Wild Berry & Oat Mead - started 8/12/2012

          So I started brewing for the first time 8/12/2012 by creating my very first mead. I was very inspired by my friend Larri McKnight who is a master at brewing. She is an amazingly talented Pagan woman with so much to teach. She has taught me pretty much everything I know of brewing so far. What she has taught me has not only saved me time but money as well.

          I bought all of my basic brewing supplies at Anuway Hydroponics here in Rogers Arkansas. Wonderful helpful people that are filled with a lot of brewing knowledge themselves.

          I want to give my basic recipe for creating this mead along with all the changes and additions I have done with this brew until it reaching the bottling stage. I will do all the updates as edits to each post just to keep the page from becoming over crowded. Please follow me so you too can enjoy this great journey I have embarked upon.

8/12/2012
Ingredients:

• 3 lbs fresh seasonal wild berries (strawberries, raspberries, black berries, blue berries)
• 1 lb rolled organic oats
• 1.5 gallons of Arkansas Dark Honey
• 5 gallons purified water
• 5 Campden tablets
• 1 teaspoon of pectin enzyme (since I am using fruit)
• 1 5 gallon food grade fermentation bucket
• 1 fermentation bucket lib
• 1 air lock
• 1 hops mesh bag
• 2 packets of wine yeast.
• 3 tablespoons of easy clean sterilization solution

I started out heating about 1.5 gallons of the purified water into a large stew pot so I could dissolve the honey. While that was heating I used the easy clean to sterilize my bucket, lid and air lock. Once that was done and the honey was dissolved into the water I poured it into the bucket. I placed the fruit in the mesh bag, the dissolved Campden tablets, and pectin enzyme into the bucket. Then I filled the bucket up to the 5 gallon mark. I let this sit for 24 hours before I placed the yeast into the bucket.

Once all of this was done I let the mixture with the yeast sit for three days before removing the fruit.

8/16/2012
Removed hops mesh bag containing the fruit. sealed bucket and left to ferment.

8/26/2012
Sterilized second bucket using easy clean sterilization solution. Using easy siphon hose I transferred the mead from the first stage fermentation bucket to the second stage fermentation bucket. Added on dissolved Campden tablet.

9/16/2012
Checked mead. Smell and taste were off. Spoke with Larri and she suggested that I add sugar. I also added some yeast nutrients (1 teaspoon per gallon for 3 days). This seemed to kick start the stalled fermentation process.

10/13/2012
Sterilized aging fermentation bucket. Mead smells and tastes much better. Clarity is amazing at this stage as it is siphoned into the new bucket. Color is a deep rich purplish red hue from the berries. Added Campden tablet to further clarify.

11/17/2012
Moved mead into new sterile bucket. The color is getting very nice. It is a deep rich blue-ish purple and very clear. I added three Campden tablets to help further clarify the mead. Replaced lid and refilled the airlock with purified water.

1/15/2013
Ok so I have been a bad brewer. I haven't moved my meads and wines in a while so doing it tonight. After talking with Larri about alcohol levels I am adding one cup of sugar for gallon to each. I want them to be as tasty as possible while still having a nice high content. So this one got 5 cups of sugar. The rest will be getting their sugar as well.

But I wanted to add that the mead SMELLS GREAT!!! O H  M Y  G O D S! I can NOT wait to drink this!

7/6/2013
Tasted this mead. It is ready for bottling. Will be doing that next weekend. This has turned out to be an extremely dry mead. The flavor is very subtle and the clarity is amazing. The purple has lighten greatly. I think that it will become better with aging.

7/13/2013
Mead is bottled. I really thought the clarity was good from what I say in the fermentation bucket. But it seems to still be a bit cloudy. The state is good. This brew turned out on the dry side. John loves it. I am hoping now that it has been bottled it might clear a bit more. I ended up with 16 liter bottles.

7/20/2013

OK so the Wild Berry & Oat Mead has been bottled for about a week now. It has completely cleared up. I am not sure why it did so in the bottles and not in the bucket.