Blackberry honey is delicious. Having brought some back from our recent Oregon and Washington trip, I wanted to iterate the show mead we brewed for our first batch. So this mead is, once again, based on Ken Schramm's basic show mead recipe, and brewed using the low-heat sanitation method described on p. 41 of The Compleat Meadmaker. This wound up being a bit of a problem batch—it's the only time we've ever yet used fining agents (aside from a bit of Irish moss added preemptively to a beer boil or two), and I think that yeast autolysis may have affected the flavor of the mead, though we'll see if that small amount of off-flavor ages out. Since it was split into two batches after finish, we're calling this Stick It in a Bottle / Hold It in Your Hand, after two alternatives presented in the padre's prayer in the Bruces sketch.

Ingredients in this batch

2017-07-05_19_51_46_1
Bottles of both parts of batch 040.
2016-12-11_18_28_10_HDR
Honey for batch 040.

Brew date: 11 December 2016.
Original gravity: 1.090
Final gravity: 1.002 (both batches)
Estimated ABV: approx. 12% (both batches)
Yield:

  • Batch 040A (Stick It in a Bottle):
    • 15 x 12 oz. beer bottles
    • 2 x 500 mL beer bottles
    • 2 x 22 oz. beer bottles
    • approx. 10 fl. oz. of mead in a cup, including the contents of the hydrometer tube after measurement
  • Batch 040B (Hold It in your Hand):
    • 11 x 22 fl. oz. beer bottles
    • 1 x 500 mL beer bottle
    • 6 x 12 fl. oz. beer bottles
    • 1 x 750 mL wine bottle, which was not carbonated, and on the label of which uncarbonated is written
    • approx. 10 fl. oz. of mead in a cup, including the contents of the hydrometer tube after measurement

Total yield (for both batches): approx. 610 fl. oz., or about 4¾ gal.

Chilled two gallons of water in the fridge beginning an hour before brewing started. Sanitized everything, then heated two gallons of distilled water in the large pot. When the water hit 140℉, gradually added in the honey while stirring. Kept the must between 140℉ and 150℉ for 22 minutes, then cooled it to about 110℉ with the immersion chiller. Pulled the chilled water from the refrigerator and poured it into the carboy, then emptied the warm must into the water. Poured in the yeast nutrient and yeast energizer, then filled the carboy to five gallons using more distilled water.

Rehydrated the yeast in one cup of distilled water, heated to 96℉, and allowed to sit for fifteen minutes. Agitated the must both by pouring it into the carboy in a manner that promotes splashing and by stirring vigorously with the large brewing spoon through the neck of the carboy for fifteen minutes. Pitched the yeast in at 81℉, then popped an airlock into a stopper, filled the airlock, and labeled the carboy.

On 18–19 June, as the mead was still quite hazy, added parts one and two of the Super-Kleer treatment.

On 26 June, the mead had been clear for several days, so I drew off a sample and tasted it. There's a lot to be said for how delicious it is, but there's just a bit of a rough, peppery aftertaste: I suspect that this is yeast autolysis. In preparation for bottling, I drew off approx. 2 gal. of now-clear mead into four half-gallon beer growlers, and added 1½ tsp. dried sage in a knotted brewing sock to each growler; these growlers constitute batch 040A. Added Hungarian oak cubes to the remainder of the six-gallon carboy, plus a small amount of corn sugar to encourage a small amount of refermentation, in hopes of generating enough carbon dioxide to push out what oxygen that has made its way into the carboy during removal of batch 040A; this remaining oaked mead is batch 040B.

Bottled batch 040A on 2 July 2017, and batch 040B on 3 July. Carbonated each by adding ¼ cup Kirkland clover honey in warm tap water to 2 cups, then racking the mead onto this priming-honey solution. This means that 040A should be more strongly carbonated, because it had a smaller volume (it is approximately ⅔ the volume of batch 040B), but both got the same amount of priming sugar. This is intentional: I want 040A to be more strongly carbonated.

Observations

  • 2016-12-13T00:01: There's carbon dioxide discharge in the carboy.
  • 2017-01-11T23:46: CO₂ discharge from the carboy had basically stopped by a week ago, and the mead is still cloudy. Took a sample from the top of the carboy; the temperature-corrected gravity is 1.005. Holy shit, it's already basically delicious, even if it's still cloudy. I'm surprised at how much progress this has made in the last four weeks. This should be oaked, I think.
  • 2017-02-03: Racked to five-gallon bucket to get the mead off of its lees. (Hopefully this was not too late; I was just reading that 71B-1122 has autolysis problems.) Gravity is 1.000.
  • 2017-03-04: Racked back into five-gallon glass carboy, largely in order to free up a bucket. Mead is still cloudy, though. Gravity is 1.000.
  • 2017-03-06: Glass of mead recovered from hydrometer tube that is sitting in the fridge has not clarified in two days. It is tasty, though.
  • 2017-06-18T20:25: Mead in the carboy is still quite hazy. Added the first part of the Super-Kleer treatment.
  • 2017-06-19T11:45: Mead in the carboy is still quite hazy. Added the second part of the Super-Kleer treatment.
  • 2017-06-26: The mead in the carboy having clarified substantially, and a remarkable amount of yeast having formed an entire new yeast cake nearly an inch thick at the bottom, the contents of the carboy were split into batches 040A (with dried sage) and 040B (with oak chips), as described above.
  • 2017-07-02: Bottled batch 040A, yielding just over 2 gallons at about 12% ABV.
  • 2017-07-03: Bottled batch 040A, yielding just over 2½ gallons at about 12% ABV.