Batch 049: Four Epithalamimels

Two of my cousins got married last year. Recently, when I asked my cousin Sarah, who was married in August, what she wanted as a belated wedding present, she told me that she wanted mead. (I would like to think that this request has more to do with her hearing good things about last year's holiday mead from my uncle, her father, than with the fact that her groom's middle name happens to be named Mead.) And since her brother, Brendan, who was married in December, simply requested a delicious beverage after we'd spent a few minutes talking about whiskey at his wedding, I'm just going to increase the batch size and give them both the same wedding gift.

I will of course want to keep a good portion of this for myself.

My plan here is to give each of them three bottles of each of four slightly different variations on a single base mead. This is a wedding mead, and so using flowers to flavor it in secondary fermentation seems appropriate: that's going to wind up being, I think, part of each person's portion with roses, part of each portion with lavender, and part of each portion with hibiscus. The last quarter of each portion will just sit on some oak chips—batch 043 may wind up being a test batch for the oak chips. The honeys here are mesquite and orange blossom (in a 2:1 ratio at the beginning of the brew), though the honey content will get adjusted when the first sub-batch is pulled off to age on oak.

In any case, if I'm brewing four variations on this mead, and I want to give each of three people receiving a set of bottles three bottles of each variation, and I want to account for loss in racking and bottling and spillage, I figure I'm going to wind up brewing an eight-gallon batch. Since my largest bucket has a capacity of a little over six gallons, I'm going to start a six-gallon batch, let primary fermentation work completely, let secondary get underway on the lees, and then pull off two gallons onto oak chips and introduce more honey and water into the bucket to restart fermentation. The honey balance may change at that point to emphasize the orange blossom honey more, in order to give the floral additions some backbone. That will depend on a taste test at the time fermentation restarts, though.

This should be fun. And, I hope, tasty. Since it's a mead brewed in celebration of a wedding, I'm going to call it an epithalamimel, after the name of the genre of poetry consisting of poems that celebrates weddings.

Additionally, this is the batch we brewed when showing several of our friends how to brew mead. Fun times all around!

Ingredients in this batch

• 1 lb. orange blossom honey from Torn & Glasser.
• 12 lb. Trader Joe's Mostly Mesquite Honey.
• 5 lb. orange blossom honey from Bennett's Honey Farm.
• 3 tsp. of Valley Brewers yeast energizer.
• 6 tsp. of Fermax yeast nutrient.
• 4  gal. distilled water
• 2 packets Lalvin K1V-1116 wine yeast, rehydrated in ½ cup water.

Brew date: 22 January 2017.
Original gravity: 1.126.
Yield: TBD; hopefully, eight gallons.

Observations

• 2017-01-20T20:34: There's already carbon dioxide discharge from the bucket..
• 2017-01-21T11:16: Carbon dioxide discharge from the blowoff hose is now 8 bubbles per minute.
• 2017-01-21T19:03: Carbon dioxide discharge from the blowoff hose is now 30 bubbles per minute.
• 2017-01-27T10:15: Carbon dioxide discharge from the blowoff hose is now 26 bubbles per minute.
• 2017-01-29: Swapped out the blowoff hose (which turned out not to be necessary after all) for a fermentation lock. There's still plenty of bubbling, but no danger of overflow.

Batch 049A: Blueberry-Lavender Epithalamimel

Additional ingredients for this batch:

• 2 lb. frozen blueberries. (Added 26 March 2017.)
• ¼ heaping tsp. dried lavender from Penzeys Spices. (Added 13 May 2017.)
• ½ heaping tsp. dried lavender from Penzeys Spices. (Added 8 June 2017.)
• 11 medium-toast American oak cubes, approx. 1 cm. on each side. (Added 8 June 2017.)

On March 26, pulled off approximately two gallons into our three-gallon carboy, pouring the mead over two pounds of frozen blueberries, held in the large funnel, to help defrost them. Chances are that this may have oxygenated the mead, but since it may re-ferment in the presence of new sugars, this may not be a problem. I hope. Popped on a fermentation lock and filled it with vodka.

