Browse hundreds of National Homebrew Competition medal-winning recipes from the best homebrewers around the world.
Garrett Freeman of Edmond, OK, a member of the Red Earth Brewers, won a gold medal in Category 46: Experimental Mead in the 2024 National Homebrew Competition Final Round. Freeman’s experimental mead earned gold out of 32 entries.
Freeman shared the following about Blueberry Muffin Mead: “This session strength mead features all the flavors of a blueberry muffin. It has the blueberry, baking spices, muffin-like profile and even a clean honey character displayed from start to finish on the palate.”
Browse hundreds of National Homebrew Competition medal-winning recipes from the best homebrewers around the world.
Garrett Freeman of Edmond, OK, a member of the Red Earth Brewers, won a gold medal in Category 46: Experimental Mead in the 2024 National Homebrew Competition Final Round. Freeman’s experimental mead earned gold out of 32 entries.
Freeman shared the following about Blueberry Muffin Mead: “This session strength mead features all the flavors of a blueberry muffin. It has the blueberry, baking spices, muffin-like profile and even a clean honey character displayed from start to finish on the palate.”
Ingredients:
- FERMENTABLES
- 2 lb. (907 g) blueberries
- 2 lb. (907 g) honey
- YEAST
- 2 g. Lalvin 71B-1122 yeast
- ADDITIONAL ITEMS
- Pectic enzyme to pre-treat blueberries
- 2.5 g Fermaid O, beginning of fermentation
- 0.5 g wine tannin, beginning of fermentation
- Potassium sorbate to stabilize post-fermentation
- Sodium metabisulfite to stabilize post-fermentation
- 0.5 oz. (14 g) cake batter flavor, post-fermentation
- 0.25 tsp. malic acid, post-fermentation
- 0.25 tsp. citric acid, post-fermentation
- 4 oz. (113 g) maple syrup, post-fermentation
- 8 oz. (227 g) honey, post-fermentation
- 4 oz. (113 g) brown sugar, post-fermentation
- 1 cinnamon stick, post-fermentation
- 0.25 tsp. vanilla extract, post-fermentation
Specifications:
Yield: 1 U.S. gal. (3.79 L)
Original Gravity: 1.070 (17°P)
Final Gravity: 1.030 (7.5°P)
ABV: 9.2%
SRM: 24
Directions:
This mead starts with a basic blueberry mead. Mix together your honey, water, yeast, and blueberries (that have had pectic enzyme on them for at least 24 hours). Your starting gravity will be somewhere in the ballpark of 1.070–1.080. Add your yeast nutrient and let it start fermenting. Fermentation will run for roughly 2 weeks. Once a day you will want to punch down the fruit cap to keep it submerged in the brew. Once the fermentation is done, go ahead and rack it into a new container and stabilize it with potassium sorbate & metabisulfite. If you want to pasteurize, you can do that later. Add your cinnamon stick and cake batter flavor to the brew. Let the cinnamon stick sit in the brew for a few days or until you can taste it enough on the profile. Then pull the cinnamon stick out of the brew and add your brewing acids, maple syrup, honey and brown sugar to back-sweeten. You can also add your vanilla extract at this point and possibly some blueberry juice if you do not get a strong enough flavor. If you are pasteurizing the brew, do it at this point. Keg the brew to force carbonate it and serve. If you would like to watch a video on how to make this brew… here is a video I made on how to do it:
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