Base: Matt Maples' recipe for Banana Melomel
Variation for own Recipe:
22 medium to large sized bananas (about 10 lb.)
5 lb. (about 2.3 Kg) of Howland's Honey.
3 tsp. Acid Blend
1 can of No Name Grape Concentrate drink (I don't think the original recipe meant this, but my wife wanted to help and it might make it taste more interesting)
1 tsp. Gypsum
2 tsp. Super Nutrient
1 packet Champagne Yeast (EC-1118)
June 07/00
Put Grape Juice Concentrate in hot water in the pot. Began to slice up the bananas fairly thin.
16:37 - All 22 bananas now in the pot, which is close to boiling.
Squished the bananas with a slotted spoon to release as much flavor as possible. Mixed with the grape it smells horrible. I hope the grape was not a mistake.
16:41 - Mix is starting to boil now. Stirring it a lot to keep it from boiling over.
16:44 - Added 3 tsp. of Acid Blend to the wort. Bananas boiling slowly now (burner on "6", but changing it to "5.5" to avoid boiling over).
16:49 - Burner now down to "5" to avoid boil over.
16:56 - Cleaned Primary with Chloiclean and hot water. Wife complaining now about the smell in the house. Rinsed it with hot water to remove traces of Chloriclean.
17:11 - Transferred to Primary using colander to catch most of the gooey solids.
17:22 - Added 1 tsp. Gypsum to the Primary
17:25 - Added the pail of honey, minus enough to fill a small honey jar and a spoonful for me to eat.
17:27 - Added 2 tsp. Super Nutrient to the Primary. Stirred everything up good.
Took the Primary to the basement and added hot water from the sink down there. I've always felt hot water should be added because there is less chance of rogue bacteria that way.
Took Measurements: Temp 55 S.G. 1.050
This is close enough a temperature (a little lower than I've seen recommended) for champagne yeast, so I went upstairs and rehydrated some yeast. Pitched it in within 15 minutes. Yeast used: EC-1118.
June 24/00: Day 17
Primary has been fermenting well up until a few days ago. The abundance of horrid sludge on the top and on the bottom both have made me hesitant to place the stuff in a glass carboy. Although I have read advice stating that it is a good idea to skim the top sludge daily, I have left it in, figuring when the time comes to transfer it, I just have to make sure the end of my siphoning hose is suspended just above the bottom stuff and quit siphoning just before the top stuff hits it. I will lose some mead, but if you take the top sludge off daily, you are bound to mix the sludge back in and the end clearing would therefore take longer, wouldn't it?
Took Measurements: Temp 22 S.G. 0.996
Nice ferment! A good 7% at this point. That champagne yeast is hungry!
I cleaned the glass carboy with Chloriclean and just a bit of Mr. Clean. Rinsed it well with cool water to remove any sediment from the cleaning stuff. Used chloriclean to clean the siphon tube, even going so far as to siphon the stuff through (without tasting it!). Then I brushed my teeth and used listerine and even gargled and swished with Vodka just before the siphon. Siphoned carefully, trying to remain between the two main sludge layers. Got a bit of sludge but not too much. I had to add 2.5 pitchers (that's 180 oz) of cool water to the carboy to top it off. Final S.G. after the top off: 0.993. It always surprises me to add water to mead and have the SG drop. It does not make sense. Maybe I need to actually use a hydrometer to get the proper readings?
I think it is done fermenting, but I'll leave it for a few days and see if it starts back up again. If it does not, I'll go ahead and begin clearing it. It's quite cloudy at this point and not a very pretty color, sort of a milky yellow; like lemon juice and milk mixed together (if you could do such a thing without curdling the milk).
July 04/00:Day 27
S.G. has not changed since the transfer: still at 0.093. No evidence of any more fermentation, but some of the sludge has settled out. The color has changed to a slightly opaque yellowish amber. Its definitely going to do some clearing of its own, so I'm going to leave it another week or so and then do the secondary racking, and at that point add the sparkolloid.
