TattooCelt
Well-Known Member
Cherry Bomb Mead
(Note: This is for a 3 gallon recipe)
10 lbs. Honey
3 cups Dried Cherries (primary) – purchased in bulk from Costco
¾ cup Dried Cherries (secondary)
Lavlin D47 yeast
¾ tsp per feeding of Yeast Energizer – I use the LD Carlson Company brand
Cinnamon Extract:
2 cinnamon sticks
½ cup vodka
4-5 oak cubes
Note: Start this 4-5 days before transfer to your final bulk aging vessel. I let mine go for the full five days before adding it to my final product, as I really wanted a slight cinnamon punch to play with the cherry and oak flavors.
I typically warm up the honey a bit. Two gallons brought to a medium temp to more easily dissolve the honey. For Primary, I took the dried cherries and placed them in a brewbag to keep sediment more controlled and then placed them in the warm honey/water mixture for 15 minutes to help start the extraction process. Then, I cooled the must down with an ice bath to room temperature, transferred it to the carboy, added the final gallon of water and pitched the yeast. The cherries from Costco did have some sugars, so the yeasties had plenty to feed on during primary. I added the yeast energizer at 24 hours from pitch and then again at 48 and 72 hours while de-gassing twice a day.
Once primary was complete at 1.010 gravity, I transferred to secondary and added ¾ cup dried cherries to help make the cherry flavor more pronounced and to deepen the red color of the mead. This kicked up a very slight fermentation - which died down rather quickly. Two weeks after moving to secondary, I again transferred the mead off of the cherries and the sediment. At this point, I allowed the mead to sit for three weeks to finish dropping out any residual sediment before transferring it a final time. This mead cleared rather quickly in comparison to some of my others. At this juncture, I added the cinnamon extract I’d created and ¾ cup wine conditioner to back sweeten.
It was still slightly “hot” at this point, but still had an amazing flavor profile! The cherry was sweet, but not cloying and the cinnamon/oak extract really rounded out the experience. It wasn’t as red as I’d hoped, but is a very pleasant dark amber. The mead then bulk aged for a month before being placed into 750 ml bottles to be set aside for a possible August opening.
(Note: This is for a 3 gallon recipe)
10 lbs. Honey
3 cups Dried Cherries (primary) – purchased in bulk from Costco
¾ cup Dried Cherries (secondary)
Lavlin D47 yeast
¾ tsp per feeding of Yeast Energizer – I use the LD Carlson Company brand
Cinnamon Extract:
2 cinnamon sticks
½ cup vodka
4-5 oak cubes
Note: Start this 4-5 days before transfer to your final bulk aging vessel. I let mine go for the full five days before adding it to my final product, as I really wanted a slight cinnamon punch to play with the cherry and oak flavors.
I typically warm up the honey a bit. Two gallons brought to a medium temp to more easily dissolve the honey. For Primary, I took the dried cherries and placed them in a brewbag to keep sediment more controlled and then placed them in the warm honey/water mixture for 15 minutes to help start the extraction process. Then, I cooled the must down with an ice bath to room temperature, transferred it to the carboy, added the final gallon of water and pitched the yeast. The cherries from Costco did have some sugars, so the yeasties had plenty to feed on during primary. I added the yeast energizer at 24 hours from pitch and then again at 48 and 72 hours while de-gassing twice a day.
Once primary was complete at 1.010 gravity, I transferred to secondary and added ¾ cup dried cherries to help make the cherry flavor more pronounced and to deepen the red color of the mead. This kicked up a very slight fermentation - which died down rather quickly. Two weeks after moving to secondary, I again transferred the mead off of the cherries and the sediment. At this point, I allowed the mead to sit for three weeks to finish dropping out any residual sediment before transferring it a final time. This mead cleared rather quickly in comparison to some of my others. At this juncture, I added the cinnamon extract I’d created and ¾ cup wine conditioner to back sweeten.
It was still slightly “hot” at this point, but still had an amazing flavor profile! The cherry was sweet, but not cloying and the cinnamon/oak extract really rounded out the experience. It wasn’t as red as I’d hoped, but is a very pleasant dark amber. The mead then bulk aged for a month before being placed into 750 ml bottles to be set aside for a possible August opening.
