Batch 080: Woody and Chrissy's Wedding Mead

My cousin Woody is getting married to this fall. I haven't yet met his fiancée, Chrissy, but Woody's mother assures me they'd both love some mead. Let's hope my aunt is right here and not just trying to support her favorite nephew, right? In any case, this is probably going to wind up being called Woody and Chrissy's Wedding Mead, though it's possible a better name will become apparent during fermentation.

In any case, my plan is to produce a deep, yet light-tasting, sparkling mead: there's a blend of honeys in here that produced a delicious-tasting must that I hope will ferment out into something rich and strange, as Shakespeare's Ariel put it. We're using a fast-fermenting ale yeast here, in part because I want to keep the ABV in the low double digits so it can be carbonated, and in part because I waited longer than I should have to start this, and I'd love to be able to give it to him around the time of the wedding. I'm thinking about dry-hopping half of this batch, too: maybe partly with Saaz, partly with Willamette or Citra.

I'm re-using a harvested ale yeast here: this batch of White Labs WLP090 was captured from batch 057.

Ingredients in this batch

• Approximately four-fifths of a honey starter, made on 19 July 2017, consisting of:
  • 12 oz. Kirkland clover honey
  • ½ tsp. Fermaid K
  • ¼ tsp. Fermax yeast nutrient
  • filtered tap water to 1 gallon
  • harvested yeast from batch 057: one jar of White Labs WLP090 (San Diego Super Yeast)
• 7 lb. Colorado mountain wildflower honey from Copoco's Honey, Fort Collins, Colorado
• 2 lb. avocado honey from Bennett's Honey Farm, Fillmore, California
• 3 lb., 3 oz. alfalfa honey from Bee Squared Apiaries, Berthoud, Colorado
• 3 gal refreshe™ spring water
• 1 gal Niagra™ purified (reverse osmosis) water
• 2 tsp. Fermaid K
• 2 tsp. Fermaid O
• 1 tsp. potassium carbonate
• First nutrient addition, 27 July 2017 (at SG ~1.041):
  • 2 tsp. Fermaid O
• Second nutrient addition, 4 August 2017 (at SG ~1.020):
  • 2 tsp. Fermaid O
• 2 oz. BSG Motueka hops (6.3% alpha acid), added to half of the batch (let's call it batch 080A) on 10 October
• 1 oz. Hallertau hops (3.8% alpha acid), added to half of the batch (let's call it batch 080A) on 10 October
• 2 oz. Azacca hops (9.8% alpha acid), added to half of the batch (let's call it batch 080B) on 10 October
• 1 oz. Saaz hops (2.8% alpha acid), added to half of the batch (let's call it batch 080B) on 10 October
• approx. 90 mL cranberry honey, dissolved in filtered tap water to total addition volume of 2 cups, and added to batch 080A for carbonation, added on 17 October
• approx. 90 mL mango honey, dissolved in filtered tap water to total addition volume of 2 cups, and added to batch 080B for carbonation, added on 17 October

Brew date: 23 July 2017.
Original gravity: 1.062.
Bottling day: 17 October 2017
Final gravity: 0.998 (based on sample from batch 080B)
Estimated ABV: 8.5%

Yield::

• 12 x 22 oz. bottles (batch 080A)
• 2 x 12 oz. bottles (batch 080A)
• hydrometer tube (batch 080A)
• 11 x 22 oz. bottles (batch 080B)
• 1 x 12 oz. bottles (batch 080B)
• hydrometer tube (batch 080B)

Total yield: about 554 fl. oz., or about four and a third gallons of mead.