Beer Forum

Years ago I got together with a buddy of mine and bought a 50 pound bucket of blackberry honey. It was from a farm in Oregon and some of the best honey I've ever tasted. We split the batch and each decided to make a mead. From my 25 pounds I took 22 of it and did a no heat method and added Champagne yeast. Put it in the closet and let it go.

That was 5 1/2 years ago. It hasn't moved or been transferred once. Honestly a couple of times I almost tossed it. But somehow deep down I knew to keep it sitting in the carboy.

Well last week I got out my wine thief and put it in the mead. What came out was a top notch still mead. Classically simple, just honey, water and yeast.

Last night I bottled the mead into 12 oz bottles. At the end of the bottling session I had a little extra that I couldn't toss out. So I got a little glass.



The pure blackberry honey is insane. The fresh smell of blackberries and alcohol heat overpower the nose of the beer. The taste is warm but with no esters. You get a faint taste of blackberry with a sweet plum overtones. After the 2nd and 3 sip the warm heat is gone. I am glad that I bottled this mead "still". I can't think of serving this cold or with any Co2 at all. I think it would take away the complexity of it.

More to come.

looks fantastic. i'm curious if you took gravity readings for an abv? was it in a carboy? did you use an airlock, a over-pressure vent (like carboy cap), or a solid bung for that storage time?

I had it in a glass 6 gallon carboy. With a one piece airlock. I had vodka in the airlock. It was in a closet and cool mostly. I did not take any OG/FG readings. But in Beersmith the recipe comes in around 13%.

looks good and must taste amazing well blended i am a meadmaker before a brewer and the one thing in mead making is no rushing involved and time is your friend hope it pushes you into a new side of homebrewing

madmead wrote:looks good and must taste amazing well blended i am a meadmaker before a brewer and the one thing in mead making is no rushing involved and time is your friend hope it pushes you into a new side of homebrewing

It is, the time is the answer. I just glass etched one with my sons name "Aydan" and put happy birthday on it. I'll share it with him on his 21st birthday.

Chris

Well the mead is going to NHC's San Diego region. I'm planning to drop the beer off sometimes early next week. I will post the results when I get them.

Chris

madmead wrote:looks good and must taste amazing well blended i am a meadmaker before a brewer and the one thing in mead making is no rushing involved and time is your friend hope it pushes you into a new side of homebrewing

I'll be honest, I had to try to read this 3 times before it made sense. Punctuation, it's your friend and mine!


Oh, and nice looking mead brother!