Made this recipie as my first mead. It has been aged now approx 8 months. Took it to a local winery meet and taste recently. The owner of the winerey said that the taste was award winning. And he gladly told all in attendace that if they wanted to try a good mead, that this was the one. Thanks for all the brewing help, and congratulations on a great recipie.
Ok, I have some results f from my blueberry mead! Quick rundown of ingredients: 3lbs Kelly's Local Texas Honey, 3lbs Wyman's Frozen Blueberries (thawed, mashed, and sat on a dose of pectic enzyme overnight). Started off with 71B yeast, added .75 grams fermaid o at about 12 hour mark. Then .75 grams of fermaid o again at 1/3 sugar break. In 1 month it went to 15.8%ABV and dryer than a stick of chalk! Let me say "WOW" I should've stopped this long ago lol, one thing is for sure, blueberry should never be that dry! 😵 Haha. I've racked it over to a 1 gal jug and at this stage I'm not sure if I'm going to add some more honey or sweetener, but its going to get something for sure 🤣 I'll update soon if anyone is interested.....
@@billybibbit9146 after many mead batches later, I soon realized I ran that first blueberry mead way too hot! My thinking at the time was, wow I can run this stuff fast! That was a mistake! I didn't have off flavor, but it went very dry quick and when it ran out of sugars, I think it went to work on anything left that could've left more flavor! lol I split it and back-sweetened 1 with erythritol, 1 with honey, and 1 with sugar (which I hated to do to a mead)..... believe it or not, I liked the sugar better! The honey gave it way too much body for the amount it needed, the erythritol is fine, but again it took too much and that stuff is pricey! Since then I've used 71b in several wines and meads (around 10) and I've found if you can keep it under 70 degrees it runs a little slower but the results are amazing! 71B is very good yeast, but you gotta treat it right. Honestly my thoughts are if you run a wine (sugar) temps are fine at 70 degrees or even a little higher, but I think a blueberry mead needs to be ran cool, maybe even around 60. It'll be slow as molasses, but stopping it around 1.010-1.015, you'll find all the flavors from the honey and the blueberries! IMO Also, since then I've found a great local farm that sells 30lb boxes of their blueberries for $40 bucks!! 👍
about died laughing at the end.... great video. its funny, I was thinking about starting a blueberry mead using those frozen blueberries and some of that wild blueberry jam they sell (Publix, Costco, Sams club, BJ's)as well. what about using blueberry juice as well in place of the water?
I know it's been at least 7 months ago, but my mom grows blueberries, and I have a whole bunch frozen of last year's crop, I really think I'm going to make this
When you back sweeten, don't you get a bit more sediment? It kind of irks me when I get that but I have to bottle and pasteurise if I back sweeten and then my beautiful, clean brew is kind of muddy at the bottom. It's just honey but still...
17:00 "...Stevia. It adds a weird flavor." To me, ALL* 'artificial sweeteners' add a weird flavor, coat my mouth with a strange film, and make my throat hurt. If I have too much (like a full glass of drink) they give me a headache. The only one I can even tolerate is Sucralose, and that's only in rare cases. Usually when it's the absolute last ingredient on the list, but even that's not guaranteed. * _ I have never heard of or tried monk fruit or arithritol. It sounds like I should look them up and try them. Thanks!
Hi Brian and Derica My wife laughed at me this morning because I was talking about you with her and using your names as on first name basis like we were besties , so thanks for making her laugh at me and keep up the good work on your videos, I have only been at wine and mead making about 3 months and have made far superior wines than any store bought products Thanks again Chuck
Why even bother measuring final gravity twice when you ferment to pretty much dry anyway? In my mind the second reading would render a reaction akin to "omg, it's still dry! Who would have thunk?" And even if it had some possibility to ferment a slight bit more, you just pasteurise it either way, as you explained in a recent video. Great content either way!
To be safe. We are showing thousands of people how to brew. What if theirs didn’t go dry? If we didn’t show taking two identical readings we could be allowing a bad example for people to follow.
Curiosity , inquiring minds want to know , how low will it go . I had one go Dry 5 times . Every week I'd take a reading and it would be Dry , Sweeten it up take another reading . Write it all down . Next week do the same thing . You don't start off with too much sugars , your Yeast will Drown in sugars . After about the 3rd Backsweeten , don't put in any more than you want it to end up . In case it stops and won't take another Step . That way it will Rock & Roll till it can't Dance No More . 🤠
Glad you guys liked it young! I'm currently making a few melomels myself (Cherry, Blueberry, and a Cherry Blueberry combo). Always find that a pure blueberry takes longer to clear than my other melomels (even with a bentonite primary / super kleer 2ndary combo). As you said, nothing wrong with drinking it early if you like the taste and don't mind the cloudiness, but (in my opinion) always better with a little age.
