When I was putting together my first mead recipe, I came up with two distinct flavour profiles I wanted to try out. Once I freed out another 1 gallon jug, I started on a second batch, this one meant to be more mellow.
A local juice truck does a really interesting blueberry smoothie with all sorts of healthy stuff, but they make it interesting with cacao nibs. I’ve also been really interested in the rich nutty character that cacao contributes to super-high alcohol stouts like Chocolate Rain.
I did a light boil with the honey again, but I used an extra liter of water since the last batch came out a little short. This led to a slightly lower OG at 1.100; I’m hoping the attenuation is similar to the first batch, which would finish out around 1.015-1.020 which should be just about right for this one.
The blueberries were added at 40d and turned the mead a pretty strong ruby colour within a few days (pictured above). A second round was added at 99d and deepened the colour further. 10g cacoa nibs were added at 123d.
This one will be a slow burner so I’ll keep this post updated as it develops.
The Recipe
- 1410g local honey
- 1/2lb blueberry
- 10g cacao nibs
- 4L water
- Lavlin EC-1118
- 4g acid blend
- 2g servomyces
- 2g gypsum
The Numbers
- Brewed: 27 Oct 2013
- Batch Size: 4L
- Yield: —
- Fermentation temperature: 22 C
- Primary: —
- Secondary: —
- Target OG: —
- Target FG: —
- OG: 1.100
- FG: —
- ABV: —
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