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Blueberry Jasmine
I wanted my second batch of mead to be something a little more interesting than just plain honey and water. I searched for recipes and eventually found one for blueberry jasmine mead. I bought 18 pounds of Busy Bee Clover Honey from Costco, two pounds of Willamette Valley frozen blueberries, a box of Allegro Jasmine Green Tea, some pectic enzyme, and Wyeast Dry Mead (4632) yeast.
I added the honey and blueberries (the blueberries were in a mesh bag) to a pot of water and brought it to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. I smashed the blueberries and then removed the mesh bag, allowing the liquid from the bag to drain into the pot. I added four teaspoons of pectic enzyme to the pot to reduce cloudiness caused by the pectin in the fruit. I brought the pot to around 170 or 180 degrees Fahrenheit. In another small pot I boiled some water, removed it from the burner, and added 16 packets of the green tea (about a quarter cup of dry tea if the packets had been opened). I let the tea steep for three minutes and then removed the packets. After the tea had cooled slightly I added it to the larger pot. I let the pot cool and then added it to a fermenting bucket along with enough water to reach the five gallon mark. Finally I added the yeast. The image below shows the ingredients I used.
The image below shows the mead in the secondary container. The black trash bag in the background was kept over each container to keep out as much light as possible.
The original gravity was 1.129. The mead was transferred to a secondary container after 71 days. The specific gravity during the transfer was 1.040, resulting in a current alcohol content of 11.6%.
After pretty much forgetting about this batch for over two years, without any change to the alcohol content, I decided to split it into two carboys and try to restart fermentation. I added a gallon of spring water to each, and then added Wyeast Dry Mead yeast, yeast nutrient, and yeast energizer. The gravity after this was measured at 1.019, which I think resulted in an alcohol content of 9.8%.
After a little over a month the gravity had dropped to 1.000, and the alcohol content was between 12.3% and 12.6% depending on what method I used to estimate it. There wasn't a simple way to do this because I had added water during the fermentation process.
A year and a half later I bottled. It tasted okay. I didn't really notice the blueberry or jasmine flavor.