Hey Guys and Gals! A blueberry, ginger and lemon mead made with Belgian ale yeast and finished with a cinnamon and honey tea at bottling. Makes five gallons.
Ingredients
Step 1
6 lb clover honey
1 lb orange blossom honey
1.5 lb corn sugar
3 tsp yeast extract
2 oz fresh minced ginger root
1 gallon fresh blueberries
2 lemons, halved
5 gallons of water
Step 2
Wyeast 1214 Belgian Ale yeast
At bottling
3 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup orange blossom honey
Directions
1. Put the honey, corn sugar and yeast extract into the brewpot with the water. If the honey is hard to pour, warm its container in warm water first.
2. Simmer 10 minutes, skimming the foam with a kitchen strainer.
3. Add the ginger root and simmer 10 more minutes without skimming.
4. Remove from heat, squeeze in the lemons and drop them into the pot. Cover and let stand 15 minutes.
5. Strain out the lemon halves and ginger, add the blueberries, and transfer to the primary fermenter.
6. Once cooled, prepare a 1L yeast starter and add it at the temperature on the packet. Bubbling should start after 24 to 48 hours. Keep the fermenter about a third empty.
7. After 6 to 7 days, when the frothing has slowed, rack off the fruit into a secondary carboy. Ferment 1 to 2 months or more.
8. Simmer the cinnamon and the 1/2 cup of honey in 2 cups of water for 15 minutes, covered. Cool, add to the bottling bucket, siphon in the mead quietly, bottle, and age a couple of months.