5 Gallon Pumpkin Mead Recipe


5 gallon pumpkin mead recipe

It’s that time of the year when I start to get excited about all things fall again. Every year around the beginning of August I start to look forward to the next month.

There was a time when I was a kid when Summer was best, but that time has passed.

Fall brings excellent weather, great foliage, a break from the sweltering heat, and the return of the NFL.

It also brings Pumpkin spiced everything. Every year I try and make a pumpkin beer, but this year I’m going to go with making a strong pumpkin flavored mead.

Ingredients

  • 15 lbs of Orange Blossom Honey
  • Fermaid K and Goferm
  • 5 gallons of distilled water
  • Lavlin 71-B 1122 yeast
  • Homebrewing Kit
  • 2 Cinnamon Sticks
  • 1 tsp of vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp ginger

Process

  1. Sanitize your primary fermenter and everything else you are going to use. Pour 2 gallons of your water into your bucket. Start with 2 because it will be easier to mix in the honey with less water than if you were doing it with a full bucket.
  2. Pour in your honey. In order to make the honey pour easier, put your honey containers in warm water.
  3. Stir your honey with a big spoon and make sure it’s completely mixed. This is called a “must”. Make sure to stir your water/honey mix for 10 minutes to oxygenate the must.
  4. Once this is mixed, pour in the rest of the water to bring your bucket up to 5 gallons. Stir again for another 5-10 minutes.
  5. Measure out a tsp of Goferm and Fermaid-K and divide this mixture into 4 parts. Save this mix in order to add your nutrients on a staggered schedule. Part 1 is during the initial pitch of the yeast. Part 2 is 2 days later. Part 3 is added 4 days later. Part 4 is added 8 days later.
  6. Take an initial reading with your hydrometer to determine a starting point for your mead. This will be important to determine when your mead is done fermenting and how much alcohol is in your final product.
  7. Get a little warm water and add part 1 of your yeast nutrient mix to your 71-B 1122 yeast in a sanitized container. After 10 minutes of rehydrating your yeast, dump it in your bucket.
  8. Close your lid and attach an airlock.
  9. For the first 5 days open up your bucket and GENTLY stir your fermenting mead. This will speed up the fermentation process by adding oxygen and degassing the co2 that is forming inside.
  10. After a month, take all your spices and place them in a 5 gallon glass carboy. Now, take your mead from your fermentation bucket and syphon it into your carboy on top of the spices.
  11. After about 2.5 months in your secondary, your mead should be good to bottle. Bottle your mead.
  12. Enjoy.
5 gallon pumpkin mead recipe

This will yield some really tasty mead that will bring a good amount of warmth on those crisp fall nights. Make sure to share with friends, that’s what mead making is all about!

Start homebrewing today with your own kit.

-Tate

Tate

Ex beer store worker. Current home brewer. Fan of beer. Fan of mead.

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