Bill Savage’s Lavender-Blackberry Mead Recipe

From meadist.com

Bill Savage used to work for Wild Blossom Meadery in Chicago, IL.  He now brews at Goose Island Beer Co – we wont hold that against him. He still enjoys making and drinking mead. You can take a meadist out of the meadery, but you can’t take the mead out of a meadist!

Bill was nice enough to send me his recipe for a Lavender-Blackberry Mead so I could share with Meadist readers. So here it is – a milestone for the meadist – the first guest recipe.

I enjoyed a Lavender-Blackberry mead that I made about 3 years ago. There’s a nice little all organic & local-grower grocery shop in Edgewater (far North side of Chicago), where I obtained some Lavender flower tips just before they blossomed. I used about a half ounce at the time, making a sort of “tea” concentrate with the Lavender tips. The aroma is amazing!

Ingredients

• 12 lbs. of raspberry honey
• 2 tbs Yeast Energizer
• 1/2 oz Lavender Flower Tips
• Lalvin 71B-1122 Yeast
• 9-10 lbs of blackberries

Directions

1. In a 5 gal. pot, bring 4 gal. of water to a boil for 5 min. let it cool using a Copper Coil Immersion Chiller, & cool the water down to about 160F.
2. Stir in/dissolve 12lbs. of raspberry honey & 2tbs. yeast energizer/yeast hulls.
3. Continue to cool with copper coil chiller to @70F.
4. Make a concentrated “Tea” with the Lavender Flower Tips.
5. Transfer into a 5 gal. carboy & aerate.
6. Finally add your Lavender “tea” to the carboy, stir, & then add your rehydrated yeast/starter.
7. Allow to ferment for 3-4 weeks @ 70F. Then, rack again into another carboy, that has previously been packed with 9-10lbs of blackberries (if desired, 48hours prior to this step, add about 1/4-1/2 tsp. potassium metabisulfite to the blackberries/juice mixture at the bottom of your sanitized 2nd carboy, to ensure bacteria/wild yeast aren’t introduced to your mead). During the rack, also add a second Lavender ‘tea’ concentrate infusion.
8. Let this sit for another 3-4 weeks. Rack a second time, and let age for another 5 months.
9. Bottle afterwards & serve at @ room temp.
10. O.G. – 23.5 Brix. @11.5 – 12% abv.

https://meadist.com/making-mead/mead-recipes/home-made-lavender-blackberry-mead-recipe-by-bill-savage/