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This week I assumed I might combine issues up a bit by presenting a really excessive gravity Tart Cherry fruit mead made with broadly obtainable elements.
Excessive Gravity Mead Design
I began making excessive gravity melomels again in 2016 as I’ve all the time been fascinated with the type, which I discover to be among the most scrumptious meads obtainable. Ken Schramm of Schramm’s meadery who I’ve had on the podcast various occasions, makes among the greatest industrial examples of those meads and whereas I lack his expertise I’ve spent plenty of time researching how nice meads are made.
Whereas I’ve made various meads utilizing contemporary fruit, this week I’m going to begin with a easy mead made solely from fruit juice and honey – one thing any beer brewer could make simply.
Having spent numerous hours researching excessive gravity fruit meads, I’m going to begin with a number of easy guidelines of thumb and design ideas.
The primary idea is that we’re going to begin the mead at a particularly excessive beginning gravity, after which choose a yeast with an acceptable alcohol tolerance in order that the yeast truly provides up (reaches its restrict) earlier than the sugars within the honey are all consumed. This can lead to residual sweetness within the completed beer as a result of not all of the honey will likely be consumed. It’s going to additionally give us a excessive ending gravity.
Second, the quantity of fruit or juice used must be roughly the identical or barely increased than the quantity of honey. We’re additionally going to pick out a fruit with plenty of both acidity or tannins to offset the residual sugar within the completed mead. It’s this crucial stability between the remaining sugar within the mead and tannins/acidity within the fruit that offers the mead its taste.
Third is that we’re truly going to focus on the ultimate gravity primarily based on the acidity of the fruit. On this case we’re utilizing Tart Cherry juice which is just reasonably acidic, but when we had been utilizing a extra acidic fruit like black currants we might truly goal a fair increased ending gravity.
Lastly, we’re going to make use of a contemporary staggered nutrient addition with degassing to speed up the fermentation of the mead. Honey is notoriously nitrogen poor, so it requires components to ferment quickly. I personally just like the TONSA-3 schedule which is integrated with BeerSmith and makes use of 4 Fermaid-O nutrient additions beginning at 24, 48, 72 after which the 1/3 sugar break.
The Tart Cherry Mead Recipe
Constructing the recipe now’s principally an train in deciding on our goal ending gravity after which making use of the principles above. I constructed my recipe in BeerSmith utilizing the mead options to calculate gravities in addition to the TONSA nutrient additions. I chosen a 5 gallon (19 l) batch measurement, which whereas not low-cost provides you fairly a number of bottles of completed mead.
Beginning with a last gravity goal of 1.035 which is a bit on the candy aspect, I started constructing the recipe. I began with 18 lbs of orange blossom honey which has a quantity of just about precisely 1.5 gallons. I like orange blossom honey because it has a reasonably impartial flowery profile that works nicely with fruits. I’ll in all probability goal a barely decrease OG if I make this once more.
For tart cherries, I ended up utilizing Knudsen Simply Tart Cherry juice which is pasteurized, however has no components to inhibit fermentation. I used 2 gallons of it which is above the 1:1 ratio of honey to fruit. With a sugar content material (measured with a hydrometer) of 14 brix, the tart cherry does contribute about 1/3 of the sugars.
I chosen the traditional Lalvin 71B Narbonne yeast, which is broadly utilized in melomels by many industrial mead makers. This yeast I’ve used on nearly all of my meads, and it has a nicely outlined alcohol tolerance of round 15.1% which interprets to about .110 gravity factors. So this mead with a beginning gravity of 1.145 will end out round 1.035 (110 gravity factors decrease) utilizing this yeast.
I used the TONSA Fermaid-O additions of 4 grams every staggered at 24, 48, 72 and the 1/3 sugar break. The mead was degassed twice a day for the primary week, and the yeast was handled up entrance with GoFerm after which slowly raised in gravity with small additions over time earlier than pitching to keep away from osmotic shock (as a result of very excessive gravity).
Tart Cherry Mead Outcomes
The mead was initially a bit “sizzling” flavored nevertheless it mellowed out properly after a number of months. The tart cherry got here by way of nicely and although it’s a bit on the candy aspect the completed mead was very drinkable. If I needed to do it once more I would alter a number of factors decrease on the beginning/ending gravity to keep away from among the sweetness. Because the mead aged it has continued to enhance.
I hope you loved right this moment’s article on fruit mead design. Please subscribe for normal weekly supply, and don’t hesitate to retweet, hyperlink, like or point out any of my articles on social media.
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