Cherry Bomb

Recipe

Primary

• 24 lbs clover honey (~2 gal)

• 40 lbs tart cherries

Secondary

The 1 gal batch received:

• 4oz toasted mindo cacao nibs

• 2 tsp vanilla

Gravity & ABV

• Calculated OG 1.156

• Target FG ~1.050

• Projected ABV: 14%-16%

Nutrients

• Go-ferm by package instructions

• Fermaid K: 10.6g

  • 2 additions; 5.3g in each

• DAP: 7.07g

  • 2 additions; 3.535g in each

Timeline - Pitch to Bottle

• Pitched on 10/05/2020

• Racked 11/01/2020

  • Used 3 gal and 1 gal carboy since this yields ~4 gal mead

  • Both carboys were full up into the neck

  • 1 gal carboy, racked second, had a fair amount of sediment in it

• 11/07/2020 racked the 1 gal off the sediment onto 4oz cacao nibs

• 11/13/2020 added 2 tsp vanilla extract to the 1 gal carboy

  • Probably should have done that after or during racking... hah

• 11/14/2020 racked the 1 gal off cacao, added a little Everclear just to help with headspace since we've now racked twice out of and into a 1 gal container and headspace is becoming a little less than ideal

• 03/02/2021 added 2 oz cacao nibs to the 1 gal carboy again - felt like it didn't have much chocolate character coming through, if any. Also, at some point between here and the previous update, I had topped the 1 gal off with leftover Dragon's Blood to fill out the headspace better. Everclear seemed to - although it's supposed to be flavorless - add some kinda chemical-esque taste that I did not want.

• 03/16/2021 - bottled the 3 gallon portion!

• 03/17/2021 - lab readings for the 3 gallon portion:

  • 13.76% ABV

  • 1.0602 FG

  • 1.1594 actual OG

  • 3.82 PH

  • Looks like 71B might have underperformed just a little bit here; not sure if there's any way I could make it happier. The final ABV is totally respectable, but this is definitely a very sweet mead.

• Mead still in progress!