Inaugural Brew

June 6 marked the beginning of operations for The Forge Meadery with a one-gallon batch of an effervescent strawberry-peach mead. The recipe for this mead is as follows:

1 lb, 7.7 oz Strawberries (halved, no tops)

7.7 oz Strawberry tops (green stem included)

1 lb, 10.2 oz chopped Peaches

3 lbs local Colorado honey (Ambrosia apiary, gently filtered)

1 us gal filtered water

1/2 packet of Lalvin 71B yeast

The strawberry halves were washed and then cooked into a runny compote before being added to a brewing bag with the strawberry tops and peaches. Next a 2 gallon food-grade bucket was filled with roughly 0.5 gallons of filtered water and mixed with all 3 lbs of honey (we warmed the honey up prior to this to keep it easy to pour), the honey and water were mixed together until all of the honey dissolved into the water, then the remaining 0.5 gallons of water was added and the mixture stirred rigorously once more. After all of the honey and liquid was mixed together the Lalvin 71B yeast was added directly to the bucket and again mixed in well to assure best dispersal of the yeast throughout the beginning brew. Lastly all of the fruit was deposited into a brewing bag and placed into the bucket. And air-tight lid was applied and an airlock inserted to allow degassing but prevent things like animal hair and/or bugs from getting into the brew.

We took a specific gravity reading which will help us determine possible ABV for this brew. Our first reading which was at a temperature of 88-90 F came out at ~1.084. I am estimating that the true specific gravity is closer to 1.095 because there was not enough time for all of the sugars from the fruit to dissolve into the liquid. Assuming all fermentable sugars are converted we can expect an ABV of approximately 12.5% (rounding up a little). We are planning on adding a bit more fruit in the secondary/conditioning phase which will raise the ABV to roughly 13.5%, as well as some white sugar to allow for natural carbonation of the brew.