Killer Mead

A while back we bought a gallon jug of Killer Bee honey, and I've been waiting for the inspiration for what to do with it.  We came across a final bottle of our homebrewed Pom-Apple mead and I was inspired.  So I bought apple juice, pomegranate juice, and this time, HOPS!  to add to it  The recipe is as follows:

1 gal killer bee honey
2 gal Apple Juice
32 oz (1/2 gal) Pomegranate juice
Water to bring it to ~5 gal
2 oz Mount Hood American Brewmaster Leaf Hops

2.5 tsp yeast nutrient
4 tsp high alcohol yeast nutrient
1 package dry mead yeast

Man.  Who knew how hard stuffing leafy hops into a tiny bottle neck could be!

Can't wait to taste this.  The current alcohol potential is 17%  I'm hoping it'll stop with a residual ~3-5% sugar which will make it about 12-14% alcohol

Yum

More things a-brewing

My friend Phil has now gotten me into beer brewing. We started a nice thick scottish ale which I've tasted before when he made it. So we have 5 gallons of beer brewing in our laundry room. And boy is it bubbling away. Beer ferments a lot faster than mead, and this stuff will be done in 5-12 days. I'm hoping that next weekend we'll be able to bottle it and let it carbonate up just a little before the dojo party on the 28th.





We also discovered that the mead we'd made went far too fast. So we're making another 5 gallon batch of mead. This time the recipe will include:




1 gal organic wildflower honey
4 gal water
The zest and pulp/juice (but not pith) of 8 organic limes
1 1/4 oz fresh organic mint leaves
2 T organic lemon zest (leftover from baking lemon cookies)

2.5 tsp yeast nutrient
4 tsp high alcohol yeast nutrient
1 package dry mead yeast


We're using dry mead instead of sweet because the mead actually ended up a little bit too sweet for our tastes. This is going to be called grog mead, since grog was traditionally watered rum with lime and sugar. Pirate mojitos!


We're also going to bottle more of this, rather than drinking it out of the carboy. While it was tasty young, it aged extremely well.

After cooking and mixing, the alcohol potential of this mix is only 8-9% based on my density measurer. Odd, considering we started with the same ingredients.

Mead!

My friend, Phil has decided to help me jump into the yummy and somewhat messy world of making mead.

Here's the recipe we used:

The cooking:

1 whole tangelo, processed with skin on
1 gal wildflower honey
3.2 oz (0.2 lb) ginger root, grated
4 T vietnamese (6% oil) cinammon
1T whole cloves
3 sticks cinnamon
4T loose leaf earl grey tea.
4 gal water


The microbiology:

2.5 tsp yeast nutrient
4 tsp high alcohol yeast nutrient
1 package sweet mead yeast

The potential:

Specific gravity 86= 20 oschsale = 13% potential alcohol (but being a sweet mead, it will probably end up more like 11-12%)

The mess: Only once did honey mixture get spilled all over the floor, and Phil's socks. It was fairly well contained, but I'm still finding the occasional sticky spot on my floor.



The wait:

6 months to 1 year.

I hate waiting.