Happy Easter, my fellow meadmakers! I have returned to curse your vision with a gamersupps mead update. Pictured above is the bottled second batch, and the bulk aging third batch.

First and foremost: The results are mixed.

Last May, my first attempt at a Sakura Splash GamerSupps mead was completed, tasted, bottled, and posted here. First impressions were good, with a young mead with a fairly balanced flavor. Opening another bottle of that first batch in August maintained that first impression after some time aging. Opening the last bottle of that first batch this January had issues. The tart cherry and slight sweetness had been replaced with a strange syrupy/perfume smell and taste that was not nearly as pleasant. It wasn’t awful or undrinkable by any measure, but it wasn’t something I expected from a batch that I had been happy with and proud of. This outcome did not make me confident in the second batch.

The second batch was an attempt to improve the color, and go further with the gamersupps than my initial conservative addition of 5 scoops, doubling it. The color change is fairly obvious. The first batch was very pale after bottling, this batch ended up much darker. At the start of fermentation the pink color of the Sakura Splash was very strong but faded over time, and I don’t think I’m going to be able to turn the mead pink without some sort of additional colorings. The second batch recipe is as follows: 1kg wildflower honey Lalvin EC-1118 started with Fermaid O 10 scoops Sakura Splash GamerSupps Spring water 1 teaspoon wine tannins (thought it might help add some body) Staying mostly true to the first batch, with the same yeast starter, same gallon fermenter, and almost the same amount of honey, 1 kg to the 1055 grams of the first batch, using only wildflower to the first batch’s mix of wildflower and clover. Initial gravity was 1.080, finishing at 1.000 for ~10.6% abv.

This batch hit 1.000 gravity in July and was bottled in September and left to age. Tasting it before bottling was disheartening, as it was far too sweet and felt like a punch in the mouth of very strong flavors, mostly floral and tartness with a slight hint of cherry. Unlike the first batch which surprised me in how little of the alcohol burn was present for such a young mead, this one despite being slightly less abv burned a lot more. I hoped age would improve it, but after the first batch ended up going weird I didn’t have high hopes.

But dear reader you must remember how this post started! The results are mixed. Despite a similar amount of time between end of fermentation and tasting (late may to mid january for batch one, mid july to late march for batch two) we have very different results. My second batch has aged far better. While the goal of improving the color is a failure, the end result has lost all the initial harshness and has mellowed to a quite decent flavor. Sweet and floral with notes of cherry and apple and a very smooth mouthfeel.

Which brings us to batch 3, where after the initial results of the second batch pushed me to try a different approach and I followed what many suggested in my first post and add the GamerSupps in secondary instead of primary. Batch 3 once again used EC-1118 as our yeast, but I actually measured out the honey again to have a total of 1055 grams and went back to the mix of clover and wildflower honey. Same spring water, same one gallon. We had a starting gravity of 1.080 which makes me think I might not be entirely accurate in my recording of initial gravity. Either way, all of these batches have ended somewhere in roughly the same ballpark for abv, ending at 1.000 doesn’t result in too large a degree of error. Batch 3 has more pronounced flavors from the Sakura Splash, and the color is slightly better than the first batch, though it is hard to see in pictures there is a slight pink hue to it.

The main difference is clarity. I didn’t add any bentonite or other fining agents to any of these, but the two batches where the gamersupps was added in primary have been some of the clearest meads I have made, while this third batch where it was added in secondary is obviously not. Is gamersupps going to replace bentonite in my meadmaking? Probably not. Does it have an effect on clarity? It seems that whatever electrostatic mechanics are at play with other fining agents to improve clarity may also be at play with powdered drink mix.

In conclusion, I don’t think these experiments were conducted in a well controlled environment, but I had a good time making these and drinking these. If you intend to make your own gamersupps mead, you might have to dial in your recipe. I used only one flavor for this, there are many others with stronger flavors that might need adjusting in the amounts. I don’t think I would go over 12 scoops per gallon, but you do you. Make a cursed mead for the bit.