Batch 076: Peppermint Hand Grenade
A short mead, hopefully done quickly, intended to use up the last of our bucket of gallberry honey. I'm thinking that a sparkling, sweet peppermint short mead will be delicious at the middle and the end of the summer, assuming it's done when I hope it will be done. Since it's another BOMM, I'm going to call this Peppermint Hand Grenade.
Ingredients in this batch
- 2 lb. gallberry varietal honey from Bennett's Honey Farm
- ½ tsp. Fermaid K
- ¼ tsp. Fermax yeast nutrient
- ¼ tsp. potassium carbonate
- Six cups filtered tap water, boiled, then infused with:
- 3 teabags Twinings Pure Peppermint herbal tea
- filtered and (in much greater quantity) distilled water to just over one gallon
- Approx. 2 fl. oz. fermenting mead from batch 068, which contains White Labs WLP570.
- First nutrient addition, 26 June 2017:
- ½ tsp. Fermaid K
- ¼ tsp. Fermax yeast nutrient
- Second nutrient addition, 2 July 2017:
- ½ tsp. Fermaid K
- ¼ tsp. Fermax yeast nutrient
Boiled six cups of water, then put in three teabags, covered the pot, and allowed to steep while the water temperature falls. Sanitized everything, then poured in the peppermint tea through a funnel. Followed this with the Fermax, Fermaid K, K₂CO₃, and then the honey. Poured in water to total about a gallon in the carboy. Agitated for five minutes to oxygenate. Pulled off enough to take a hydrometer reading, taking it down to almost exactly a gallon. Pulled off a single turkey baster's worth of fermenting, yeasty mead from batch 068, which contains White Labs's Belgian Golden Strong yeast (WLP570), at which time the temperature of the must was 82℉, and dropped the must from batch 068 into this carboy. Popped in a fermentation lock and filled it to the line with vodka. Set the carboy on a shelf to ferment.
Brew date: 19 June 2017.
Original gravity: 1.079.
Bottling date: 5 June 2017
Final gravity: 1.000.
Estimated ABV: Approx. 10.5%.
Yield:
- 1 x 750 mL beer bottle
- 1 x 22 oz. beer bottle
- 5 x 12 oz. beer bottles
- a hydrometer tube's worth of mead
Total: About 113⅓ fl. oz., or 88.5% of a gallon.
Observations
- 2017-06-20T22:54: No visible carbon dioxide production in the carboy.
- 2017-06-26: Performed first nutrient addition.
- 2017-07-02: Performed second nutrient addition. Pulled carboy out of the water bath and set on a shelf.
- 2017-10-05: Bottled. Mead is very clear and a little drier than I hoped, but oh well: it's tasty with a strong minty bouquet. Very refreshing.