With 5 gallons of a medium show mead to play with, I racked a couple of gallons to smaller containers for some mead flavor experiments. Fermentation had slowed down considerably after 3 weeks. I thought it would only go 2 weeks but the airlock was pretty active.
At the end of three weeks, I felt it was good time to siphon the mead onto some blueberries and oak, separately. I have two jugs, both 1 gallon in volume, and decided to use them for these experiments.
For the blueberries, I read in The Compleat Meadmaker that I would need 5 to 7 pounds to get a medium level fruit flavor if I was adding them to 5 gallons of mead. A quick calculation for a gallon of mead was 1+ pounds of the fruit. Using frozen fruit has worked for me in the past, so I used frozen blueberries this time around as well. With a sanitized funnel, I poured the berries into the gallon jug and then poured the mead on top of them until it was filled.
The oak experiment was simpler. I had a portion of an oak spiral from my New England Hard Cider from last year hanging around. I dropped it into the other jug and filled it with mead. I didn’t steam the spiral as I have before and I am not sure if that will be a problem in terms of infection or other issues in terms of off-flavors. I am taking that risk.
I racked the rest of the mead into a large carboy and it will be untainted by these additional additives.
Now we wait. I am going to let them chill out in the basement until they clear. I am not sure how long that will take, but the sooner the better.
Note to self, I should add some pectic enzyme to the blueberry jug.
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