@@kennyrazor81 I’m pretty easy going about it, I usually make a tea out of it at first ferment. I have added the dried lavender after first ferment and then just keep checking every 5-7 days. If you use lavender be sure and go very light with it otherwise you’ll have a soapy flavor.
Once mine is finished Ferminting , I take em all to an outside Building , for Conditioning & Clearifiying . But I live in North West Florida . It will Freeze , but not enough to freeze Wine Solid . In Cold Winters it will Freeze the Pond around the edges , 10 to 12 feet out into the Pond . Once it Froze it all the way across the Pond . I like Cold Crashing outside , more room , works good . Save my Fridge for Bottle's 🍾. 🤠
So I did a basic kiwi mead. Honey and kiwi. I is really strange. Smells horrible and tastes bad.. for the first month, or 2, or 6, ok ok 1yr. But after a year its incredible. IDK what happened but its the best thing I have made. Also it tastes nothing like kiwi. I literally cant describe the flavor but I would love to see you guys do a batch. Its a once in a while mead for me as kiwis are super expensive were im at. Also the time investment for this one is a must. Thanks guys for your input and vids!
I had a kiwi sour beer from a local brewery - the guy that brewed it is a wizard when it comes to sour beers. Absolutely phenomenal! It tasted almost more like candied green apples than kiwi, but not sweet...
Hello I’m TheFistBumpGuy and I’m new to the channel. I have a question. Can you use 4 year old bakers yeast as a nutrient for brewing yeast? Would you need to kill it 1st by bring it up to 60C (think 140F) for 20 minutes then putting in the brew or can you put it in dry and mix in with new yeast? Don’t know if this is a stupid question or not. I just know I have a lot of bakers yeast that is old and would like to recycle them in home brews.
Now I can’t wait for mine to finish. It’s happily gurgling away and the colour is gorgeous. Also can’t wait for your opinion of this one when it’s a year old. My daughter who is thoroughly enjoying a glass of my rhodomel right now is making sweet eyes at the fermenter that’s sitting beneath the desk. She looked a bit disappointed when I told her there is absolutely no way we’ll be drinking any of it before it.s at least six months old… except perhaps on bottling day. LOL On the subject of rhodomels… I know you made one but would you consider making a new version? Mine was made with rose petals (fresh from my garden), rose hip tea, black tea for tannins and a small handful of freeze dried raspberries that I added in conditioning because they were in my way in the kitchen and their scent went so well with the young rhodomel’s. The flavour of the finished product is amazing: honey, roses and a hint of raspberry… and a gorgeous rich, warm pink-ish hue. Early summer in a glass.
Just realized it's been a year since you bottled this...can't wait for the one year tasting video! My first blubbery mead will be a year old in 2 days but sadly there's only one bottle left, lol!
I just used your blueberry mead recipe. I tweaked it by adding one whole lemon juice . Although I made 2 gallon batch. I bottled 4 dry and 6 with xylitol. It turned out outstanding. I used a higher ABV yeast. But WOW. It’s great young but can’t wait trying it during winter. Thanks guys it’s the bomb. I can’t feel my face but is all good. Lol
o I mentioned a while ago a rosemary mead. Well, its done, but Its a solid dry mead - don't feel any of the rosemary in it to be frank. I've also since finished my orange wine, which is spectacular - it has a bit of sweetness in it and goes down dangerously easily. My apricot mead is still aging and I recently experimented with combining my orange wine and dry mead recipes - the result of that is still fermenting happily. But this idea with the blueberry.... I like it, going to give it a try. Have an empty fermentation vessel so why not.
I make a similar mead, but with 2lbs of blueberries and Lalvin D47 instead; I also mash them and add pectic enzyme. The tannins from double the blueberry skins are great and the brew overall reminds me a lot of a sweet red wine.
@@FedjaH I put the blueberries in primary and kept them in for all of primary, swirling every day to keep the fruit cap from molding for about a week and then less frequently for the rest. I think I had the fruit in there for a month, maybe a little less. Compared to adding in secondary, it was much richer and more similar to red wine, adding in secondary created a lighter and fruiter flavor
@@jamesj.williams7702 great. I'm doing the same, same recipe too. 2 weeks for me so far and was worried about fruit tasting weird if I keep it for too long, so I was going to take it out, but I'll keep it till primary ferment is done then. Thanks for the reply. Appreciate it.
