Batch 058: Whizzo Chocolate Mead

Batches of chocolate mead fermenting.

A post shared by Patrick Mooney (@patrickbrianmooney) on Mar 20, 2017 at 6:13pm PDT

I've been meaning to try some version of Lady Bridget's chocolate mead recipe for a while now. She says just to add one pound of powdered chocolate to 5 gallons of standard must, so I'm basing this roughly on a loose version of Bray Denard's BOMM recipe, since batch 054 seems to be coming along so well. I'm trying three separate gallons, identical except for the kind of honey in each carboy. I'm going to call it Whizzo Chocolate Mead after Monty Python's Chocolate Frog sketch.

Ingredients in this batch

• ½ tsp. Fermaid K (in each of the three carboys)
• ¼ tsp. Fermax yeast nutrient (in each of the three carboys)
• ¼ tsp. potassium carbonate (in each of the three carboys)
• Distilled water to 4 liters
• 3.2 oz. Rodelle Organic Baking Cocoa Powder Dutch Processed
• Batch 058A:
  • 2½ lb. orange blossom honey from Bennett's Honey Farm.
  • 4 tsp. dried lavender from Penzeys Spices, added on 18 April 2018 in a hop bag.
• Batch 058B:
  • 2½ lb. avocado blossom honey from Bennett's Honey Farm.
• Batch 058C:
  • 2½ lb. Kirkland clover honey.
  • 8 oz. Wyman's of Maine fresh frozen wild blueberries, added frozen in a hop bag, on 18 April 2018.
• 1 pouch White Labs WLP570 Belgian Golden Ale Yeast (split approximately evenly between the three carboys)
• First nutrient addition, on 22 March 2017:
  • ½ tsp. Fermaid K (in each of the three carboys)
  • ¼ tsp. Fermax yeast nutrient (in each of the three carboys)
• Second nutrient addition, on 24 March 2017:
  • ½ tsp. Fermaid K (in each of the three carboys)
  • ¼ tsp. Fermax yeast nutrient (in each of the three carboys)

Sanitized everything, then moved each carboy onto the scale with a large funnel, re-tared the scale, and poured in a different varietal honey. Added potassium carbonate, Fermaid K, and Fermax yeast nutrient to each carboy, then re-tared each scale and added cocoa powder. Rinsed the cocoa powder into each carboy with microwave-warmed distilled water. Topped off to a gallon with cool distilled water. Agitated each for several minutes to fully mix ingredients and to aerate, then capped the carboys and waited for the temperature of the ingredients in each carboy to fall below 82℉ to avoid killing the yeast when it's pitched. When the temperature fell far enough, agitated again, pitched the yeast (trying to split it as evenly as possible), and popped in airlocks, then filled them with cheap vodka.

Brew date: 18 March 2017.
Original gravity:

• Batch 058A: 1.105.
• Batch 058B: 1.108.
• Batch 058C: 1.110.

Bottling day: 8 July 2018
Final gravity:

• Batch 058A: 1.002.
• Batch 058B: 1.008.
• Batch 058C: 0.996. (Yowza! Dry!)

Estimated ABV:

• Batch 058A: 14%.
• Batch 058B: 13½%
• Batch 058C: 15½%

Yield:

• Batch 058A:
  • 1 x 750 mL wine bottle
  • 4 x 500 mL wine bottle
  • 1 x 12 oz beer bottle
  • About 3 oz. slop
• Batch 058B:
  • 1 x 750 mL wine bottle
  • 4 x 500 mL wine bottle
  • 1 x 12 oz beer bottle
  • About 2 oz. slop
• Batch 058C:
  • 2 x 750 mL wine bottle
  • 3 x 500 mL wine bottle
  • About 1 oz. slop

Total yield: Approx 317 fl. oz., just over 10.5 L, or just over 2½ gallons.

Observations

• 2017-03-19T13:23: First sluggish production of carbon dioxide in the carboys.
• 2017-03-20T14:41: There are now a lot of bubbles in the carboys.
• 2017-03-22T17:44: Bubbling has slowed down noticeably. Took a hydrometer reading from batch 058B: it had already fallen to 1.055! Performed the first nutrient addition for all three carboys.
• 2017-03-24: Checked the gravity of batch 058C: 1.025. Dumped the final nutrient addition into all three carboys.
• 2017-04-02: All of the carboys are clarifying rapidly. 58 B is noticeably darker than the other two. Looks like it's going to be time for a first racking for each soon. There is still some carbon dioxide being generated in the carboys.
• 2017-04-13: Each batch was racked into a new carboy, and the labels were transferred appropriately. Prior to the transfer, a thin layer of oils and fats had been visible on top of the fluid. The spent yeast poured out of each carboy smelled quite chocolatey.
• 2017-10-28: Packed all three carboys up to be moved. Removed airlocks and capped each carboy, then wrapped each one with sheets of packing foam. Put all three into a cooler, and packed the cooler into our mobile storage unit.
• 2017-11-07: Unpacked all three carboys from the cooler when we received our cargo in Denver. All three arrived safely. (These were the only brews we attempted to move in fermentation vessels: everything else was bottled, and a large portion of that was given away.)
• 2018-04-18: Tasted a small sample of each batch. Each is delicious, and each is very different. The orange blossom tastes very citrusy; the clover is sweet and subtle; the avocado is rich and tastes most strongly of chocolate. Added lavender to batch 058C (clover) and blueberries to batch 058A (orange blossom); both seem promising. Xenia believes that 058B is perfect as it is, and I'm inclined to agree with her, although part of me wants to add some oak. I really don't think it needs it, though.
• 2018-07-03T17:20: Added the first packet of Super-Kleer to the three carboys, pouring it from a measuring cup and trying to split it evenly between them.
• 2018-07-06T18:29: Added the second packet of Super-Kleer to the three carboys, trying to split it evenly between them.
• 2018-07-08T17:30: Bottled. See notes above.