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
- 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.
- Pour in your honey. In order to make the honey pour easier, put your honey containers in warm water.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Close your lid and attach an airlock.
- 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.
- 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.
- After about 2.5 months in your secondary, your mead should be good to bottle. Bottle your mead.
- Enjoy.
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