As for pasteurizing... Once it's over 10% AND it's racked off the leese then I'm having a very hard time restarting fermentation also when I want it to when creating something sparkling.. I'm kind of leaning towards not bothering with the pasteurizing, and backsweetening such a small amount that it wont matter in the unlikely event that it does ferment and goes sparkling.
It’s your choice. I err on the side of caution as I have seen 15 and 18% brews kick up again. One ounce of sugars for carbonation isn’t much. Typically on sweetening we use 3, 4, or even 5x that much. Could lead to explosions.
Good morning Derica and Brian, Does the volume of the batch effect the time to let it sit; I was thinking about experimenting with LG Mason jars (24oz) and am curious if that changes the aging? Have you done this and am I wasting my time? Learning a lot watching you guys..Thank you!!
I convert 1 gallon glass storage jars into these dispensers by fitting a plastic spigot to them. You have to first drill a neat hole in the wall of the jar using a 16 mm diamond-coated hole saw drill bit, and then enlarge the hole with a spinning sandpaper drum until the threaded nipple of the spigot just about fits through the hole. Make sure the rubber gasket is seated correctly in the groove of the plastic nut before twisting it onto the threaded nipple and once the nut gets too tight to twist any further by hand, you can further tighten it by turning the spigot while holding the nut stationary with your other hand. You'll need it tight to prevent leakage when the jar is full. There are a few details I haven't provided, such as how to provide a continuous water stream while drilling the hole in the glass, and how to make the sandpaper drum for enlarging the hole to the perfect size.
:D :D The final 10 seconds are fantastic. :D Anyway I started a blueberry mead today, also using frozen blueberries. (They don't grow here in Thailand) Starting gravity was similar to the video at 1.080, but I'm going to bump that up a little bit with some very brown sugar to about 1.100 later. (Not now, I'm scared of foaming so I left space.. but when it settles down I'll add some very dark brown sugar cane sugar which I hope will result in a darker color (more like a red wine if I'm lucky) and some bourbon-like molassessy notes and of course some more body from the slightly higher alcohol so it ends hopefully around 13.5% or so. It'll still be a mead as by far most of the sugars will still come from the honey.
New subscriber. Pretty new to mead, and so glad I found your channel. Love watching you guys show how this is done. You and Man Made Mead are my 2 favorite mead channels. Thanks for all the information ❤
Just saw local brew shop has peated whisky malt (barley) and knowing your guys love for whisky, wonder if you guys ever fought of trying to making a peated mead/braggot sort of thing?
On the subject of oxidation, and in the interest of scientific exploration... Maybe you should make a simple batch and oxygenate "the bejesus" into it to see how it changes the flavor.
Thanks for the warning about the squirt. I was thinking of getting a fermenter with a valve sometime ago. I don't know if your Amazon affiliation extends to Amazon fresh, but I purchased the same brand of blueberries from them last year. May be you could try may peppermint wine sometime. I just made another gallon last month and I still like it. It tastes more like pine than peppermint, but it's still good. 6 to 8 bags 365 peppermint tea from Amazon, steeped ~1 hour. (only used 6 this time). Handful of raises chopped. 6 cups of sugar 1/2 tsp Fermaid-O (day 1, day 2, day 3) 1/3 pkg 71B I tend to add more nutrition, because of the slow rate of fermentation. It stared at 1.110. At 14 days it was 1.028, but the airlock was still bubbling. It does not normally seem to want to go lower than ~1.020, although it has in the past. If it goes dry, then you definitely want to back sweeten. Anyway I think you might like it and, as always, thanks for the education. :)
Think of degassing as trying to get a soda to go flat without shaking it up, you just want the bubbles _out_ oxidization is more like making whipped cream, where you want to put bubbles _into_ the liquid.
Man , that 10 -10 . That's the Magic spot . I try and get close , 10 - 06 to 10-14 I let em sit in Conditioning . Go out and check every one, they'll all be setting on 10 -10. Some will be 10-10 when I take em out . But they all end up Dead on it . 🤠
Hi Tom from the UK here .Love your videos.watched a load during lockdown 2020 . On my second batch of mead now . your videos are very helpful .keep up the great work 👌🇬🇧🇺🇸
I've been trying to get into mead making and I was given 3 Little Big Mouth Bubblers for my bday. I don't have any 1 gals for secondary. How long is it OK to leave a regular batch of mead in one of these bubblers for secondary and subsequent rackings?
Started this mead a few days ago. It's moving along but I am concerned with how sweet it will turn out. I used exactly 3lbs of clover honey with Lalvin K1-V1116 yeast. The OGR was 1.123, which was quite high I thought. I will update in about 5-7 weeks.