Bottling date: 2 July 2017.
Final gravity: 1.000.
Estimated ABV: 17%
Yield:

• 3 x 750 mL wine bottle, for Sarah and Tommy Jamison
• 3 x 750 mL wine bottle, for Tatiana and Brendan Norman
• 1 x 375 mL beer bottle, for me
• 5 x 12 oz. beer bottle, for me
• 1 x 22 oz. beer bottle, for me
• 1 x 500 mL beer bottle, for me

Total yield (for this sub-batch): almost exactly 7800 mL, or just over 2 gallons..

Observations

• 2017-03-26: Added two pounds of frozen blueberries.
• 2017-03-27T11:10: Many of the frozen blueberries are floating at the top of the carboy.
• 2017-03-29T15:22: The mead has gotten to be quite a dark blue.
• 2017-05-13: Added some dried lavender to the batch in a brewing bag.
• 2017-06-08: Pulled off a sample to taste. It's still quite sweet, and needs more backbone; lavender is barely detectable. Adding more lavender and some oak chips.
• 2017-07-02: Tasted: sweet, with a bit of a bite from the berries, and some lavender at the back end. Perfect. Bottled, yielding just over 2 gallons at about 17% ABV (note that no attempt was made to account for any of the sugars from the berries.)
• 2017-07-04: The bottle I pulled out at our July 4th barbecue was very, very popular.

Batches 049B–C–D: Restarting fermentation to build volume

On 30 March 2017, added the following ingredients to the bucket from which batch 049A had been pulled in order to build volume and restart fermentation:

• 15 oz. orange blossom honey from Bennett's Honey Farm
• 5 lb., 1 oz. gallberry honey from Bennett's Honey Farm
• 2 tsp. Fermax
• 1 tsp. Fermaid K
• 2 gal. spring water
• A starter, prepared 13 May 2017:
  • 4 oz. Kirkland clover honey
  • ¼ tsp. Fermax yeast nutrient
  • ½ tsp. Fermaid K
  • microfiltered water to 2 liters
  • 1 pouch (5 g.) Lalvin 71B-1122 wine yeast, rehydrated in ½ c. microfiltered water at 103℉

This addition was prepared in two carboys, each of which was agitated for several minutes before being poured through a funnel into the fermentation bucket. Pulling off batch 049A had brought the volume of the must in the bucket to 3 gallons, so this addition brought the volume back to 5 gallons.

Comparative hydrometer readings suggest fermentation did not adequately restart; made a clover-honey starter on 13 May (gravity at that point was 1.041) and poured it in on 14 May, when the starter was fermenting vigorously and producing a great deal of carbon dioxide.

Observations

• 2017-04-10: Racked to new bucket because fermentation has not visibly restarted; I'm hoping that racking and the mixing it causes will cause fermentation to restart. Gravity at this point is 1.043.
• 2017-05-13: Made a starter with clover honey.
• 2017-05-14: Pitched in the starter made yesterday.
• 2017-06-22: Popped the lid and took a sample. Didn't correct for temperature, but it's clear that the fermentation has restarted and gone through to completion: the gravity is just a bit above 1. Just waiting now for batch 049A to finish soaking so the three-gallon carboy is open for the next batch.

Batch 049B: Raspberry-Hibiscus Epithalamimel

On 11 July 2017, racked a little over two gallons into the three-gallon carboy to begin batch 049B, leaving about 2¾ gallons of must, to which more honey and water will be added to make the last of the mead.

Additional ingredients for this batch:

• 2.5 oz. Imperial-brand dried hibiscus flowers. (Added 12 July 2017.)
• 36 oz. raspberries, purchased fresh, then frozen. (Added 13 July 2017.)

