• 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
peaches

Brew Log: Vanilla Peach Mead

February 2, 2019 by The Mad AlcheMeadist

This was one of the first meads I tried to make, but has been the most troublesome for me. Unfortunately, my notes for this one are pretty sparse, so my measurements aren’t going to be exact. Luckily, the biggest issue with the flavor of this mead had more to do with my preparation of the ingredients, rather than their quantity.

Ingredients

  • ~ 12 lbs Clover honey
  • 12-15 lbs fresh peaches
  • 1 lb Lactose (in secondary)
  • 2 tbsp vanilla extract (in secondary)
  • 1 oz light toast American oak cubes

Instructions

Place your honey and water in your brewing bucket. Pitch your yeast. Add whatever nutrients you usually use. Cut up AND SKIN your peaches, place them in a muslin bag and soak this in your mead for a few weeks. Make sure to move it around and give it an occasional squish to make sure you push out all the sugars and flavoring. You may want to add some Pectin to your mead along with the peaches to help prevent it from getting hazy as it can often do with fruits – peaches are a major culprit of this.

After primary is finished, rack your mead and add the vanilla and lactose. I’m not sure he oak really came across in that amount, so add to your tastes if desired. The vanilla is also rather subtle in this, so feel free to add more if you’re wanting it to be more prominent.

Difficulties

vanilla peach mead in bottle

This mead fermented just fine. It was quick and vigorous. However, when it was done, the taste was quite astringent. When I had cut up all the peaches for this (and placed in a muslin bag for a few weeks), I had left the skins on. It turns out peach skins can be leave quite a bitter taste in mead. I’ve seen recommendations for leaving some skins in when brewing beer; however, I think the quantity I used and the more delicate flavor profile of this mead compared to a heavily bodied beer made it too prominent. This mead also had a thinner body than I was wanting from it, so I had a lot of tweaks I wanted to make to it.

Initially I had hoped a bit of aging might mellow this out. But it didn’t seem to have much effect. I then tried adding a few oak cubes, hoping it would bulk up the body a tad, which it may have but not very noticeably in the amount that I had used. It was my first foray into oaking and I didn’t want to overdo it, as this was already shaky grounds. To further bulk up the body I added a pound of lactose, to give it a creamier texture and sweeten it up a bit. I was aiming for something like peaches and cream, conceptually.

Finally I added some vanilla. This probably did the most to take the edge off the astringency. I think I finally got it to a palatable place. Over two years after I started it.

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

homebrew 3 piece airlock bubbling

How do I Make Mead? (Intermediate)

In the previous article, I walked through how the initial steps to create a mead. This was a single container process that got us to a drinkable state. If you found that enjoyable, but want to up your game a little for your next batch, I’ll go over some more advanced techniques to improve your […]

  • About
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact

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