Question on bottling wands, what sorta life does everyone get out of their's? Mine has lasted about 2 years, not a great deal of use...if I remember right about 6 brews totaling roughly 40gallons (UK gallons so about 180 litres or roughly 47 US gallons). This was a fairly inexpensive plastic type with the spring stem valve, has anyone had experience with the metal bottling wands, if they are better or at least longer lived?
@@CitySteadingBrews 3years and you guys have many many many more brews running through them than I've had. Mine has sprung a little leak in the valve, it's still mostly usable but it dribbles a little from one bottle to the next
great content as usual; you mentioned carbonate; have you considered a video about it and how to do it? I'd like to taste it carbonate; and another idea; have you considered to add the blue berries to your viking blood? how would that work? excellent video, great content as usual and FYI i'll be making your 'first mead' with my son this weekend; wish me luck and greetings from mexico
My moms birthday is today & i'm making her a blueberry-lemon wine for when she visits in may (we just moved cross country). I found blueberry juice (no -ites or -ates), & got the wild frozen blueberries, & dried blueberries... & I happen to have blueberry tea. I'm not sure the lemon will come through tho.
First of all, I’m 25 and I love operation. Second, thank you for this, I love blueberry stuff and I can’t wait to try this recipe. Thank you for this channel!!!!
I enjoy your guys Brewing recipes and cooking recipes. I want to do a blackberry mint mead. My question is to get the blackberry flavor should I use around one or 2 pounds or three if needed. I’m just trying to figure stuff Out. Do you have any recommendations?
I noticed you guys always have a towel on the table. I do that as well, but I soak my towel in starsan and wring it out real well. Is that something I should be doing or is that Overkill?
I see the IKEA lingonberry drink syrup in the back there! And it made me think of another common Swedish food condiment berry with some bitterness: Rowanberries. It's pretty common with rowanberry jelly to meat dishes, even though it's less common today among young people. The berry isn't tasty at all, but as a jelly it is really tasty but still BITTER! So I wonder if that could be used in a mead somehow... Another jelly that's often used together in the same dishes is black currant jelly (or red currant). That made me think: mixed currants + rowanberry mead 🤔 And with the rowanberries I don't mean a big bunch, only a few just to bring that slight bitterness to balance the sweetness. Oh well, this blueberry mead looks really amazing and I'll surely try something like this one day 😄
Interesting. I have a bunch of rowanberries growing around here. Since I use anything else for mead, why not them? I also read that kråkbär, whatever they are called in english, was a common thing in some brews back in the day.
@@HolyPineCone Yeah, I am not sure if they are generally too bitter, or if it would be a nice addition to the sweetness. Either way it might be fun to try it out :) I've never had crowberries (checked Wikipedia for the name), apparently sweet but unsavory flavor as a berry, but used a bit more for jellies, juices and wine. You should try that too :D
Anyone have any advice on making a cheesecake mead? I'm thinking about trying to add cheesecake powder and Graham into my next batch. Just wanted to know if anyone else had tried it before.
Hey guys! Enjoyed the video, really looking forward to trying this recipe! I have a strange situation with my brews.. I will be moving in a few months and have several six gallon musts fermenting at the moment.. what should I do to avoid hurting them during transport? I’m sure they will be done fermenting and will be in conditioning at that point. Should I rack them off right before transporting them so if it gets shaken up it won’t get cloudy…? My brews should all be above 10% so I don’t think making vinegar will be an issue but should I be concerned? Any advice is much appreciated!
Don't mean to Butt in , but it sounds like you have it figured out . If you're making 6 Gallon Batches , you know more than most . Takes the same amount of time to Boil 1 Egg 🥚 as it does a Dozen . 🤠
Hello there. So if we do the same procedure with a bit of more honey and berrys at the beginning, using a different yeast with lower tolerance, is it safe to say that we would have come to a final product not so dry? and maybe backsweeting wasn't necessary? Is my thought nearly correct? Thank you so much.
In theory yes. However getting that balance just right is difficult since yeast can vary in their tolerance and well… they don’t know they have one so when the environment is not appropriate they stop fermenting. This could be caused by many factors.
Hey guys! Love the videos! i have been making mead for a couple months now because i love watching you guys. i keep getting a final gravity of around .990 ish is this ok? or am i doing something wrong the final product still taste fine and my friends do enjoy it just trying to make sure im getting the most out of it and make changes to keep progressing in the hobby. Again thanks for doing what yall do im a visual learner so your videos help alot.
