# Achouffe Mead



## Krmak (21/11/11)

Hey all,
will be making my first mead this week, slightly Belgian modified, so I am wondering what you think of the recipe:
- 62 % flower honey
- 38 % Candi Sugar, Amber
- yeast nutrient (boiled yeasties)
- White Labs Belgian Ale (WLP 550); supposed to be the Achouffe yeast strain

ABV for this would be 9,9%, I am wondering what are you more experienced mead makers thinking about this? Maybe I should put 80/20 ratio for honey/candy sugar. Will be making a 50 l batch and split one half in a corny to force carbonate, but for the other half I don't know if I should carbonate it in the bottles or just leave it plain? Which mead do you perfere?

Cheers :icon_cheers:


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## Airgead (21/11/11)

Krmak said:


> Hey all,
> will be making my first mead this week, slightly Belgian modified, so I am wondering what you think of the recipe:
> - 62 % flower honey
> - 38 % Candi Sugar, Amber
> ...



Sounds interesting. Not sure how the belgian yeast will perform on just honey and sugar. You may get fewer esters than you are expecting.

I usually leave my meads still. More of a wine than a beer. With the belgian though, carbonated might be nicer.

50l is a lot for a first batch. Would it be worth doing a small 5l batch first to see how the recipe goes before going big.

Cheers
Dave


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## Krmak (21/11/11)

Airgead said:


> Sounds interesting. Not sure how the belgian yeast will perform on just honey and sugar. You may get fewer esters than you are expecting.
> 
> I usually leave my meads still. More of a wine than a beer. With the belgian though, carbonated might be nicer.
> 
> ...




Maybe I'll do a 25 l batch  Was also thinking if it would be better to gradually add sugars to the fermentor so the yeast would not be so stressed?


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## Airgead (21/11/11)

Krmak said:


> Was also thinking if it would be better to gradually add sugars to the fermentor so the yeast would not be so stressed?



For 9% or so I wouldn't bother. If you were going stronger than 10-12% or so I would consider it.

Cheers
Dave


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## grantsglutenfreehomebrew (25/11/11)

Airgead said:


> For 9% or so I wouldn't bother. If you were going stronger than 10-12% or so I would consider it.
> 
> Cheers
> Dave




G'day mate. I've make a beer type mead and have tried it with caramellised sugar and it aint to nice. Not much in between belgium candy sugar and caramellised sugar bar the food acid. Stick to just honey. If you want different flavours I would brochet (caramellise) the honey. Look up brocheting on the net. There's a little bit around including a yokel on you tube.

Have fun

Grant


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## Krmak (25/11/11)

grantsglutenfreehomebrew said:


> G'day mate. I've make a beer type mead and have tried it with caramellised sugar and it aint to nice. Not much in between belgium candy sugar and caramellised sugar bar the food acid. Stick to just honey. If you want different flavours I would brochet (caramellise) the honey. Look up brocheting on the net. There's a little bit around including a yokel on you tube.
> 
> Have fun
> 
> Grant



Thx for the reply, but it's already fermenting like mad now for 3 days  
The final recipe was:

Batch size was 30 liters:

1,3 kg Candy sugar = 20%
5 kg honey = 80%
20 g Juniper berries (10 min)
10 g Cumin seed (10 min)
And a yeast starter was aprox. 1,4 l if I recall correctly. (WLP550)
Also added some boiled yeast to act as a nutrient


Guess I'll just have to see how it turns out  

:icon_cheers:


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