We made a trip back to SoCal in August and visited one of our favorite honey vendors, Bennett's in Fillmore. This is another entry in my series of varietal meads with Bennett's honeys and Lalvin 71B-1122 wine yeast. Patrick finds this eucalyptus honey too medicinal, but I'm enjoying it.

I named this after a Wordsworth poem, but in my defense, at least I didn't make any Men at Work references in the name.

Ingredients in this batch

  • 2.8 lbs Bennett's eucalyptus honey (full 3-lb jar)
  • 1 tsp yeast nutrient
  • ½ tsp yeast energizer
  • ½ batch Lalvin 1122 yeast, rehydrated

Process

I made this mead on 11/4. The process for all of these varietal meads is a standard "dump it all in a carboy and pitch the yeast" affair. To be honest, I'm not even bothering to read gravity on all of them; they should all be starting around 1.1 and come out around 12%.

I bottled this batch on 5/5/2019. The eucalyptus isn't very distinct in it at the moment, and I plan on letting the handful of bottles sit for a good while to see how they'll develop.