Mike’s 1 Gallon Blackberry Mead Recipe and Tasting

January 17, 2024 Mike

Inspired by the prolific mead maker John Hoover, Mike made a mead! You know what, it was simple! Usually, we have a fancy xml file that we link to for the recipe, but here it is:
Mike’s Blackberry mead

1 Gallon batch | OG 1.113 | FG 1.010 | 14% ABV

3 lbs of Honey from Costco
1 gallon of RO Water
2 Cups of mashed blackberries (frozen is fine)
Pectin Enzyme as directed 24 hours before pitching yeast
Red Star Champagne yeast
1tsp Yeast Nutrient at pitching
1tsp Yeast Nutrient 4 days later

At the time of this tasting, the mead is about 8 months old. After about 3 months, I had tasted it, taken a gravity reading, and racked it to a secondary fermenter. Then let it sit for 5 months before bottling. In both cases he used a small mesh sack to help filter out the particulate.

The mead is a little rough around the edges, not unpleasant, and after a few sips the alcohol flavor and aroma aren’t very noticeable, but Mike’s going to give it a good 6 months or so before trying it again. The Red Star Champagne yeast has a alcohol tolerance of 13 – 15%, which explains why it’s semi sweet. All in all it was easy, and came out really good, Mike has high hopes for the next batch as well. Could use more berry flavor, but he’s not complaining.

The site that Mike found that ships bulk honey is Crystal’s Raw Honey at https://crystalsrawhoney.com/ (They aren’t sponsor of the show or anything). They have a lot of varieties of mead, and the prices were pretty good. In many cases, shipping is free.

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Opening Music is Rock Jam Band courtesy of TheoTer on FreeSound – https://freesound.org/people/TheoTer/sounds/569778/