@Troonos So final update on the cranberry mead: it stalled a few times but I was able to get it a final gravity of 1.015. I oaked it with 1/3 of a dark roast french roast spiral for 2 months. I finally slowly backsweetened with about 1/2 a cup of clover honey tasting as I went (it came out to about 1.025 gravity) and it came out great! The oaking really made a difference and I'm looking forward to experimenting with it in future brews thank you for introducing it to me. Thank you again for the recipe.
Great to hear, buddy.
I actually visited Ken Schramm, who literally wrote the bible on modern meadmaking. Despite being considered the greatest mead maker in the country, he's very happy to share his technique, and it's totally transformed the way I brew.
So instead of fermenting dry, stabilizing, then backsweetening, I now add an excess of fermentables and rely on Delle Stability (a specific zone on a graph of ABV and residual sugar that inhibits further fermentation) to stop the fermentation where I mathematically planned for it to happen. This means no stabilizers are necessary. So I'm starting my meads at super high ABV now, in the 1.160-1.165 range, and they tend to naturally stop in the 1.050-1.060 range because I know the ABV tolerance of my yeast.
I've also switched from classic TOSNA feeding, where you feed just Fermaid O at 24, 48, 72, 96 hours, to feeding a mix of Fermaid O and DAP in double doses at 0 and 24 hours, then single doses at 48 and 72 hours.
Instead of adding 1-3 pounds of fruit per gallon in the secondary for 1-2 weeks, I now ferment on the fruit at a rate of 8-11 pounds per gallon depending on the fruit, and it stays on the fruit for an entire month. This amount means there's massive fruit flavor extracted, plus you get the tannic value from the fruit flesh. The fruit has to be punched down once a day for two weeks to prevent mold growth.
No acid balance needed, as the fruits contribute enough acidity. Lots of tannins from the fruit, but I may still rest on oak for some batches.
With this technique, it's like you're drinking pure alcoholic fruit. I've never tasted anything as amazing as Schramm's meads.
Current project is 1.5 gallons of Bananas Foster mead that used 12 pounds of bananas. Now it's sitting on rum-soaked rum barrel oak, and soon I'll add a ceylon cinnamon stick.
Next project is ordering 37 pounds of frozen raspberries to make a pure raspberry mead.
