, and not do its main job of quickly metabolizing the sugars available for a fast, clean and neutral (depending on the yeast) fermentation. Again, if the yeast is not performing to it's spec based on improper cap management or nutrient poor must, the fermentation be become stuck, or just drag on forever. DO NOT SUBSTITUTE YEAST IN THIS RECIPE. Otherwise, all bets are off.

Drying If the cap isn't pressed down into the must to keep it moist the top will dry and spoilage organisms can set in which then compete with your yeast producing off flavors, or worse completely spoiling your mead. Again, if the yeast is compromised into a position of fighting for dominance in the must, they will not be doing their primary job of a fast, clean ferment. As the previous poster pointed out above, sinking your fruit in a grain bag is not a bad idea at all. I personally prefer the character from having the fruit exposed to the must outside the bag because I feel the oxygen exposure for both the yeast and the fruit during primary is very important in the formation of the overall fruit flavor and character. This is just my preference and has been my experience.

Aerate twice daily until 1/3 sugar break (This is a total drop in SG/Brix of 33% that usually occurs within the first 2-5 days of fermentation, you do the math)

At 1/3 sugar break add 6 grams Fermaid K rehydrated in 50 ml H2O and aerate well

At this point you want to stir as opposed to aerating your must, so a lees stirrer is an essential tool.

Airlock and continue to stir daily to keep the yeast suspended. You may also swirl the carboy if you don't have a lees stirrer.

Note: If you are not religious about stirring daily then you will not have optimal results when clearing and maturing on the gross lees. Stirring is a vital process during the fermentation of this specific mixture because it keeps breaking up any colonies of spoilage organisms that may exist in the must, and exposes them to the highly competitive yeast, as well as the rapidly rising alcohol level which at about 16-17% ABV will be a strong barrier to any infection.

Additional thoughts on swirling/stirring during primary fermentation
As mentioned above, swirling during the fermentation provides a couple of key benefits, additionally the swirling helps to clear some pasteurized juices. This is because re-suspending the yeast (both living and dead) provides rudimentary fining. Those dead yeast cells will grab onto/attract stuff and drag it to the bottom. Along with the rudimentary fining, swirling also gets those living yeast back up into suspension so they can chow down on as much of the sugars as they can before they croak-off.

Swirling also helps to break up any colonies of spoilage organisms that might gain a foothold in the lees at the bottom where they can otherwise be somewhat buffered from the toxic effects of the ETOH produced during fermentation. Spoilage yeast and organisms are not as alcohol tolerant as your selected yeast, and by keeping them from forming their own little caucus of likeminded curmudgeons, and swirling them into suspension they become susceptible to the toxic effects of alcohol all the quicker.

So, where to go from here?
I recommend that once primary has completed, and you see no airlock activity. Let this mead rest and clear a bit. Rack and allow to go crystal clear, then rack again. At this point you may stabilize and bottle, or keg, or do as I do and allow it to stay in the carboy for a couple of years to bulk age and then decide if you want to keg or bottle.

To Tree or not to Tree?
After the primary you have the option of racking into another vessel and onto about 2 ounces of Medium Toast American Oak Cubes, not chips, but cubes. Chips infuse too quickly in my opinion and leave a mono-dimensional flavor profile that does not lend as much structure and complexity as cubes will. Neither are up to the standards of barrel aging, but space and dollars are very real considerations when it comes to barrel aging at home.

Prepare your oak cubes by rinsing with an iodophor solution at regular or slightly weaker than regular strength. I just put the cubes in a sanitized beaker and then pour them into a sanitized funnel with a filter in it to keep them from falling through the funnel. Then I rinse with some bottled water and coax them into the carboy with a sanitized spoon. I rack my mead on top of them and give them a stir about once a week for the first four weeks.

You may either sink your cubes in a weighted grain bag or let 'em float. I let mine float. After about 2 months thieve off a sample and taste to decide if you're where you want to be with the oak treatment. If you are, rack off the oak, airlock and let it age. It just gets better and better.

[nursebee]

Oh I was supposed to save the recipe and keep track of it?
I suggest mead makers digest and Ken Schramm book

[Bodhi]

Oh I was supposed to save the recipe and keep track of it?


Why wouldn't you? I have recipes and notes from every batch of beer, cider, wine and mead I've made. Good record keeping is essential.

[nursebee]

Essential for some. Everything I touch turns into wine...

[hipbee]

I kind of agree with nursebee, I dont keep records anywhere except my head. but anyways my all time favorite mead is this one.
Burns Brew Christmas mead
for a five gallon carboy use
1 gallon sourwood honey
1 really big orange (Juiced)
two gallons apple juice (sometimes I juice my own but when im lazy or out of apples I use organic apple juice from earthfare)
Five cinnamon sticks and
Five cloves
top off with spring water from hotsprings NC
My favorite yeast for all my meads is the Lavlin ec 118
another tip is dont boil your honey just simmer it for an hour or so. also try force carbonating some of it in a keg, Tiny bubbles in my wine make me happy they make me feel fine

[Elwood]

I like your style Hipbee. Where do you buy your yeast?

[hipbee]

There is a local brewshop in my town called allen beirmakens, he sells alot of it so its always fresh. Ive orderd it on the internet once but it wasnt fresh or cept refridgrated and 2 packs out of five were duds. but if there isnt a brewshop in your area I think Brushy Mnt. bee farm sells it.