Batch 232: Indefinite Studies (Orange Blossom Varietal Mead)
The California orange blossom honey from Bennett's in Fillmore, CA, is hands down the loveliest honey I've ever found. I've brewed with it in the past, including batch 146: Turtleneck and Chain, one of my very favorite batches. When Patrick's sister Erin lugged a 5-gallon bucket of this incredible honey from SoCal to the Twin Cities for us in 2022, a plain varietal batch was the #1 thing I wanted to make. This batch is a little sweeter than prior iterations, so the gorgeously fragrant honey really gets to shine.
I (re-)read a ton of Terry Pratchett in 2023, so when I bottled this batch on New Year's Day 2024, I named it after the Chair of Indefinite Studies, a wizard of questionable expertise at Unseen University.
Ingredients in this batch
- 15 lbs Bennett's orange blossom honey
- 1½ tsp Fermaid K
- 1½ tsp Fermaid O
- Saint Paul tap water to 5 gallons
- 1 pack of Lalvin 1122 yeast, rehydrated
Process
Stirred everything together, aerated, and pitched. I racked this batch once or twice, left it the hell alone, and finally bottled it on Jan 1, 2024. Starting gravity was 1.104; with final gravity at 1.008, that puts the ABV at 12.6%.