Bottling date: 2 August 2017.
Estimated initial gravity for this sub-batch: 1.1236
Final gravity: 1.008.
Estimated ABV: 16%
Yield:

• 3 x 750 mL wine bottle, for Tatiana and Brendan Norman
• 3 x 750 mL wine bottle, for Sarah and Tommy Jamison
• 6 x 12 oz. beer bottle, for me
• 2 x 22 oz. beer bottle, for me
• 1 x 500 mL beer bottle, for me
• One hydrometer tube's worth of mead
• One glass with approx. 10 oz. mead, for me

Total yield (for this sub-batch): almost exactly 8.9 L, or just about 2⅓ gallons..

Observations

• 2017-07-12T20:12: Added dried hibiscus flowers in a brewing sock to the carboy.
• 2017-07-13: Added frozen raspberries to the carboy.
• 2017-07-16T20:30: There's some small amount of bubbling in the airlock, though not more than a few bubbles per minute. Guess there's a small amount of continuing fermentation from the sugar in the raspberries.
• 2017-08-02T19:15: Not having seen any carbon dioxide discharge for two weeks, I bottled it, yielding 2⅓ gal. at 1.008: that's about 15% ABV.

Batches 049C–D: Restarting fermentation to build volume

On 11 July 2017, added the following ingredients to the bucket from which batch 049B had been pulled in order to build volume and restart fermentation:

• 2 lb., 1.3 oz. cactus blossom honey from Bennett's Honey Farm
• 2 lb., 0.6 oz. clover honey from Bee Squared
• filtered tap water to a total must volume of approximately 4.5 gal.

Did not rack existing must into new container, but rather just added new honey and water to existing bucket. I want to lighten the ABV slightly here because these will have less time to age before giving them away than batches 049A and 049B, so I'm adding (proportionately) less honey here. At the same time, I'm adding two new honey varietals to the blend here: the Bee Squared clover honey, which is quite sweet, and the Bennett Farms cactus honey, which should add some body and richness to the final brew.

Added the honey (and no nutrients) to a sanitized four-liter carboy, then added water to a total must volume (inside that carboy) of about three and a half liters. Agitated vigorously to mix and oxygenate, then dumped into the carboy, splashing to agitate further. Added another pint of warmed, filtered water to the carboy and agitated to oxygenate and to pick up any remaining honey, and then poured it into the bucket. Rinsed one more time with another pint of warm filtered tap water to get the absolute last of the honey from the carboy, then just filled bucket to 4.5 gallons with filtered tap water. Agitated by stirring vigorously, then popped a lid and fermentation lock onto the bucket and set it in a cool room.

This may be the last time fermentation is restarted for this batch.

Observations

• 2017-07-15T22:41: Lackadaisical observations of the carboy have not yet shown any carbon dioxide discharge from the bucket, but the bucket's lid-with-grommet-for-directly-attaching-an-airlock often seems to slowly leak carbon dioxide without airlock bubbling.
• 2017-07-16T23:17: There's definitely some bubbling from the airlock, though only at about four or five bubbles per minute.
• 2017-08-02T19:30: Pulled out about two and a half gallons into the three-gallon carboy for batch 049C.

Batch 049C: Rose-Cherry Epithalamimel

Rose petals in batch 049C.

A post shared by Patrick Mooney (@patrickbrianmooney) on Aug 3, 2017 at 10:06pm PDT

On 2 August 2017, pulled about two and a half gallons of the fermented base mead from the bucket into the three-gallon carboy, and added in rose petals.

Additional ingredients for this batch:

• One large double handful of fresh, pesticide-free rose petals, frozen for two days after being picked from my mother's garden (added 2 August 2017)
• 2 lb., 10.5 oz. (weight of fruit after pitting and de-stemming and freezing) Ranier cherries, bought fresh, then frozen (added 4 August 2017)
• ¼ oz. dried rose petals (added on 12 September 2017)

Bottling date: 5 October 2017.
Estimated initial gravity for this sub-batch: 1.1236
Final gravity: 1.000.
Estimated ABV: 17%
Yield:

• 3 x 750 mL wine bottle, for Sarah and Tommy Jamison
• 3 x 750 mL wine bottle, for Tatiana and Brendan Norman
• 3 x 750 mL wine bottle, for me
• 1 x 750 mL beer bottle, for me
• 6 x 12 oz. beer bottle, for me
• One hydrometer tube's worth of mead

Total yield (for this sub-batch): almost exactly 9.63 L, or just about 2½ gallons..

