Recipe

Fresh Peach & Ginger Mead

(made on national mead day)		  
Batch Number:
 030802b
Starting Gravity:
1.092
    Final Gravity: (in process)
Fermentables:          
12 lbs "Howell" honey (purchased from a beekeeper in Howell, MI)
Other 1:
 10 lbs fresh peaches, sliced and pitted
Other 2:
 2 oz gresh grated ginger
Other 3:
 5 tsp Fermax nutrient
Yeast:
 2 pkts (10 g) Lalvin RC212 Bourgovin
Process:
  • brought 3 gallons water to 190 degees Farenheit
  • turned off heat and added honey (temp dropped to 180)
  • cooled must into a 5 gallon glass carboy
  • oxygenated with bottled 02 and a aerating stone for 2 minutes
  • pitched yeast
Notes:

The fruit and ginger will be added to the mead at racking in 1 to 2 weeks (when activity is slowed)

The intention is for this to be a fairly sweet mead - probably a still one - a rarity for me since I generally prefer dry sparkling one.

2 August 2003 - racked the plain mead onto 10 lbs of fresh picked peaches, sliced and frozen for a week (the theory being that freezing the fruit will break down the structure and make the juices easier to extract).  Resulting mix of mead and fruit placed in two 5 gallon plastic fermenters. 

11 October 2003 -  strained peach pulp from liquid.  This was accomplished with a combination of lifting the fruit out of the fermenter with a large strainer and pressing the wet pulp in a wine press.  (A fine mesh nylon bag was used to contain the pulp).  One of the fermenters had a tan mold growing on top.  I left it separate from the other fermenter's contents.  -  The liquid does not have a strong peach scent or flavor, but the fermenters showed a strong aroma when being cleaned.  I am hoping that the aroma will become more evident as the mead matures.  In the meantime, I added one ounce of grated ginger to each fermenter.  Because the volume of liquid has increased to around 8 gallons (juice of the peaches) I will probably add more honey in a week or so.