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Saturday, March 18, 2017

2017 Mead

After consideration of past recipes, decided to try this:

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.

This is the design for the wine label.