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Because I could Cherry Mead
Boil size: 2g
80oz dark barley honey, 1oz Tradition hops, 1tbs crushed corriander, 3# whole pitted cherries, 1/2tsp pectic enzyme & Safe-Ale 05 yeast.
Add honey to hot tap water, dissolve and bring to boil. At boil at 1oz Tradition hops. At 30min add 1tbsp crushed corriander and 1# whole pitted cherries. At 15 minutes puree the boiling mix with hand held blender and finish out boil. Strain three times with progressively finer mesh strainers then filtered through a 100 micron filter sock. After straining and filtering add 2# pureed pitted cherries and started yeast. Siphon to primary onto 1g distilled water treated with 1 tbs sea salt and 1tsp gypsum.
OG: 1.062
Up in the air is what I will do for a secondary. I am thinking of racking onto another pound of pureed cherries and let set for 1-2 months. Then another racking to bulk age and dry hop with 2oz cascade plugs and 4oz oak chips. Then bottle and let set for a spell.
Hops in Mead? Wow. I made a mead once and didn't use hops.Recipe never called for it. It used a wine yeast also.But this sounds pretty good. Keep us posted on how it turns out. I might try making a one gallon batch of it. Sounds great.
DC
I hate sweet mead. But didn't really want to make another batch of dry. Dry meads, even spiced or fruited lose alot of the adjuncts character to the alcohol. So I wanted to make a lower AV mead with a dryish ale yeast. But how to combat the overwhelming sweetness of mead???? ADD HOPSSSSS!!!!!!!!!
I think I may just split the batch at bottleing. 1/2 I'll prime with dark DME and the other I'll let age as a still mead.
BTW... the bubblin has started... muhahahahahahahhahahahhahhahahhahhahahaaahhah!!!!!!
That was Mr. Hive's evil laugh btw
Nice! The mead I started a couple weekends ago is also a cherry mead.
Why the straining and filtration at this point if its going to be sitting on fruit?
Just curious.
Mainly to get the hops out. That and I have had bad luck letting boiled fruit go in the primary. But pretty descent results from straining out the boiled fruits and racking onto fresh in the primary.
PINK KRAUSEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was at the LHBS today & have obtained a slightly dented 46oz. can of Cherry Fruit Base ($12), intended of course for cherry wine.
BUT NO !!!!
What do you think about combining it with 5# or more of Sam's Club clover honey & fermenting with a "mead" Yeast like Red Star Cotes Des Blanc, then bottle & prime w/ corn sugar for a light sparkling cherry mead??
GO FOR IT!!!!!!!!!! That would be a simple no boil batch. Save half the fruit base and add it in the secondary.
I was thinking about bringing the honey & a couple gallons of water to a quick boil, cool it to about 90, into the fermenter. Then add the cherry base, up to 5-1/2 gal. & pitch the yeast.
Why the secondary w/ the other half of the base, more cherry flavor?
Do you think it will ferment out to be real dry or have some bit of sweet?
I'm doing this one for the lady that likes it tart, light, & sparkely
Or put it all in the secondary. Normally I don't add any fruit in the primary. I just let the yeast do it's thing on the honey for a month or so before racking onto fruit. So say that fruit in the primary will wind up tasting funky. If it is paturized honey there is no need to boil. Any amount of boiling will drive off honey charictaristics. The longer it's boiled the less honey you'll taste. But if this lady wants a dry mead than boiling won't hurt.
BTW- Never used wine fruit base before.
The can just jumped out & said "Take me home and make the Lady happy. I'm cheap & easy."
But I can't do anything until next week, all my primaries are full. So, I just be thinkin' about it a bit.
There's been a noticible decline in airlock activity and my krausen sank to the bottom. I will wait until there's no airlock activity for three days and rack to secondary. If it's not done fermenting in three more weeks I am going to get it off the trub anyways and let it finish in the secondary. I'll take a sample and shoot a gravity. If it doesn't taste "dry" enough I may repitch a higher alcohol tolerante yeast and let it finish off the ferment in the secondary and let condition in a tertiary before bottling.
I think she's just about ready to go in the secondary. Darn near cleared up completely in the primary but I still have a bubble in the airlock every couple minutes.It's been a tad under three weeks now, so I figure letting it go for another week or so won't hurt.
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