Batch 059: Just Far Away
So several people on the Internet have claimed that bubble gum-flavored mead is a great idea (as u/WhatTheDuess does here, for instance). It sounds like a monstrosity, but I can't get the idea out of my head, so I ordered some Dubble Bubble [sic] online and broke out the honey. After joking with friends via text message about plausible names for this mead turned up nothing that I'd be remotely willing to share with the public, I've decided to call this Just Far Away.
Ingredients in this batch
- 1 lb. 4 oz. unwrapped Dubble Bubble bubble gum
- 3 lb. 8 oz. Kirkland clover honey.
- 0.4 tsp. Fermaid K
- 0.7 tsp. Fermaid O
- ¼ tsp. potassium carbonate
- Distilled water to 4 liters
- ½ pouch Lalvin 71B-1122 wine yeast, rehydrated in ½ c. distilled water at 99℉ (this packet of rehydrated yeast was split with Xenia's batch 060).
- First nutrient addition, 3 April 2017:
- Second nutrient addition, 10 April 2017:
Sanitized everything, then unwrapped the Dubble Bubble, piece by piece, until there were 20 ounces of unwrapped gum on the scale. Poured three and a half pounds of clover honey into a four-liter carboy through the large funnel, then poured in the potassium carbonate, Fermaid O, and Fermaid K. Dropped in the gum, piece by piece, then filled the carboy to the bottom of its neck with spring water.
Oh boy, was there a lot of work to mix the honey and water in here. Lots and lots and lots and lots of shaking. Ultimately, everything was mixed, so I took a hydrometer tube sample, and pitched in half of the rehydrating yeast. Popped in an airlock, then filled it with cheap vodka.
Brew date: 28 March 2017.
Original gravity: 1.143 (but I have no idea how to account for the sugars in the gum).
Final gravity: 1.082 (!)
Estimated ABV: 14% ????</p>
Yield:
- 12 x 7 oz. beer bottles
- 2 x 12 oz. beer bottles
Total yield: 108 fl. oz., or about 85% of a gallon.
Observations
- 2017-03-29T03:44: There's already carbon dioxide being produced in the carboys. It's also the case that the gum is already starting to fall apart into little shreds.
- 2017-03-29T12:05: The gum is expanding, just as Xenia predicted. Swapped out the airlock, flooded with mead and little specks of gum, for a blowoff hose.
- 2017-03-30: The gum is still expanding; it has pushed some mead up into the blowoff hose, and several pieces of gum have floated to the top of this blowoff hose-mead. They're unfolding and/or dissolving; they look like tiny pink brains.
- 2017-04-03: The gum is dissolving, or at least compacting; the mead that was in the hose has dropped back into the carboy, leaving several pieces of gum stranded, stuck in the hose. Swapped off the blowoff hose for an airlock and left the hose to soak in a bucket of Star-San to help get the gum out. Gravity: still 1.130! Clearly the gum is contributing sugar to the must. Performed the first nutrient addition.
- 2017-04-10: Performed the second nutrient addition: the gravity is 1.105: there's clearly still sugar coming in from the gum.