Another not-entirely-timely writeup here...

We picked up some lovely gallberry honey from Bennett's Honey Farm in January, and it was burning a hole in my pocket: dark red, fragrant, and lovely. This is a plain mead to showcase this honey.

Ingredients in this batch

  • 2 lbs Bennett's gallberry honey
  • 1 tsp yeast nutrient
  • ½ tsp yeast energizer
  • ½ pack of Lalvin 1122 wine yeast, rehydrated in ¼ cup of 100-degree water

Yield: 1-gallon batches are still where it's at.

Instructions

I dumped the honey, energizer, and nutrient in the carboy and added distilled water to 1 gallon. I aerated, to quote my frustrated hand-written notes, the fuck out of the must trying to get it to mix finally. Starting gravity on this also read 1.099, although I suspect the must still may not have been completely homogenous. Pitched yeast and stuck it on the shelf.

Observations

  • 2017-04-10T19:00:00: Two months in, this mead had an amazing, floral aroma... and fermented completely dry. I read gravity at 1.002 today. Once I confirm that it's done fermenting, I'll stop fermentation and attempt to backsweeten with some of our remaining gallberry honey.