Batch 013: Some Weird Witch Juice

On our recent trip to the Pacific Northwest, Patrick and I stopped in Astoria, OR, in part just to obtain some of Fort George Brewery's amazing spruce beer. When we got back, he tracked down some spruce extract, some of which will go into this batch. I realized after starting the brew that we purchased most of the honey in it from a small outlet in Astoria... on Spruce Lane. Because it's our 13th batch and will hopefully be a beverage fit for eccentric forest dwellers, we're going to call this recipe Some Weird Witch Juice.

Ingredients in this batch

• The final 2.5 oz. madrone honey from Snyder's Honey.
• 21.5 oz. raw blackberry blossom and summer wildflower honey from Knappa Nectar in Astoria, OR.
• ½ pack White Labs WLP400 Belgian Wit Ale Yeast; pack was split with Patrick's capsimel, batch 012.
• ¾ tsp. Valley Brewers yeast nutrient.
• ½ tsp. Valley Brewers yeast energizer.
• filtered tap water to 1 gallon.

Yield: Nine 12-oz. bottles.

Rehydrated the WLP400 in warm filtered water at 104°F. Poured the honey into the carboy, rinsed everything with warm filtered tap water to extract the rest of the honey, and added yeast nutrient, energizer, and filtered tap water to bring volume up to a gallon. Aerated the must for approximately five minutes, popping the lid off and on periodically to ensure air exchange.

Original gravity: 1.061.
Final gravity: 1.002
Estimated ABV: 7.75%

Additions

We didn't rack into secondary, but on or around July 28, we added a teaspoon of spruce extract from a company called Rainbow Flavors (no website on Google). The mead now smells like the most delicious bubble bath you've ever seen.