# Chocolate mead



## BernardSmith (Jan 18, 2015)

Making a small batch of meadowfoam honey mead with Dorst (Dutch) chocolate. 
Attached is a photo of the activity this morning in the fermenter, some 12 hours after I pitched the yeast.

My recipe: 
3 lbs of Meadowfoam
4 oz of chocolate powder
1 gallon of spring water 
all blended in my mixer to aerate and thoroughly mix
1 t of nutrient
1/2 t of energizer
71B yeast
Starting gravity was 1.110

My plan is to rack onto 4 oz of roasted chocolate nibs when the gravity drops to about 1.005.
Allow to age to clear. 
Still debating with myself whether I might add Bentonite to the primary to help the cocoa floculate


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## BernardSmith (Jan 20, 2015)

Started this one gallon batch Saturday evening and this morning (Tuesday) at around 7.00 AM I measured the gravity and it was a hair below 1.005. Cannot believe how quickly this has gone. The ambient temperature was a shade below 70 F. Anyway it's now racked into a gallon carboy with the excess in the container in which the Meadowfoam was packed. For the record, I had added 1 T of Bentonite mix to the primary with the idea that this might help flocculate and pack the cocoa powder but given the speed of this fermentation there was not a great deal of sediment in the bucket


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## Arne (Jan 21, 2015)

Just curious, keep us informed on how long that stuff takes to clear. I am bettin it is going to be pretty darned good. Arne.


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## wineforfun (Jan 21, 2015)

Bernard,
That pic looks very similar to my chocolate covered cherry. I would stir twice daily, etc. and always had that foam on top. When it came time to rack to secondary, I removed/scooped as much of the foam as possible off the top, then racked. 
Suprisingly, with a couple rackings at the 30 and 60 day mark, along with some SuperKleer, it turned out crystal clear. Has a golden color to it.


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## BernardSmith (Jan 21, 2015)

When I racked this into a glass carboy yesterday there was really no significant froth on top. I was quite surprised that in 3 days (more or less) the yeast had converted virtually all the sugar in the honey (from 1.110 - 1.005).. The ambient temperature was about 65-68 , the yeast 71B. I had added nutrient and energizer a couple of times but I still think that this was a way too fast fermentation...


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## Deezil (Jan 21, 2015)

Sounds like you probably used a whole packet of yeast for the batch, it's just a numbers game with 1-3 gallon batches. Fast indeed, but not false readings. The opposite can hold true too, using one 5g packet of yeast on a 7-8-9 gallon batch, and the lag phase is a little longer, as well as the general fermentation time.


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## BernardSmith (Jan 21, 2015)

Yeah... That is also what Reed, the owner of my LHBS suggested was the reason for the fast ferment.


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