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. The name of this batch is nothing but a bad pun, of course.

Ingredients in this batch

  • 32.2 oz Kirkland clover honey
  • 16 oz Smiley Honey thyme honey from Spain
  • 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 thyme honey, which takes my theoretical SG to 1.112. I bottled on November 13 and measured a final gravity of 1.030 for an ABV of approximately 10.76%. It's pretty sweet for me and doesn't taste very unusual.