First result from our mead solera! For now, we're calling this batch Bouncy, Bouncy, after a joke in the Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook sketch.

Ingredients in this batch

  • Approx. 2⅓ gallon solera mead, mostly fermented.
  • 4 lb. frozen unlabeled tart cherries, sold in a large zip-lock freezer bag at Heinie's Market in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, added on 18 June 2018.
  • 2 lb. Wyman's of Maine fresh frozen wild tart and dark sweet cherries, added 18 June.
  • 2 qt. Simple Truth tart cherry juice, S.G. 1.060, added 23 September.
  • 3 lb. Vintner's Harvest sweet cherry puree, approx. S.G. 1.100, added 10 November 2018.
  • 1 lb. gallberry honey from Bennett's Honey Farm, added to carboy on 1 January 2019.
  • 1 lb. star thistle honey from Sleeping Bear Farms, heated and added on 5 April 2019.
  • 1 lb. Kirkland clover honey, added to the carboy on 5 May 2019.

Procedure

Sanitized everything. Pushed the cherries through the neck of a three-gallon carboy, then pumped mead from the solera carboy into the carboy with racking cane. Popped in and filled an airlock and put the carboy on the shelf.

Secondary fermentation began: 18 June 2018.
Bottling date: 20 June 2019.
O.G. for calculations: 1.120.
Final gravity: 1.023.
Estimated ABV: Approx. 13%.

Yield:

  • 18 x 12 oz. beer bottles;
  • 3 x 500mL beer bottles;
  • 3 x 22 oz. beer bottles; and
  • 1 x 375mL beer bottle.

Total: about 350 fl. oz., or about 2⅔ gallons. -->

Observations

  • 2018-06-18T21:33: The mead in the carboy has already turned blood red.
  • 2018-06-20T10:01: There's clearly some small mount of carbon dioxide production in the carboy: small bubbles and a little pressure lifting the cap of the three-piece airlock.
  • 2018-09-23: Racked off of cherries and into a new carboy, leaving approx. 2 gal., or perhaps a little more. Added two quarts of Simple Truth (ugh, that name) 100% tart cherry juice (112g total sugar in each quart, 1.060 for the juice) to the fermenter.
  • 2018-11-10T16:10: Added cherry puree to the fermenter.
  • 2018-11-12T11:00: There's a lot of fermentation happening in the carboy again.
  • 2018-11-19T18:40: Tasted. It's tart and delicious. Yes, at least some sugar remaining is necessary to bring out the cherry flavor. If it goes dry again, I'll rack it off of the cherry pulp to make room, then probably add another quart of cherry juice with the sweetening honey. Because too much of a good thing is wonderful.
  • 2019-01-01: Pulled out about a quart and a half, added a pound of gallberry honey, heated repeatedly and mixed thoroughly, and poured back into carboy. Carbon dioxide production started again a few days later and continued sluggishly for several weeks.
  • 2019-04-05: Sanitized a new carboy, then racked mead off of lees and fruit and into the new carboy, adding a gallon of heated star thistle honey.
  • 2019-05-05: Mead has fermented dry again. Added another pound of clover honey to carboy.
  • 2019-06-20: Bottled, yielding about 2⅔ gallons of 13% mead.
  • 2019-06-21: Pasturized by running through the dishwasher, just in case fermentation wasn't completely finished.