Mead Recipes

Ingredients – Primary

• 12 lbs Orange Blossom Honey
• 15 lbs Plums, sliced, pitted, with skins
• D47 Yeast
• Water to fill up to 5 gallons
• Yeast Nutrients

Plums happened to be in season, and it had been awhile since I had last had any. I figured it might be fun to try making a plum mead.

The process began with washing off the fruit, and removing all their stickers. Plums have pits, so I cut them in half, removed those, and then sliced the remaining fruit into thin strips. If you have a large mesh bag, consider using that to contain the fruit when you place it in your mead, as that will save you a ton of time when racking later.

I was not expecting quite the vibrant red of the result, however, given the dark purple of the fruit’s skins that went into it. This is a brighter red than even the cherry or strawberry meads I had previously made.

The result had a nice tartness to it. Definitely an interesting flavor you don’t find quite as often as the more common fruits.

This is a mead I’ve been wanting to try for a while, now. You hear quite a lot about this honey in the mead making circles, as it is a fairly popular choice. So when I was in need of more honey, it was an easy choice of which one to stock up on. When it first arrived, I wasn’t quite sure what to think. Tasting the honey on its own, I’m not sure I could have detected or identified the orange blossom flavor without knowing it was there. It was more of an aftertaste, and very faint. Of course, it made sense to make a traditional with the honey first, in order to get a full picture of what it had to offer.

And I’m glad I did. The difference in flavor profile from the honey to the finished product is quite stark. The orange flavor essentially seemed to get concentrated through the fermentation process and it really shines. Despite sitting for months, mine has still held onto a lot of carbonation on its own, which keeps it light and gives it a bit of a spark on the tongue. Mine turned out mostly dry, which keeps the orange blossom as the highlight. The orange, and floral flavors still give it the sense of being sweet, without the actual presence of much sugar, which would have thickened the body, and in my opinion dampened the effect of the carbonation.

The nose is like a faint floral, honey scent, with possibly the barest hint of orange.

Ingredients – Primary

• 12 lbs Orange Blossom Honey
• D47 Yeast
• Water to fill up to 5 gallons
• Yeast Nutrients

Starting Gravity: 1.1

Springtime is here, and Easter is quickly approaching. For me, nothing says Easter quite like the flavor of Reese’s peanut butter cups. In an attempt to get into the spirit, I decided to try experimenting with some mead flavors. I have tried a few craft beers with a peanut butter taste, as well as a couple of PB&J meads (one of which had a strong peanutty flavor), and wanted to try to recreate something in that vein.

I happened to have a few containers of this PB2 product – essentially powdered peanut butter. It usually used in shakes, and the like, as it is easier to mix in than peanut butter is in spread-form. I had also read online of a few homebrewers having made use of it to some success. Pure peanut butter can be difficult to mix in fully, and given the oil content tends to separate, can cause the drink to spoil relatively quickly.

I made two test batches to see how this turned out. A plain peanut butter flavor, and one with the chocolate PB2 powder – which hopefully will get a bit closer to a Reese’s.

Ingredients

• 3 lbs of Wildflower Honey
• 5 oz of PB2 (or Chocolate PB2)
• Yeast
• Yeast Nutrients

Here we are, four weeks later. Most of that sediment at the bottom is the peanut butter powder. You’ll want to stir frequently, as it settles out pretty quickly. It has a strong peanutty scent to it.

The Cherry mead was another among my experimental batches that began its life as part of a four gallon plain mead that I made so I could split it into 4 separate one gallon flavors. I started with 7.75 pounds of honey, which got divvied up after fermentation had completed, so the numbers might be a bit odd. Also among this batch: Mojito Mead.

Ingredients – Primary

• 1.9375 lbs. Wildflower honey
• Water to 1 gallon
• Yeast Nutrients – Staggered Addition

Ingredients – Secondary

• 2 quarts of tart cherry juice
• 10 rum soaked oak cubes (Groups of 5, staggered 6 weeks apart)

Ingredients – Tertiary?

• 2 more quarts of tart cherry juice

Original Gravity: 1.056

ABV: Approximately 5.6% after liquid additions

This mead went through several different changes throughout the course of its development. This originally had a nice crisp, slightly tart cherry flavor to it. Very tasty, but I thought it was a bit one dimensional. I had wanted to experiment with oaking and decided this could be an opportune brew to try it on. I have some oak cubes that are soaking in some rum I picked up in the Bahamas. The idea behind this technique is that the cubes will absorb some of the rum and slowly infuse that flavor, along with the oak flavorings while the liquids diffuse through the wood.

Unfortunately, I forgot about this experiment for a couple of months (nearly 8). Oops. The oak cubes had pretty much washed out the cherry flavor, leaving it kind of dull tasting. To remedy this, I ended up adding an additional half gallon of tart cherry juice to the gallon of mead after stabilizing it. All of this was place in the keg, and carbonated. Given that the added cherry juice never fermented, I think this still qualifies as a mead, but that’s probably borderline given how much cherry juice is involved – at this point it’s essentially a cocktail.

But the cherry flavor has returned! Strong and tart, with a subtle hint of the oak and rum in the background. The light fizz adds a bit of fun to the texture, although it doesn’t stick around too long after pouring.

This was my second attempt at making use of my mini-keg. The first being my Mango Serrano Pepper Mead. This one held its head much longer than the previous, which I was happy to see. And the carbonation, which added a slight acidity, helped to balance the tartness of the cherry.

I took my keg of this to a family 4th of July party, and it was a huge hit. A lot of people were experiencing mead for the first time, and were quite impressed. I would definitely make this one again.

This was a fun little experiment. Butterfly pea blossoms occasionally make their way into tea mixtures. Not for any real flavor reasons, but rather for the striking color that comes out of them when steeped. Butterfly pea blossoms happen to be one of the few sources of a naturally occurring bright blue. Even more interesting, is this coloring’s ability to shift hue based on the acidity of its surroundings. The more acidic it is, the more the color shifts into a bright violet/purple. So, if you’re looking to turn some heads, give this little additive a try.

For my first test of this, I wanted a simple, plain mead to add it to. I made a small one gallon batch.

Ingredients

• 3 lbs wildflower honey
• Water to one gallon
• Yeast (I used Lavlin 71B)
• Nutrients
• 1/4 cup butterfly pea blossoms (secondary)
• Enough water to cover the pea blossoms (secondary)

Once your primary has finished, you’ll want to add your pea blossoms to a small pot, with enough water to just barely submerge them. Heat until it is just about to simmer, then remove from the heat. You’ll immediately see the blue coloring begin to seep out of the petals. Give this a few gentle stirs to make sure you get as much color out as you can.

You could probably get away with less of the blossoms. You end up getting a lot of color out of it. I re-added some water to the petals I had just used and got enough color to seep out that I could add to other batches in the future – which I saved in a jar.

Add the now blue water to your mead. Most meads tend to be somewhat acidic, so this will immediately start to shift to that bright violet hue. There are ways to make your mead more basic, but it can be difficult to keep it tasting good. I have not heard of much success from other brewers who have attempted it.

Notes

You will probably want a lighter colored honey to be your base, in order to better show off the color. I used some honey that I’ve had around for a while, and it has darkened a bit with age. So this experiment was not the best showcase of the brilliant color that can occur. It ended up a rich, dark burgundy color, which is still pretty interesting.

I did add a splash to a glass of my peach mead, which is a very light color, just to show off what it can look like.