Open vat brewing would definitely not be a good idea if you're a dog, cat or bird parent. A led and air lock is a most when brewing. Hair of the dog is a colloquial expression that will become an ominous one. If you are trying to brew something drinkable open vat..if you have a fur baby.
You should put some oaks in one of the bottles, I really love the color of yours, mine was darker, and to develop a really good taste took me a while but changing subject, I really wanna hug you guys, you are my mentors.
I have a little big mouth bubbler (without the tap) and love it for test batches. What do you think about the one with the tap as a starter fermenter for a beginner class on making mead and country wines?
Now that they are more readily available in dry form, have you guys considered using dried kveik yeast like Lallemand and Omega produce since it handles higher temps really well?
I’m trying it and so vikings blood! My son is super pumped to do it with me!!!!! I can’t wait to get started this weekend! Thank you for all the help, you guys are the best!
Hi guys!! For the longest time I didn't know what you meant by "footy". I made your Metheglin and while it was a little sweeter than I had anticipated, I have no complaints. I also just put some of the Blueberry Mead in secondary, and now I know what you mean by "footy". I'm hoping that it will fade given time. Thanks!
Why do you now pasteurize with the lids off? In your pasteurization video you said not too. Do you find the alcohol burn off isn't too bad? I guess there are no explosions with lids off!
Used a bottling wand for the first time today and boy is it a life changer. You guys seem to really enjoy this mead! How would you say it compares to the spiced metheglin?
Outtakes at the end..."What the bleepity bleep." That made me chuckle more than it probably should have. But it was needed on this early and dismal/frosty Sunday morning.
Off topic but I love making ginger beer, your ginger beer video inspired me to do it myself. Have you ever made it with a ginger bug? I have seen a few other channels do it but have never done it that way personally. Would be awesome to see your take on it.
I'm not the expert here (my first mead batch was a catastrophe, lol) but I would like to add that I made ginger beer with a ginger bug. It's super super easy, but it takes more time.
@@JKnivezz normally i'll use caramelized sugar and vanilla in secondary, but my aint was adamant i used fluff. So for that one i had to turn the fluff i to a dairy free simple syrup (that was one mess my wife will never let me live down) and i used that syrup as my fermentable sugar.
A bit of an odd question, in the beginning of the brew when you put the 2 cups of tea in, I believe. Could you possibly substitute the original tea for Blue bell vine? Not sure if it would change anything for the brew.
Do you have a video where you elaborate on the how's and why's of the clearness of your brew? Why do people want it to be clear? Why isn't it clear? How to make it clear? I'd watch it if you've made it 😁
Yall have been a great help in me starting and completing my first batch of mead and I'm looking to start my second. I have a question for yall and anyone in the comments who might have an answer or advice. I want to do a blueberry and mint mead but I'm unsure of how the mint would affect the alcohol and how much to add? Thank you for the advice ahead of time!
You guys always put out good content. Have you guys ever used the omega yeast Kveik Lutra? It's amazing for warm Temps and it's crazy fast with a 15% tolerance, I use it all the time in Arizona. Every time we get any in its gone within a week or two 😂
Adding the honey to back sweeten does lower the ABV some cause it dilutes your batch. Looks good I just tasted my strawberry batch a year later and it is my new favorite when bottled it was my least favorite so time does wonders to a brew
Old Time Engineer , Huh , reading your text , sounds like you have a little age on you too , along with your Wine 🍷. I'm an Ole Time , Carpenter , Iron Worker , Finish Carpenter , Trouble Shooter . The stuff They would have me do , was because , No Body Else could do it . So , I always got the Hardest things to do . Later Gator , enjoyed your Comment. 🤠
We don’t use all of them and honestly it’s best to not stop it, let it finish. We use pasteurization and fortification though to prevent further fermentation when necessary.
so i did something similar, i finally racked it today as it was just grinding to a stop it was just shy of the 4 week march today, thursday was the 4 week day, and it was bubbling around once every 15-20 seconds roughly sometimes slower, and im not sure what happened but its very strong smelling (presuming due to alcohol) but the taste is.... not blue berries.... dispite adding abit more than yours or there abouts, its abit like vinigar but its hard to tell its tangy, strong abit overpowering flavour wise so im not sure if the oxygen got in when it shouldnt have somewhere, everythings been completely sterile including the syphon, im going to let it rest abit add some honey and see if it takes that sharp tang away, i could be that im just not used to it tasting how it does its kinda harrsh thanks for directing me here guys thats helpful and i hope you get what im trying to say and maybe shed some light on what may have occured... thankfully its drinkable LOL cheers
