Print this page

 

by Byron Burch
Copyright © The Beverage People 2008, Last revised, May, 2008.

 

This is actually several recipes in one, depending on the kind of plums used. There are many varieties of plums, and they make quite a spectrum of meads. This basic recipe should work well with all of them.

 

Ingredients

Ingredients for 5 gallons

15 lbs. pitted Plums
11 pounds of Clover Honey
Water- about 4.5 gallons
2 oz. Beverage People Mead Nutrient
2 1/2 tsp. Pectic Enzyme
3 oz. Tartaric Acid

1/2 tsp. Irish Moss or 1 tablet Whirlfloc
10 gm. Prise de Mousse Wine Yeast

1 oz. Sparkolloid
Stock Potassium Metabisulfite Solution or Campden Tablets (after fermentation)

Original Brix: 18 (without the fruit)
Total Acid: 0.6 - 0.65%

 

 

Directions

1. Smash up the Plums (removing the pits) and place them in your fermentor.
2. Stir Honey into 5 gallons warm Water. Heat to boiling, and add Yeast Nutrient and Irish Moss. Boil and skim for five minutes. Remove from heat, cool, and pour into the fermentor.
3. Add the remaining Water and other ingredients except Stock Potassium Metabisulfite Solution/Campden Tablets (after fermentation), mixing well.  You may choose to place the plums in a sanitized/boiled nylon bag for easy removal after fermentation.
4. Test sugar and acid levels of the must. Raise if necessary. Slightly higher is okay.
5. When must temperature of the must nears room temperature, add yeast to the surface. In 10 or 12 hours, stir it in.
6. Once fermentation begins, stir or push the pulp down into the liquid twice a day.
7. After five days, strain and press the pulp (or just remove and squeeze the bag of plums, if a bag was used). Funnel the fermenting mead into closed fermentors, filling them no more than 80% full, and affix a fermentation lock to each. Allow fermentation to finish.
8. When bubbles can no longer be seen rising through the mead, rack away from the settlings into an open container. Fine with Sparkolloid, and add 40-65 ppm of stock Metabisulfite solution or crushed and dissolved Campden Tablets. Siphon into a storage container, top up, and let set for four weeks. This is also a good time to check the acid level and make any needed adjustments to achieve the target titratable acidity level of 0.6 - 0.65%. To reduce the acidity, you may use potassium bicarbonate. To increase the acidity, use tartaric acid.
9. Rack away from the settlings, top up again, and let stand for two or three months.
10. Carefully rack the mead into an open container, adding 40-65 ppm of stock Metabisulfite solution or crushed and dissolved Campden Tablets.  If you wish to sweeten the mead, do so now with sugar syrup while also adding Potassium Sorbate to avoid re-fermentation.
11. Siphon into bottles, cap, and set aside to age for at least two months.