Batch 27 - Elderflower Mead
This is based on the elderflower variant of Digbie's "A Very Strong Meathe" with the following modifications:
(1) I halved the recipe, since the largest fermenter I have is seven gallons and the recipe makes fourteen.
(2) I substituted chemical nutrients for the lemon peel.
(3) The recipe relies on wild yeasts, but I'm pastuerizing, so I'm adding yeast.
(4) The recipe says "boil with nothing" and to add the spices to a suspended bag, but that's not practical with a glass carboy, so I'm adding them directly to the carboy.
Here's a new one... I usually sanitize spices with a twenty second zap in the microwave to kill any stray bacteria. Well, the cloves actually caused an arc like they were made of metal. They flashed and incinerated, and I thought I'd fried my microwave. I threw out the spices and used fresh ones. BZZZZZZZZZZT!!!!
Click for Digbie's Wiki.
Ingredients
2 gallons clover honey from Gunter's apiary
5 gallons water
3 cloves
1/2 oz. ginger (estimated)
1 oz. dried elderflowers
7 tsp yeast nutrient
4 tsp yeast energizer
2 packets Lalvin D-47 yeast
Process
Water is refrigerated to 45 degrees.
1:17 = 2 gallons of honey on high heat.
1:41 = 142 degrees. Off heat. Topped out just shy of 145 degrees.
2:03 = Added honey and cold water to bucket (with spices) in two stages and poured into carboy.
Pitched yeast at 68 degrees (brrrr).
Vital Statistics
Specific Grav = 1.120
Brix/Bolling = 29-
Alc Potential= 16%
(1) I halved the recipe, since the largest fermenter I have is seven gallons and the recipe makes fourteen.
(2) I substituted chemical nutrients for the lemon peel.
(3) The recipe relies on wild yeasts, but I'm pastuerizing, so I'm adding yeast.
(4) The recipe says "boil with nothing" and to add the spices to a suspended bag, but that's not practical with a glass carboy, so I'm adding them directly to the carboy.
Here's a new one... I usually sanitize spices with a twenty second zap in the microwave to kill any stray bacteria. Well, the cloves actually caused an arc like they were made of metal. They flashed and incinerated, and I thought I'd fried my microwave. I threw out the spices and used fresh ones. BZZZZZZZZZZT!!!!
Click for Digbie's Wiki.
Ingredients
2 gallons clover honey from Gunter's apiary
5 gallons water
3 cloves
1/2 oz. ginger (estimated)
1 oz. dried elderflowers
7 tsp yeast nutrient
4 tsp yeast energizer
2 packets Lalvin D-47 yeast
Process
Water is refrigerated to 45 degrees.
1:17 = 2 gallons of honey on high heat.
1:41 = 142 degrees. Off heat. Topped out just shy of 145 degrees.
2:03 = Added honey and cold water to bucket (with spices) in two stages and poured into carboy.
Pitched yeast at 68 degrees (brrrr).
Vital Statistics
Specific Grav = 1.120
Brix/Bolling = 29-
Alc Potential= 16%