Blackberry Mead . . . The Madness Has Begun

I started the blackberry mead two days ago. In the process of making it, I think I forgot just about everything I have learned in 7 years of making beer and wine. The following are the key things I foolishly forgot:

• Time. For some silly reason, I forgot that brewing always takes a LOT longer than you think it does. The mead recipe I was using was pretty simple. Boil 20 pounds of honey for 15 minutes, then pull off the burner. Toss in the blackberries for 15 minutes to pasteurize them. Add to the primary fermenter, cool, and pitch your yeast. I allotted 90 minutes for this process and had something to do at the end of that period. Boy, I was wrong. It took a LOT longer and I ended up trying to rush things, which is never good.


• Follow the recipe. The recipe called for boiling one gallon of water with the 20 pounds of honey. I thought, that is too little, so I made it two gallons. This meant that things took longer to boil. It also meant that my brewpot was overflowing when all the honey was added to the pot and I had a boil over. It also meant that I had to pasteurize the blackberries in the primary fermenter because there was no more room in the brew pot. Thus, I had to pour boiling hot honey-water through a funnel . . . more on that later.


• Test your equipment, FIRST. This was the first time I used a new large funnel I purchased while visiting my brother. The funnel is supposed to prevent splashing, but I did not test it. Well, the funnel actually splashes more, it seems, especially with HOT liquids. My wife was holding the funnel when it "burped" and honey water splashed all over her arm and burned her. I felt really bad about that. Plus, it spilled onto the floor and honey water is incredibly sticky. What a mess . . .


• Cool Concentrated Liquids. Given that I could not pasteurize the blackberries in the brew pot because I added too much water, I could not cool the brew pot before putting in the glass fermenter. This meant that even after topping off the carboy with cold water, the honey water was much to hot to pitch the yeast. In fact, I ended up having to let the mead sit over night before adding my yeast, as it would not cool down. I pitched the first thing the next morning, and now it is bubbling away happily, but I obviously wanted to pitch sooner.

With all the crazy things that happened during the brew day, I am tempted to name this one "Black Madness." However, the mead is fermenting fine now and has a beautiful color. We will see how it turns out, as this mead will need to age for nine months to a year before drinking. Hopefully, I will be out of the dog house by then, having burned my wife's arm while she was trying to help.

But then again, as often as I put myself in the dog house, I doubt it . . .