Strawberry

[Jericurl]

Manthing informed me that he only has 8 bottles of Strawberry DB left.

Eight you guys! He feels like this is a state of emergency.

So I've decided to make some strawberry mead. I had 15 lbs of strawberry in the freezer.
I've been putting this together over the last two days and I'll pitch the yeast this morning.

Strawberry
3 gallon batch

10 lbs strawberries
2 lbs rhubarb
1 6 inch stick lemongrass
1 gallon of water
1 crushed campden tablet
3 T french oak powder

Add above to primary. Wait 12 hours.
Add 1.5 tsp pectic enzyme.
Add approx 9 lbs of honey (SG to 1.09%)
Add 2 more gallons of water, plus a wee bit more to account for racking.

Wait 18 hours to give enzyme a chance to work.

Pitch D47 yeast.

In secondary (or tertiary), I'll add another 5 lbs of strawberry and 1 lb rhubarb.

I plan on stabilizing and backsweetening with a mix of frozen strawberry drink mix along with a little honey.

 

[BernardSmith]

Strawberries can be quite acidic as is rhubarb. Honey has few if any buffers that stabilize the pH. I think you need to really watch the pH of this mead so that it does not drop precipitously below 3.0 ... but this sounds like a lovely mead.

 

[Deezil]

A lot of folks have issues with color stability in Strawberry wines/meads, so you might consider adding some FT Blanc/Rouge (or Soft version of either). Booster Blanc/Rouge and Opti-White/-Red will help fill in some of the mid-palette as well. I haven't had enough strawberries to make a mead out of yet, but I'm relatively sure that those products can keep a Strawberry from going that orange color.

 

[Jericurl]

Thanks guys, I'll look into both those ideas.

I know I have something around here that is supposed to help with acidity. Now I just need to remember what I did with my test kit.



Deezil,
I've never used Booster Rouge/Blanc and/or Opti-White/-Red. I assume they can be found through regular suppliers? I'm going to need to read up on both to figure out the specifics.



Also...
I have rum soaked American oak cubes.
Why am I thinking 1 oz of those might be a good pairing with this?

 

[Arne]

Strawberry mead comes out really good. It sat in the secondary for a year or so. Then I had a small taste to see if it should go into the bottles. Long story short, never made the bottles. Sure was good, wish I had saved at least a couple of bottles and see how it ages. Arne.

 

[Deezil]

Yeah, Doug at Brew & Wine Supply has them, and so does MoreWine; the Booster Rouge/Blance and Opti-White/-Red. I use them on practically everything, but I think both places also sell single-batch sized amounts as well

 

[Jericurl]

Ok I just ordered both from Brew & Wine Supply.

It probably won't get here before the mead is almost dry, but I plan on probably adding another 3 pounds of honey along with the strawberries and rhubarb. I should be able to add the Opti then, right?

eta: Yeah, this stuff went from a gorgeous red color to lighter than the grapefruit mead I've got in secondary.

 

[Deezil]

Yeah, that should work for the timing.

Edit: Looked through my notes, and realized I was a bit backwards and misspoke. The Booster and Opti products are awesome for filling in the mid-palate and enhancing the aromas, but the one I was thinking of was the FT Rouge/Blanc tannins for color stability; the 3rd of the three-compadres I add to almost every fermentation.

Sorry Jeri, to mislead you. It's not money wasted, as it'll still do awesome things, but I didnt mean to mislead you; I should have double checked myself earlier. Doug may be able to swap you out if your order is still processing, if you give him a call.

 

[Jericurl]

No worries.

I just went ahead and ordered the FT Rouge/Blanc and sent him an email.
Thanks again for the directions.

 

[Arne]

Jeri,
Rack that over when it gets below 1.000. Leave all the gunk in the bucket and start a batch of S.P. right on top of it. Gives a meady flavor to the skeeter pee. Arne.

 

[Jericurl]

Oh that's brilliant!

I'm going to go out and get supplies for DB today.

 

[Jericurl]

Rack that over when it gets below 1.000. Leave all the gunk in the bucket and start a batch of S.P. right on top of it. Gives a meady flavor to the skeeter pee. Arne.

I've never actually made skeeter pee. I assume I can do some kind of hybrid and do skeeter pee and maybe just add a bag of strawberrries to it?

Or should I just skip that and make it Dragon's Blood?

 

[Deezil]

Dragon Blood is Skeeter Pee with fruit added. Skeeter Pee is just the lemon juice, water, sugar, slurry/yeast, and go. Dragon Blood just added some bagged fruit to impact the flavor.. Same thing though.

 

[Jericurl]

SG hit 1.00 because I wasn't paying close enough attention to it.

I went ahead and racked it onto another 3 lbs of strawberries and another quart of honey. Brought the SG back up to 1.03.
I'm going to let it sit here for about a month or so, then see where I'm at.

I ended up making skeeter pee out of the lees. I added hibiscus petals to it. I stabilized it yesterday and I'll rerack and backsweeten this weekend, then look at bottling in two weeks time.