I picked up a few one-pound honey varietals at a honey store in Colorado Springs this spring. I started batches 170 and 171 with holly and thyme, respectively, on June 4, each with a clover honey base that I intend to backsweeten with the varietals. For now, these are plain clover batches, very light and intended to come out bone dry.

I named this batch the day I bottled it, after the only song I know that features a famous Holly.

Ingredients in this batch

  • 32.2 oz Kirkland clover honey
  • 16 oz Smiley Honey holly honey from Florida
  • 1/2 tsp Carlson yeast energizer
  • 1 tsp Carlson yeast nutrient
  • 1/3 pack Lalvin 71B 1122

Process

Mixed a starting wort with just the clover honey, aerated, and pitched on June 4. SG was 1.072. On July 1, I racked the mead to remove yeast sludge and added the pound of holly honey.

I bottled this batch on 3/22/20. It came out crazy sweet for one of my meads, with a final gravity of 1.028. I calculated an adjusted SG of 1.094 and an ABV of 8.7%.