An idea for a spiced apple mead?

[Jeltz]

I was reading around mead making and I had an idea, dangerous when I'm not experienced in wine making I know.

I have a few "tea bag" sachets of mulling spices left over from last xmas and I thought I would boil one up with a litre of apple juice, add 1.2 kg of value honey then put in a demijohn and top up with water to about 3L add yeast and nutrient (once at room temp) then top up properly with water in a few days when the fermentation has subsided.

Now is there anything in that which sounds wrong or daft or that would indicate it will taste :sick:?
Should I add pectolase and/or will I need finings to clear it?

The idea is to have it ready for Xmas this year :thumb:

 

[PD]

becareful in using a mixture of spices, as by their nature they have a concentrated and powerful taste. Make sure they don't compete with each other instead of complimenting each other.
Otherwise I'll await further posts from more experienced members on the subject.

 

[oldbloke]

Sounds good to me. It'll work out about 12 or 13% I reckon. The spices in any one bag should be balanced, or they wouldn't sell them like that. I'm not that great a fan of mulling spice mixes myself, but if you like them, go for it.
Shouldn't need pectolase but can't hurt if you have some.
Probably won't need finings, but wait and see. Mead can take longer to clear, but it gets there.

 

[PD]

I was referring to mixing several bags of spices together, agreed one bag of mixed spices is usually balanced

 

[Jeltz]

Well a pan full of AJ, Honey and a spice bag is sat on the stove as I type. Going to give it 15 mins to sit as the spices don't seem to leech as readily into this mix as they do into wine.

 

[oldbloke]

Thought...
What volume is the spice sachet intended for? May not be potent enough for a gallon. Then again, you may be after something subtler than a full-on mulled flavour.
Also, some herb/spice flavours may not survive fermentation. Bit late now, but might have been better to chuck the bag in after racking and then let the mead mature on them. Or if you're up for it, do it both ways and report back on the difference!

 

[Jeltz]

In all I gave it 20-25 minutes infusing and its taken on a pleasant spiced aroma. Having tasted what was on the hydrometer its mildly spiced and obviously very sweet.

The SG was a tad over 1.105 at 23°C so allowing for a little top up I would expect it to come out around 13%ABV.

 

[TRXnMe]

I like the sounds of this, where did you get the mulled wine spices from this time of year?

 

[Jeltz]

It was left over from last Xmas.

I bought a box of them, then my wife bough half a dozen bottles a the ready made stuff (there's even 1 left of those). Its bubbling rapidly now and sniffing the "gas" you can pick out a slight hint of the spice.

 

[Ashh]

Ive not long made a batch of cyser, well im called it apple and cinnamon mead!

I used 4 litres of apple juice, 3 jars of the tesco honey u used, and stuck in a large stick of cinnamon, no water just apple juice.

Im just about to bottle and it tastes great! spicy, cidery meady yum yum!

real easy to make to. i think the sg was about 1090 and finished at 1004. quite nice dry but ive backsweetened with honey and apple juice.

 

[Jeltz]

About 2 weeks ago I killed the yeast (Campden & Potassium Sorbate) and back sweetened with another jar of honey as it had been very dry. I put it back under an airlock and monitored to check that no further fermentation happened, it didn't.

So today I bottled it and had a glass of what was left over. I must say that it has turned out very nicely if I do say so myself. Delicately spiced and sweet.

 

[oldbloke]

it has turned out very nicely if I do say so myself. Delicately spiced and sweet.

Huzzah etc

My spiced golden syrup notMead is still doing the odd bubble (about 2 a day) and refusing to clear past 1/3 up the demi, but when I racked it it was very promising.
Should be quite interesting round about christmas time.

 

[Gayle]

I might give this a try as my next mead brew (I want to always have one on the go!) Did you add the whole jar of honey to the gallon? I have a mead nearly ready to be bottled and I wasn't sure how much to put in it to backsweeten.

I don't usually boil the honey as it can destroy some of the more delicate flavours, I just boil a small amount of water, take it off the heat and add the honey then, to kill any natural yeasts in it.

Make sure you save a few bottles to keep for as long as possible, I've heard that it tastes best after a couple of years...if it lasts that long..!

 

[Jeltz]

Yes i did add the whole jar and it is quite sweet, but that's what I wanted.

 

[RobWalker]

I would double up on the pectic enzyme. Boiling apple.juice = scrumpy

 

[Cpt.Frederickson]

If any of you guys want to dip into some more advanced Mead based talk (and the Americans, amongst others, are waaayyyy ahead of us Brits) check out GotMead. They provided the guidance for me making my first meads, five batches down the line and they're coming good.
They can give alot of advice about choosing honey well (steering away from the cheap stuff), Staggered Nutrient Additions (to get the most complete fermentation from the yeast) use of spices, ageing....etc. Loads of cool stuff that helped me a lot. And a personal recommendation for the Lalvin wine yeasts, particularly K1-V116.

 

[LeedsBrewer]

+1 for Gotmead

I've spent loads of time on there recently reading up on it. I started my first mead a couple of weeks ago and am looking forward to doing my second soon.