Description
Here is a great recipe for raspberry mead. I am sure you will enjoy making it and waiting for it to age as well.
Ingredients
Scale
- 3 lb (approx 1.4 kg) raspberries
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 lemon juice
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 3 bags of raspberry tea
- 2 lb wild honey. You can also use raspberry honey for an added flavour.
- 1 Campden tablet (potassium metabisulfite). Note: only needed if you are using chlorinated water
- Wine tannin and pectic enzyme
- 1 package Red Star Montrachet yeast
- 1 tsp yeast nutrient
- 1 ½ cups orange juice at room temperature
Instructions
- Sanitize all the jars, cups, stockpots and equipment. Crush the berries and transfer them to a 2 gallon plastic fermenter. Add the sugar, lemon juice, and zest.
- In clean tea cups, brew the tea by boiling water and steeping the tea bags for 5 minutes.
- In the stainless steel pot, heat honey and water for 10 minutes. Skim off the foam that rises to the top.
- Pour the honey mixture over the berries; add the tea and 1/8th teaspoon of wine tannin. Wine tannin helps to clarify and mature the mead. It also acts as a preservative and aids in the mead’s aging process.
- Allow the mixture to cool. Once cooled, add pectic enzyme and enough water to make about 1 gallon. Add the Campden tablet. As explained before, the tablet is a wine sanitizer and is particularly important if you are using chlorinated water. Now allow this must to stand, covered, for at least 24 hours.
- Combine the yeast, yeast nutrient, and orange juice. Cover, shake vigorously, and set aside until bubbly (at least 1-3 hours). Add the mixture to the must.
- Allow the mead to ferment. You can rack the melomel after most active fermentation. Use the siphon and racking tube to siphon the mead into a 1 gallon carboy having an air lock.
- Again siphon off the mead after 3 months in another air-locked container.
- Rack the melomel one last time (approximately a year from preparation). You can now bottle the mead.
- Cork the finished melomel and store the bottles in a cool cellar. Age the mead for at least 6 months before opening the bottle. Make sure that the fermentation is done before aging otherwise the bottles can explode. You can place the bottle on its side for aging as it allows for more even flavour.
