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.

Blueberry Mead     Oaked Mead     Mead Experiments

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.