This was an off again, on again mead project I started many moons ago.
The overall plan was to take my big batches of mead, blend them together into a one gallon batch, then blend that with various spices, fruits, or other adjuncts.
The first one I did was a Tri-berry mead. I got organic frozen berries from Costco and putting a good amount of the bag into a one gallon batch of mead (it was a blend of a semi dry and super sweet, I'd say 80/20 but I don't remember). I learned from a mead master at NCHF that frozen fruit seems to work much better in mead making then unfrozen fruit.
Originally I planned to let it sit for a month. Well I kind of got busy and couldn't get to it. It sat for 3 months.
Oh boy what flavors and color! Hard to believe it was light straw color at one point. Now it is a very rich purple red.
Of course it still had bits of fruit in it (most had exploded at this point hehe). So I racked it off though a hop bag and got most of the bits out. I then strained it one more time.
After that, I dropped gelatin to help fine out the remaining particles. I like my meads clear.
After 48 hours, Lindsey did a tasting and noticed that it had lost a little bite (from the dropping of the fruit particles). No problem, I have acid blend (a combination of tannic, malic, and citric acid). I did about a tablespoon to the slightly less then one gallon batch (tastings and loss of volume from removal of the berries) and swirled it a bit. Tasted it again and it was back to where I wanted it.
I am letting it settle again and then I'm racking it off into bottles. This mead could be aged on wood quite well so I might leave a little for that.
So far this is the favorite mead I have done. I love mead blending and this took it to a new level for me.
Next I want to do a blood orange mead once they come into season and follow the same process.
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