Shelley’s been on the hunt for the perfect hopped mead recipe. The first version didn’t do the trick, but this version… well this one’s a treat!
When racking from primary to secondary, the hops-ness of the mead was a bit overpowering. However, the taste-test on bottling was a dry mead with a nice hops kick to it. If you’re not a hop-head, the hops may be a little too forward.
We’ll check back on this variation in 6 months, once the mead’s had time to age.
If you want to try a hopped mead, you’ll need to adjust the instructions in “Stage 1: Making the ‘Must'” — read on!
Ingredients
- Contents of one Mead Magic kit (Using fall wildflower honey)
- From your local homebrew store, pick up:
- .08 ounces German Magnum hops pellets
- .04 ounces Citra hops pellets
- Note: different hops have many different flavor profiles. Substitute your own as desired!
Directions
- To extract the hops essences:
- Bring one gallon of water to a boil.
- Add the German Magnum (or your bittering) hops
- Keep at a gentle boil for 45 minutes. Note: if you’re not a “hop-head”, cut back on the first boil, which is what extracts much of the hops bitters. Shelley would start with a 25-minute boil for this stage.
- Add Citra (or your aroma) hops
- Boil for an additional 15 minutes
- Let the hopped water cool to room temperature.
- In your primary fermentation pail, pour in the quart of Mead Magic honey.
- You will need an additional three quarts of water for your must. Use the now-empty honey jar to measure out water from your hops boil, and add it to the primary fermentation pail.
- After boiling for an hour, you’ll probably be down to about 7 cups of water.
- Make up the difference from the hops water with tap — or spring — water.
- Now continue with Stage 2 (and beyond) of the Mead Magic instructions.
Brewer
Shelley Stuart (Mead Magic)
Notes from the brewer
I left the mead on the hops lees as it settled out. Some brewers like to re-rack off of the hops lees, to control the flavor — I did not find this to be an issue with this recipe.
I also found that the hops settled out and the mead was pretty clear upon bottling. (I was worried that using hops pellets would result in a cloudy mead, but that wasn’t the case.)
Timetable:
March 12, 2016: pitched yeast
March 17, 2016: racked to secondary
May 6, 2016: bottled into eight 10-ounce bottles, and one 16-ounce Mead Magic bottle.