Batch 106: Ilios: Greek Honey Varietal
I went out to dinner with a Greek American coworker, and she took me to an amazing Middle Eastern/Mediterranean market in Aurora. I picked up a small container of sinfully expensive Greek honey, not nearly enough for a true varietal batch, but it's still the star of the show here. As a kid, I got to spend a few long summer vacations in Greece with my family; this mead honors some of my happiest childhood memories. This was also my first time working with Lalvin BM 4x4, a red wine yeast strain we hadn't seen or tried before.
Ingredients in this batch
- 1 lb Attiki classic honey
- 1.5 lbs Kirkland clover honey
- 0.5 lbs Kirkland clover honey, added on 7/16
- 1 tsp yeast nutrient
- ½ pack of Lalvin BM 4x4 wine yeast
- Denver tap water to 1 gallon
Process
Another simple dump-and-go batch. Starting gravity was 1.096. This mead fermented completely dry, and I wound up adding another 8 oz of plain honey on 7/16 to try to restore some of the flavor. When I bottled on 9/9, final gravity was 1.012 for a calculated ABV around 13.5%. It's decently (not completely clear), fragrant, and has a pleasant amount of sweetness.