Since batch 071 was such a delicious success, I'm brewing a new, slightly varied, iteration: we're once again brewing with honey from the Bee Happy Honey company, the same as in batch 071 (thanks for mailing it out, Mom!), but swapping out a third of the mango honey for their dark wildflower honey to add a little depth and complexity. I'm going to tweak the spice additions a bit, too: a little more black pepper, I think.

Ingredients in this batch

  • 1.86 lb mango honey from Bee Happy Honey.
  • 1 lb Bee Happy Honey wildflower honey.
  • untreated tap water to just over 1 gallon.
  • ¼ tsp. Wyeast beer yeast nutrient.
    • ½ tsp. Fermaid K, added late, on 8 Sept 2018.
  • ½ packet Lalvin 71B-1122 wine yeast, rehydrated in ½ cup untreated tap water at 95℉, and split with batch 134.
  • Spice addition of 18 February 2018, all measured into hop bag, then crushed after bag tied:
    • 1½ tsp. green Szechuan pepper berries, crushed.
    • 1½ tsp. red Szechuan pepper berries, crushed.
    • 1 tsp. Penzeys black Indian Tellicherry peppercorns, crushed.
  • approx. ⅕ packet Super Kleer, added on 9 August 2019.

Procedure

Mixed honey and water in the standard manner, making sure there was some yeast nutrient in there. Agitated obsessively and repeatedly and intermittently for over an hour, then measured the gravity and pitched the yeast.

Brew date: 30 August 2018.
Original gravity: 1.131.
Bottling date: 30 September 2019
Final gravity: 1.001.
Estimated ABV: Approx. 18%!

Yield:

  • 7 x 500mL wine bottles

Total: 3.5 liters.

Observations

  • 2018-08-31T10:48: There's already plenty of bubbling in the carboy.
  • 2019-02-18: Added Szechuan and black peppercorns to a hop bag, then tied the top of the hop bag and crushed the peppercorns with a heavy beer bottle before putting the hop bag into the carboy.
  • 2019-02-18: Put the carboy outside to cold crash.
  • 2019-08-09: Added approximately one-fifth of the first packet of Super Kleer to the carboy.
  • 2019-09-30: Bottled, yielding three and a half liters of mead.