Staggered nutrient additions. Fermented low 60s °F. I generally prefer to blend after fermentation is finished, but this was a project to use some honeys I labelled “difficult”—each had something I liked but also had at least one other character that I didn’t care for. In essence, I used them to dilute each other.
The blend included something like 11 honeys, but the four listed above comprised more than 90 percent of the total and will get you close. Not everything added was a success, frankly. Almond blossom is quite nutty, and toyon blossom is caramelly, smoky, and bitter. The heather honey—Hey, make sure it’s authentic, yeah? Lot of fake or dubious stuff out there—was also bitter, and some of the most intense floral character you’ll ever encounter. The buckwheat had heavy molasses, raisin, and fudgy characters. So again, the general theme is “too much X to use by itself, but good in a blend.”
I like D47 for traditional meads because of the flavor and mouthfeel it creates, and while some label it a “nutrient hog,” I like that it will reliably use the nutrients I feed it. Now that people are feeding their meads, I too often find they are left with a residual nutrient character that tastes gross. Fermented in the 60s Fahrenheit (upper teens Celsius), racked off sediment a couple times, and aged 1.5 years, before 1 gallon was briefly aged on medium-toast French oak and blended back in to taste.
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