I think it would be something like a lambic. I might try with some pineapple sage this summer
Hmmm… Updates please! The unavoidable local variations would be really interesting.
& @womanhood_deferred There’s a woodworking YouTuber in Utah who made sourdough with juniper berry yeast. If I was going to make a wild yeast mead, that’s what I’d use. It’s really easy to grab some when I’m in central Oregon. Juniper is everywhere.
Mead update:
The Honeycrisp cyser I have in secondary is at 1.020 which puts it at about 15%. I added a heavily toasted oak spiral and I’ll give that a couple weeks before bottling.
The champagne pyment is at 1.009 which puts it at about 19%. It’s nicely dry and even has a semi-sweet champagne flavor.
The blueberry-basil mead is at 1.018 which puts it about 18% ABV. It has a tartness that balances the sweetness and the basil is subtle up front and in the finish.
The green tea & Asian pear is at 1.006 or just a hair under 15%. The addition of strong green tea last week really revitalized the flavor and gave it some necessary tannins.
That’s pretty exciting
I’m already out of the Mango & Moringa Tea mead I recently made.
I’m going to be starting a new hydromel in another week or two. It will likely be a Cranberry, Raspberry, and Hibiscus mead (I’m unsure about the hibuscus). I plan on using either French saison yeast or Belgian II saison.
I am also going to attempt a higher ABV version of my Blueberry, Coffee, Maple, Cinnamon, and Coco Nib mead. I’m attempting to keep the same flavor balance as the low abv version. As far as primary goes, would increasing the amount of blueberry by the same ratio I increase the Honey keep that balance? I’m not worried about secondary additions as I can add those to taste.
Are you adding blueberry fruit or blueberry juice?
If you’re using fruit, I’d add it in primary. If you’re using juice, I’d go half in primary and half in secondary. Or fruit in primary and juice in secondary. That was the trick for my latest batch of blueberry basil.
I made a blueberry puree that I added in primary when I made the low ABV version. Starting gravity was somewhere between 1.040 and 1.050. I’m going to be attempting to make it with a higher SG. I’d like to keep the same flavor balance as the low ABV version. I’m unsure whether I should just add more honey to raise the gravity or if I should also increase the amount of blueberry.
Higher alcohol changes the flavor, once you get past about 10% (to my tastebuds) the alcohol becomes it’s own addotional flavor. Now, the complicating factor is that the alcohol is much better at extracting some of the flavor compounds, so can make the fruity esters more prominent. Basically, it changes as the various compounds change their ratios. I have not found it to be predictable.
Related to this, I know it’s not mead making but a video I watched recently-ish about rum and whiskey features someone from Andalusia’s distilling production side, and he gives a general discussion about some compounds in alcohol production and what flavors they bring to the table
I agree, though it might work to add blueberry in primary and again in secondary in order to approximate the lower ABV flavor. Certainly, when I’ve only added blueberry in primary, it’s muted and changed as you say from the original blueberry flavor.