Looking for a dry mead recipe.

[Bwn]

I have made JAOM it was good but much too sweet for me. I will probably continue to make it as I like to have some sweet mead on hand for people to try and it's easy. I have tried some commercial meads but couldn't find any dry ones. I have had a few semi dry and they were better than the sweet ones but still sweeter than I like. As I am sure many of you know when you go to a liquor store you are lucky to find more than 2 or 3 different meads. Anyways I looked at the newbee guide at the dry recipe and would be willing to try it but I don't have that exact yeast. I have:
About 4 lbs of local wildflower honey
Lalvin 71B - 1122, Red Star Pasteur Champagne, and a variety of ale yeasts.
I also have vanilla beans and 1.5 lbs of blueberries(not necessarily looking to use these but just thought I would throw that out there)
I have most of your basic household spices as well. I am looking to make a 1 gallon batch. Any help/ ideas would be appreciated.

 

[randomguy18840]

You could make a dry blueberry vanilla sparkling mead.


2 Lbs of that honey in primary
with the blueberries and vanilla in secondary or vanilla after 2nd rack.
Pasteur champagne yeast.

Should be O.G. close to 1.078
After 1 year bulk age add 1/5 cup of honey right before bottling and bottle in beer bottles.

I've had good luck with that red star yeast in other dry melomels I've made.
You'd have to look up the YAN calculator to get proper nutrient levels, but it should be a pretty straight forward ferment. When all is finished and bottled it should be right around 10.5% alcohol so you could actually bottle a bit sooner and have it still be good.

 

[Frnic]

I would suggest as a second batch you go for a traditional mead - honey, yeast and water and work up to adding fruit and other ingredients later.

Dry with 71B should be fairly easy as it has a fairly wide temperature tolerance and a 14% ABS tolerance.

3 Lbs of Honey
1 pkg 71B
Water to 1 gallon

71B has low nutrition requirements, but I would suggest adding some raisins (small handfull/20 or so) (will impart a slight taste), or to get some yeast nutrient and follow the instructions on it (will affect taste less).

I would suggest you get some Go-ferm to use when re-hydrating the yeast. While it is optional, it seems to be widely accepted that this helps to get a healthy fermentation which is more likely to go all the way to dry.

Process:

1. Mix 3 lbs of honey in 1/2 gallon of water in primary fermenter
2. Add water to make 1 gallon of must, mix and aerate well
3. Record SG - it should be about 1.108
4. Re-hydrate yeast per mfg instructions let sit 15 to 20 minutes
5. Pitch yeast into must, aerate well and seal with air lock (or a balloon with pin hole)
6. Monitor must until foaming starts - indicating end of lag phase - a few hours to a day or two max.
7. Add yeast nutrient (or raisins) to must and aerate well.
8. Monitor must and check gravity every 12 hours.
9. Aerate well once or twice a day until SG is about 1.065. Be careful when aerating, the must will be carbonated - think shaking a soda!
10. Rack to carboy and apply airlock when SG remains the same for several days - it should be around SG 1.000 indicating 14% + ABC.
11. Stabilize.

The Mead will be dry, if it is too dry you can back sweeten by taking a small sample and adding honey until you like the taste. Measure the SG and then adjust the batch to that SG by slowing adding honey, stirring and measuring SG.

If you back sweeten DO NOT BOTTLE for at least a couple weeks monitoring SG to insure fermentation does not restart - indicated by SG dropping.

Age (you may want to rack one or more times until clear) - taste test monthly until you are happy with the taste.

Frank

 

[Medsen Fey]

Frank is giving you a very good plan. I'd modify it to use a little less honey to start with a gravity if 1.090-1.095 so you end up with 12-13% ABV. That will help make sure it goes dry. I'd also add a tsp of cream of tartar per gal for buffering.

Once it is done, you can consider adding the blueberries if you feel adventurous.

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