2017 Mead Recipe
| Honey | 24 lb |
| water | 12.5 qt |
| Yeast energizer | 8 g |
| pectic enzyme | 2.5 t |
| yeast | |
| raisins | 55 g |
| nutmeg | 1.5 t |
| vanilla beans, chopped | 3.5 beans |
| oranges chopped with peels | 6 oranges |
The honey was Honeydabber on eBay. It is wildflower honey from the everglades region in southern Florida.
The vanilla beans from Simply Organic were purchased in the spice aisle, and I used two bottles, which is 3 and one half beans. I should have weighed them, but I forgot.
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I made a table of the last three batches to arrive at try to figure out the best recipe.
| 2010 | 2012 | 2013 | 2017 | |||||
| Honey | 20 | lb | 18 | lb | 22 | 24 | ||
| water | 3.5 | gal | 4 | gal | 11 | L | 12 | L |
| Yeast nutrient | 7 | grams | ||||||
| Yeast energizer | 2 | t | 2.5 | t | ? | |||
| pectic enzyme | 7 | grams | 1.5 | t | 7 | g | 2.5 t | |
| yeast | Lavlin EC1118 | Red Star Pasteur Champagne | Cuvee | |||||
| raisins | 50 | g | 55 | g | ||||
| cinnamon sticks | 4.5 | 0 | ||||||
| cloves | 0.25 | t | 0 | |||||
| nutmeg | 0.5 | t | 0.75 | 1.5 | t | 1.5 | t | |
| vanilla beans, ground | 2 | T | 3 | T | 3.3 | T | ||
| all spice | 0.5 | t | 0 | |||||
| clementine juice | 13 | 16 | 0 | |||||
| clementine peels | 13 | 0 | ||||||
| oranges | 5 | 6 | ||||||
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It is off-scale on my refractive index device, meaning the Brix is over 34. It is off-scale on my densitometer too, meaning it floats too high to be able to read the scale. I estimate the density at 1.175 g/ml, which I adjusted to about 1.17 g/ml. This should make 20% alcohol, but in reality it should stop early leaving it sweet.
At 12 hours the must is not bubbling much. I am a little worried.
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| This is the design for the wine label. |
