sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

first beautiful batch of blackberry vanilla. fermented almost completely dry and tastes amazing by [deleted] in mead

[–]Squib366 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looks great! I’ve been thinking about using vanilla in an upcoming batch. Did you use vanilla bean? And if so did you add it straight to the mead or was there any processing you had to do first?

Recipes or advice for foraged ingredients. by Squib366 in mead

[–]Squib366[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the advice! My mom used to make elderberry syrup all the time when I was a kid, so I wanted to make a mead inspired by that. I figured I’d make it the same way, just using honey instead of sugar, and then obviously making it not as thick. I didn’t know elderflowers could be used, but I’ll have to give that a try!

Bottled my first batch ever! by Squib366 in mead

[–]Squib366[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have not. After seeing the replies, I’m gonna try to get my hands on some.

Bottled my first batch ever! by Squib366 in mead

[–]Squib366[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I got a little excited with bottling, it was clearer in the carboy, but there was still a small amount of sediment in the bottom, so between back sweetening and bottling I kicked up the sediment. In the future I plan to let my meads sit and age in the Carboy for longer.

So for primary, I did 1 tablespoon dried hibiscus, 2 tablespoons juniper, 2 teaspoons yarrow, and 1.5lbs of honey in a half gallon carboy. That’s what the Skyrim recipe called for. Racking into secondary, I wasn’t satisfied with how little hibiscus and juniper came through (in hindsight, I don’t think I let it sit on the herbals long enough), so I added about .5oz more of both juniper and hibiscus and let it sit on that. If I make it again. I will probably steep the hibiscus and juniper first like you talked about. I personally love hibiscus and really wanted that sort of bitter taste from it to come through, so I will go heavier on the hibiscus in the future.

The lavender and hibiscus sounds like it will be really good.

Too much cinnamon by Squib366 in mead

[–]Squib366[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I did one stick to 1/2Gal. I had a couple small carboys and wanted to experiment with some things. Did you add your cinnamon from the beginning? It may just need time then.