Tagges Farms Sweet Mead

If it's good for ancient Druids, runnin' nekkid through the wuids, Drinkin' strange fermented fluids, it's good enough for me! - Pete Seeger

Mission

Create a batch of premium quality traditional semi-sweet mead using the wonderful local orchard honey from Tagges Farms.

Ingredients
General Assembly

Clean and prep the primary fermentation bucket
  • Scrub, rinse and then soak the plastic primary bucket/lid/airlock overnight using warm water and Five Star PBW®.
  • Rinse the primary well, then use One Step® and some warm water in each, swish around and drain. Do not rinse again.
Prepare the must (no heat method)
  • Add 2 gallons of room temperature water to primary fermentation bucket.
  • Add 20 lbs of honey to the primary fermentation bucket.
  • Add room temperature water up to recipe requirements (about 5.4 gallons).
  • Mix like crazy!
  • Add honey or water to create a SG of 1.130.
Make the yeast happy

Journal

I'm going to formally test my staggered nutrient addition schedule and plot the results next to those from the Delta Dawn group-brew which used the Hightest schedule.

Sept 12, 07 (Pitch) - temp 72F, SG 1.130.

Sept 13, 07 (8 hours) - no airlock bubbling. Added first nutrient.

Sept 13, 07 (Day 1) - growing frothy yeast colony, no airlock bubbling, SG 1.128. Added K2CO3, airlock now bubbling.

Sept 14, 07 (Day 2) - SG 1.116.

Sept 15, 07 (Day 3) - smells and tastes wonderful, SG 1.104. Added final nutrients.

Sept 16, 07 (Day 4) - SG 1.090.

Sept 17, 07 (Day 5) - SG 1.076.

Sept 18, 07 (Day 6) - SG 1.066.

Sept 19, 07 (Day 7) - SG 1.057.

Sept 20, 07 (Day 8) - SG 1.051.

Sept 21, 07 (Day 9) - last day of summer and it's passing from dessert mead into sweet mead territory, SG 1.045.

Sept 23, 07 (Day 11) - I'll take a gravity reading once a week from now on, SG 1.036.

Sept 27, 07 (Day 15) - SG 1.024.

Oct 5, 07 (Day 23) - SG 1.012.

Oct 24, 07 (Day 42) - Racked. SG 1.008.

Dec 2, 07 (Day 81) - As the mead clears, a waxy/dust-like scum is collecting on the surface.

Dec 25, 07 (Day 104) - The alcohol is just beginning to integrate. It's very lightly sweet and holds great promise. I think I'm going to add some oak in a few weeks.

Jan 12, 08 (Day 122) - Added 3 lbs Mariani Ultimate Apricots.

Jan 19, 08 (Day 129) - Added 1 lb medjool dates.

Jan 25, 08 (Day 135) - I'm pleased with where the dates are taking this. The mouthfeel is luscious and the taste is sweeter with a kind of caramel note.