Observations

• 2017-08-02T18:22: Added rose petals to the carboy.
• 2017-08-04T15:25: Added cherries to the carboy.
• 2017-08-27T21:26: Gravity is 1.000.
• 2017-09-12T23:01: Added dried rose petals to the carboy.
• 2017-10-05T20:12: Bottled, yielding just under 9⅔ liters at just about 17% ABV.

Batch 049D: Saffron-Oak Epithalamimel

Restarted fermentation for the last time on 2 August 2017 in the bucket from which batch 049C had been pulled in order to build volume. This sub-batch is based partly on this recipe.

Additional ingredients for this batch:

• 2 lb., 0.8oz. clover honey from Bee Squared
• 1 lb. (exactly) alfalfa varietal honey from Bee Squared
• filtered tap water to 4 liters (that's four liters for the addition, not four liters total volume in the bucket; there's already more than that in there)
• 1 qt. filtered tap water, heated in two batches, and used to rinse the inside of the 4 L carboy in which the additional must volume had been prepared
• 2 oz. medium-toast Hungarian oak cubes (exactly 40 cubes, about ½ inch on a side), added 12 September after being allowed to soak in hot water for 20 minutes, then to drain.
• 2 oz. medium-toast French oak chips, soaked in bourbon for three days, then drained and rinsed and drained and added to the fermentation vessel on 2 October.
• ¾ c. filtered water, heated to boiling on 5 Oct 2017, and with the following steeped in it for half an hour:
  • 5 g. Zaran Persian saffron
  • ¼ tsp. Spice Islands Chinese five spice blend

Did not rack existing must into new container, but rather just added new honey and water to existing bucket. Trying to keep the ABV pretty steady here; this is going to be just lightly flavored, with saffron and oak, so I want to keep it fairly light. But I'm hoping the alfalfa honey will give it a bit of structure: it's dark and rich and delicious, and it's already started to crystalize a bit, so with any luck, it will give the mead some residual sweetness. There are now almost exactly 3 gallons remaining in the fermenting bucket. Hey, no need to build volume any more!

Observations

• 2017-09-12T23:32: Added Hungarian oak cubes to the carboy. Gravity is 0.999.
• 2017-09-29T22:02: Weighed two ounces of medium-toast French oak chips, poured them into a mason jar, and added enough bourbon to cover them. Swirled the jar periodically to try to get all chips the same amount of exposure.
• 2017-10-02T16:21: Poured the bourbon from the chips, then allowed the chips to drain for fifteen minutes. Rinsed with hot water, then allowed to drain for thirty minutes before pouring into the fermentation vessel.
• 2017-10-05T20:44: Heated saffron over low heat in a small skillet for several minutes, moving it frequently, then soaked it and a spice blend in three-quarters of a cup of boiling water in a French press for half an hour, then blended it in at bottling.
• 2017-10-05T21:31: Bottled, yielding X at Y% ABV.

Bottling date: 5 October 2017.
Estimated initial gravity for this sub-batch: 1.1228
Final gravity: 0.999.
Estimated ABV: 17%
Yield:

• 3 x 750 mL wine bottle, for Tatiana and Brendan Norman
• 3 x 750 mL wine bottle, for Sarah and Tommy Jamison
• 2 x 750 mL wine bottle, for me
• 1 x 22 oz beer bottle, for me
• 12 x 12 oz. beer bottle, for me
• 1 x 7 oz. beer bottle, for me
• One hydrometer tube's worth of mead

Total yield (for this sub-batch): almost exactly 11.3 L, or not quite 3 gallons..

Shortlink to this page: https://is.gd/epithalamimel