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Mead Lovers Digest #0195
Mead Lover's Digest #195 Mon 16 August 1993
Forum for Discussion of Mead Brewing and Consuming
John Dilley, Digest Coordinator
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Date: Sun, 15 Aug 93 11:10:34 -0600
From: glo@beta.lanl.gov (Gordon Olson)
Subject: Peach mead recipe, first place in nationals
At the AHA's national competition in Portland, OR, my peach mead
was given first place in the non-traditional mead category. The first
place in the traditional category was from Canada and used a very
tasty and aromatic wild flower honey. The brewer of the traditional
mead was given the Mead Maker of the Year award.
Usually, it isn't possible to reproduce a wild flower mead. However,
my peach recipe uses just standard ingredients and may inspire someone
to try something similar. I brewed it on the 23rd of July last year.
Peach Mead (for 5 gallons)
boil for 15 minutes with 2.5 gallons of water:
12 pounds of blended clover honey
1/2 tsp. Irish moss
After turning off the heat add:
11 pounds of pitted, pureed, peaches
soak at 160 F for 15 minutes to pasteurize
Then I cooled the mead with a counterflow wort chiller. (I am
switchingto the immersion-type of wort chiller.) Because of the
high gravity and the fact that tiny pieces of peach were sucked into
the wort chiller, this took a long time. After the initial run off,
I stirred hot water into the peach mush in my kettle and drained that
water through the wort chiller.
2 Redstar Prise de Mousse yeast packages were rehydrated in hot water
and added to the 69 F mead. With all the nutrients from the peaches,
it fermented fast, I actually had some peach pieces blown out through
the blow-off tube attached to the 5 gallon carboy.
After two weeks I added 2 tsp. of pectic enzymes. Unfortunately, a
thick layer of sediment formed and a thick layer of floating peach
pieces formed. Only a band in the middle was relatively clear.
Agitating, by spinning the carboy didn't seem to help, so, after
three weeks, I siphoned out this middle 3 gallons into a clean
carboy (SG=0.994). In retrospect, what I should have done was finish
fermenting this mead in a 3 gallon carboy. Since I didn't have one
at the time, I boiled 3 pounds of honey in 1.5 gallons of water and
topped up the 5 gallon carboy.
Two months after starting, I racked the mead into a clean carboy
(SG=0.994, again). I added 5 Stabilizing Tablets to kill off the
yeast and two pounds of boiled honey to sweeten the mead.
Three months after starting, I added 2 tablespoons of polyclar in
1/2 cup of hot water. This clarified the mead and I bottled three
days later. It was bottled straight from the carboy with nothing
added.
Things I would do differently:
1) Next time I will pasteurize rather than boil the honey.
(Actually, this was the last time I boiled honey for a mead.)
2) Use local raw, unfilterred honey rather than store bought
blended clover honey. (to enhance honey aromas and flavors)
3) Freeze the pureed peaches first to break up the cells and
improve utilitation of the peach sugars and flavors.
4) Try harder to keep the peach pieces out of the primary.
5) Use a less attenuative yeast. Prise de Mousse has consistently
given me dry meads. Lalvin's K1V-1116 wine yeast gives me meads
with SG > 1.004 that seem less alcholic. So I am switching to it
as my primary mead yeast.
The main comments/criticisms that I received from the judges
were that the mead was alcoholic (higher alcohols present) and
that the peach and honey aromas and flavors were delicate or
understated. But it was very clean, no off flavors. These
comments guided, but did not completely determine my list of
changes for next time.
I hope you have enjoyed the saga of this mead. A less detailed
summary should appear in the next Zymurgy.
Gordon Olson, glo@lanl.gov
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End of Mead Lover's Digest
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