Update - Blueberry Ginger Mead

28 Days Later

Well, I got lazy and forgot to do a few things on the right schedule. But I think all is well.

Racking to secondary

Tonight I finally go around to racking the Blueberry Ginger Mead into secondary. After fermenting like crazy the first week, it continued to send a bubble through the airlock every 2 to 6 seconds (slowing over time) for the next 17 days. Two days ago, on 26th day of primary fermentation, it had slowed to one bubble every 30 seconds. This is when it's usually too boring for me to continue to count so I called it done.

Apparently I really should have racked it after that first week. And I should have done a couple of nutrient additions. But I didn't. And I think it's still OK. My sample tasted like what lot of amatuer mead makers say their meads task like early on: honey-flavored cough syrup.

That's right, I've got five gallons of Halls honey flavored cough medicine. Although it was kind of rough and made me cough a little. It's definitely got a hot alcohol taste to accompany the lightly sweet honey smell. And it probably should. The gravity is 1.002 (measured at 1.000 but at 75° F so there was a +0.002 adjustment.) That puts the alcohol at approximately 13.5% ABV.

Along with racking it, I went ahead and fed the yeast (better late than never, right?) with 1/2 tsp DAP (diammonium phosphate) and 1/2 tsp Fermaid K yeast nutrient. I boiled 4 oz of water, stirred the nutrients in at the end of the boil and then set the pan aside (covered) to cool.

Sitting in secondary with
a fancy new airlock.

I also decided to up the blueberry flavor a bit. Maybe it was the hot alcohol talking, but it seemed like it needed a bit more flavor. So I added another quart of Knudsen's Blueberry juice. Hopefully this adds another does of blueberry flavor to the mead. It certainly took it to a darker purple color.

I racked it into a clean carboy and capped it with my new liquid-less silione airlock. I'll let it sit for another month (hopefully that's all) and then bottle it.