July 11/00:Day34
I felt the mead was ready to transfer. It doesn't look like it's going to clear any more on its own. Its color is a definite yellow, like a slightly foggy citrine gem. When I siphoned it to the other carboy, the taste was pretty bitter, but I had just brushed my teeth and gargled with Listerine. Now that I'm sitting here with a mug of the murkier bottom stuff, its not too bad. It needs to age and clear, but it'll definitely be drinkable. I forgot to take a specific gravity reading before the transfer, but after transfer it came in at 0.990, the lowest S.G. I've ever seen! Its at 7.9% right now. I can't wait for this one to be done.
I took 1 litre of water and boiled it, then added 1 tsp Sparkolloid to the boiling water. I boiled it for another 10 minutes, mixing very often. Then I took it off the boil and let it cool a bit (no sense in breaking a carboy full of mead). Then I added it to the carboy of mead. I needed another litre or so of cool water to fill the carboy completely, since I was overly careful to leave sludge behind from the first carboy - too careful I think.
Final reading: S.G. 0.992 - damn water!
August 18/00:Day 72
The mead has been fairly clear for awhile. I wanted to get it off the yeast mess sitting at the bottom of the carboy, so today after brewing my first batch of Ginger Braggot, I transferred the mead into another carboy. Its nice and clear and yellowy amber. I was a little too paranoid on the transfer, as soon as I thought I saw sludge I ended it. I ended up with almost full pitchers worth of mead in the first carboy! At least that's what I had to add to the second carboy (in the form of tap water) to get it up to where it should be. I poured myself a pint of the murky stuff before dumping the rest down the sink (sigh). But I'd rather have a clear mead than a strong, cloudy one.
Its taste is pretty bad (but better than the banana wine that was the inspiration for this batch) at this point. Quite bitter - more like banana peels than bananas and honey. I'd suggest the next time I try this to flavor it up with ginger and maybe cloves and/or anise. It is definitely drinkable, though!
I'm going to leave it in this carboy for another month before bottling. I want it good and aged.
S.G. reading before transfer: 0.992
S.G. reading after transfer: 0.995
September 20/00:Day 105
The mead has been quite clear since a couple of weeks after that last transfer. Its time to bottle. Cleaned 60 beer bottles (leaving me about 6 short - watch that!) by rinsing with hot water, then using choliclean, then rinsing well with hot a second time. Left them to cool for a few hours.
Temperature: 22 degrees
S.G. reading before sugar added for bottling: 0.998
I boiled 1.3 cups of corn sugar in about a litre of water. Put this into the (chloricleaned and rinsed) plastic primary. Chloricleaned and rinsed all equipment. Boiled 70 bottle caps.
Filled 'em and capped 'em. Need closer to 70 bottles for a 5 gallon batch; duly noted.
Got a little over a pint left, which I am drinking now. Kind of a flat taste, but none of the bitterness noted in earlier tastings is left. Once it begins to carnonate and is chilled, I think it will be a nice light-tasting drink that packs a hidden wallop!
Note that the next time I try a Banana Mel I will add my favorite mead ingredient: Ginger!
October 13/00:Day 128
Sampled a bottle. It has not carbonated yet (no surprise there, but I was hoping) but it nice and clear. The yellow color of the mel is very much like clear lemonade. The taste is nice, but lacks something (ginger, I figure). There was no evidence of the effect I have mentioned above after one bottle. I did have a nasty head cold the night I drank it, but doubt if this would affect my perception. I'll maybe have to try a bottle or three on New Year's Eve to check it out.
Final Appreciation: This batch came out rather bland. The carbonization was weak as well. There was no discernable effect of the hidden banana quality in the final bottled product. Apparently whatever the odd ingredient is that gives you the "high" stays in the lees. When I do this one again, I should add ginger to make it taste better.
October 13/07:Day 2683
I drank the last bottle, saved these many years for just this purpose. The med was a crystal clear yellow with tiny champagne-like bubbles. Had it is a Pint Beer mug, but really I should have poured it into a flute to fully enjoy this. The taste was not dry nor was it sweet. The bananas weren't evident in the taste of the mead, but the honey was. Other than that I haven't yet developed the proper term usages to apply them to the taste. I liked it and it tasted like mead and it was very good. :)
Alcohol Content (Sep. 20/00)
1.050 - 0.998 = .0052 x 105 = 5.46% by Weight; 5.46 x 1.25 = 6.83% by Volume
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