• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Mad AlcheMead

Experiments in Brewing

  • What is Mead?
    • What is Mead?
    • What does Mead taste like?
    • History of Mead
    • The Mead of Poetry
    • Honey: What makes the Mead
    • Is Mead Gluten Free (and other Drinks)?
  • How To Make Mead
    • How do I Make Mead? (Beginner)
    • How do I Make Mead? (Intermediate)
    • Mead Making Equipment Guide
    • How to deal with a Stuck Fermentation
    • Is my Mead Infected?
    • How to Back Sweeten Mead
    • How much Spice to put in Mead?
    • Oaking your Mead
    • How to Clear Mead
    • How to Filter Mead
    • How to Keg Mead
    • How to Bottle your Mead
    • Clean and Sanitize Mead Brewing Equipment
  • Brew Logs/Recipes
  • Reviews
  • Articles
pears

Brew Log: Pear Mead

April 29, 2017 by The Mad AlcheMeadist

I wanted to make use of the one gallon glass jugs I had purchased some apple juice in from whole foods. I figured these would be perfect for some small experimental batches.

With this one, I also wanted to try making a wild ferment mead.

Ingredients – Primary

3 lbs of honey

2 Large Pears

Ginger bug – wild yeast starter

Ingredients – Secondary

1/2 lb honey to back sweeten

 

I did not measure the gravity for this batch, unfortunately.

You’ll notice in this batch I did not use a commercial packet of yeast to get started. Instead I created what is known as a ginger bug to use as my starter. Essentially I took a small mason jar, sliced up some fresh ginger root (which is a good source of wild yeast), and added maybe a cup of honey to it. After shaking it all up, I covered this with a cheese cloth but left it otherwise uncovered. After a day or two, I noticed I had some bubbles forming and knew my fermentation had kicked off. I had cultivated some wild yeast!

Again, I cut up the pears into small pieces and boiled them in some water to extract as much juice as I could. I’ve tried this on both of my small experimental batches. While it works well to keep the sediment down in the jars, it also limits the flavor, I have found. Trying this again, I’d either add more pears, or add them directly to the primary. Maybe both, pear is a light flavor.

Notes

This one turned out not too bad. It’s not immediately recognizable as pear. I think even the small amount of ginger overpowers it. But it is a nice little kick. It is currently still sitting in it’s jug, unbottled, so I could add some more pear juice to it and see how that fares.
Overall, it was really cool to see I could ferment a drink without any added yeast. But had this been excellent, that may have made it more difficult to reproduce, unless I use some of the lees, or a small bit of this mead as a starter. Yeast can have a decent effect on the flavor of your mead, so putting that aspect on random can have an interesting outcome.

Filed Under: Mead Recipes

Mead Accessories

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Brew Log: Plum Mead
  • Banana Wine
  • Brew Log: Ginger Mead
  • Brew Log: Orange Blossom Honey Traditional
  • Hive & Barrel Meadery

Where To Find Mead

Meaderies by State

Tools

Brewing Calculators

Suggested Article

mead krausen

Is my Mead Infected?

If you’ve been researching the home brewing process, you are sure to have noticed the emphasis placed on ensuring your equipment is clean to avoid infection. But whether you are religious about cleaning and sanitizing your equipment, or are rather lax on that front, there will come a time where you notice something odd about […]

  • About
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact

Copyright © 2023 · HARU Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in