Mead - Apricot Preserves, Wildflower Honey, Lemon 1 gal

[RobertHSmith]

I was inspired when I was at Schnuks today. I already had a quart of generic wildflower honey so I bought an 18 oz jar of store brand apricot preserves. I mixed the 18 oz jar of apricot preserves with 23 oz of the honey with 1 gallon of water. Then I added 1 sliced lemon and 1/8 teaspoon of yeast nutrient.

I boiled the mixture for 15 min, then cooled and put in a 4L wine jug.

OG was 1.082 by hydrometer.

I used D47 wine yeast rehydrated in 1 cup of 95 deg F water for 15 min.

I'll post up notes when I transfer to secondary for aging and then at bottling time.

After cooling it, I tasted a little of it and it retained a good amount of the apricot character. We'll see how it turns out in a couple of months.

[JE]

Sounds tasty, Robert! I'm going to watch this thread closely...

Hopefully (and I am sure you did) you made sure those preserves didn't have any sorbate in them!!

I would expect to lose some of the aroma during fermentation...

[RobertHSmith]

No sorbate, a little citric acid.

I strained out the bits of apricot in the mixture, but now I'm thinking that I should have left them in there.

It'll be good though.

[Witch Doctor Dale]

Better put pectin enzyme in right away. Otherwise the preserves will give it one heck of a pectin haze which will be hard to get rid of after the alcohol builds up. Good luck with this one.

[JE]

Robert, those "chunks" would have been good to keep...you are right.

I agree 1,000,000% with what Dale said about the Pectin Enzyme!!!

[RobertHSmith]

Unfortunately I don't have any pectin enzyme. If the flavor is good, I'll make it again in a bigger batch with some from the beginning.

No worries.

[Witch Doctor Dale]

You can add it later, it just takes l-o-n-g-e-r to clear.