A delightful mead recipe combining floral lavender and juicy blackberries, contributed by Bill Savage, a former head brewer at Wild Blossom Meadery in Chicago.
Lavender-Blackberry Mead
The mead uses wildflower honey as a base along with lavender flowers and tips and blackberries during fermentation to create a unique, aromatic and slightly tart finished mead. Bill Savage, a former brewer at Wild Blossom Meadery, and now at Goose Island Beer Co., shared this delightful Lavender-Blackberry mead recipe.
Ingredients
- 12 lbs of raspberry honey
- 1/2 oz Lavender Flower Tips
- 9-10 lbs of blackberries
Directions
- In a 5 gal. pot, bring 4 gal. of water to a boil for 5 min. let it cool using a Copper Coil Immersion Chiller, & cool the water down to about 160F.
- Stir in/dissolve 12lbs. of raspberry honey & 2tbs. yeast energizer/yeast hulls.
- Continue to cool with copper coil chiller to @70F.
- Make a concentrated “Tea” with the Lavender Flower Tips.
- Transfer into a 5 gal. carboy & aerate.
- Finally add your Lavender “tea” to the carboy, stir, & then add your rehydrated yeast/starter.
- Allow to ferment for 3-4 weeks @ 70F. Then, rack again into another carboy, that has previously been packed with 9-10lbs of blackberries. During the rack, also add a second Lavender ‘tea’ concentrate infusion.
- Let this sit for another 3-4 weeks. Rack a second time, and let age for another 5 months.
- Bottle afterwards & serve at @ room temp.
- O.G. – 23.5 Brix (1.0988 SG). @11.5 – 12% abv.