Easy Apricot Mead Recipe: Step-by-Step Tutorial
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- čas přidán 1. 06. 2024
- Let's make an easy apricot mead. This is a step by step tutorial with full explanations on how to make this mead using honey and dried apricots. Mead is an ancient beverage made from fermenting honey. It's been made for centuries and is also known as honey wine. We have all the ingredients to make this honey wine or mead below.
Ingredients:
2.25 lbs Wildflower Honey: amzn.to/3RaYGuu
1/2 Package Premier Classique Yeast: amzn.to/3KnDVYO
1 Black Tea Bag Steeped in 1 Cup of water for 3 minutes
96 oz Water
2 lbs Dried Apricots: amzn.to/3wYUSpr
1/2 teaspoon Acid Blend: amzn.to/4c4Zn0H
Back Sweeten with Honey (we went to specific gravity reading of 1.048)
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Kitchen Scale: amzn.to/3X50cSX
Star San: amzn.to/3X4ZIMA
1 Gallon Carboy with Airlock: amzn.to/4aJFSti
Our Favorite Pitcher: amzn.to/3yIBAW1
Stainless Steel Funnel: amzn.to/3KrzMmM
Thumb Saver Bung: amzn.to/3R4KanZ
W.U.S.S., Whisk of Unusually Small Size: amzn.to/3V7SJQ9
Hydrometer Kit: amzn.to/455bU1Q
Baster: amzn.to/3xazBci
1/2 Baking Tray: amzn.to/3V8sPvG
pH Strips: amzn.to/4aJ3jmD
1.32 Gallon Glass Jar with Lid: amzn.to/4e8ec4b
Auto Siphon: amzn.to/4aEOamk
1 Gallon Wide Mouth Fermenter: amzn.to/4e5LgtF
5 Liter Plastic Fermenter: amzn.to/4c2DhLY
Cheese Cloth: amzn.to/3Kp5X6g
3 Liter Fermenter: amzn.to/3V424Zy
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When I started homebrewing a few years ago (thanks to y'all!), one of my first brews was flavored with apricots. It ended up being one of my favorites, even at the time, and I've been thinking recently about giving it another go now that I have more experience. The serendipity and timing of this video seems to be the universe agreeing with me!
Yeah, not sure why we waited so long for apricots!
It's definitely a case of synergy at work!😅
I recently got a 3L fermenter for the same price and it came with free wine!
Graduated cylinders, highschool cylinders,yeasties not reaching their destiny. Thank God 4 great teachers. Like BRIAN&DERICA
Aww thanks.
I don't know if you all at city Steading Brews know, but apricots are coming in the next few weeks. This is actually the greatest time to make this video.
👍
Heed the warnings! Use the lipped tray!!
Just now cleaning 😊up a strawberry wine overflow. All contained in said tray 😅.
Thanks for the tip!
I can highly recommend taking boozy fruit and making jam. Hardly and sugars, a little pectin (lemon peels, or etc) ... 👌👌👌
Oo, good idea!
Checking pH is vital. My recent cranberry wine stalled hard, and I had a lot that took my attention, so I couldn't get back to it right away. It ended up at 2.4 pH and wasn't very good. A lesson for all those who think pH isn't a big deal.
You two rock.
first time brewing mead making a blackberry, a pineapple, raspberry and a kiwi, thank you for all the videos, advice, and encouragement.
I remember back in the seventies, my grandfather brewed apricot wine every fall. Balloons and all. I been looking for his recipe for years. Now 57, currently on my second batch of honey Mead . I might have to try this next.
I want to thank y’all for such excellent and informative videos. I tried to start homebrewing in 2020 but I didn’t really know the proper way to go about it. I ended up making 3 batches that year and they all got dumped. I gave up for a few years until I found your channel. Now I am confident in making my brews and I understand the way to go about it thanks to this channel. Just wanted to express my appreciation!
Awesome! Glad we could help.
I actually got an ad today that was related to brewing, imagine that!
I love the new intense pour 🫗
You inspire me to come up with crazy new brews! I am now enjoying an elderberry cider that has finally finished carbonating! I set time aside every Sunday to watch your next brew.
Thank you for watching!
There is a long history of dried fruit placed in alcohol, then snacking on the fruit. In fact some say it is an arthritis pain treatment. Granted normally it is hard alcohol, but the concept here seems the same. The fruit would make for some wonderful snacking. Second watching made me think of a juicer and using that. Since the pulp of juiced fruit some people use to make alcohol seems like a jump off point to getting more mead from the fruit, and the start of a new mead/wine.
As always the aiming is the point! TY both. 💓
I have a small 1.6 L fruit press that I use for my wine making and it would be perfect for that application
I'm really loving the dramatic music, it's awesome! Hehe
Yeah... and that's why I use a brew-bag (know you don't like them, but I use one that actually fits the Big Mouth fermenter) so I can recover juice after conditioning. For fruit meads I also start with a 4L mead in a Big Mouth Bubbler so I'll end up with 1G after conditioning as yep, like you said, those dried fruits do suck up a lot of product. I've never had my SG go up by more than 20 or 30 points when conditioning... but, again, I start with 4L of mead so a bit more volume for the 2Lbs of dried fruit. I am VERY tempted to try your Braggot recipe... thinking!!! Love the vids, keep them coming!!
I absolutely love this method of adding fruit to secondary instead of primary 🎉
woah! i like the intro! Thanks for the vid guys :)
OH and wanted to update you on the dragonfruit mead. It restarted fermentation, after doing what you suggested. It went from a 1.122 to a 1.004! 71B beasting it!
Glad you like it!
I made apricot wine using my apricot jam. Now I want to try mead!
My first ever batch that i bottled last month was with apricots too!
Nice brew dude. Thanks for the intergenerational wisdom. I watch your videos from time to time. I'm no expert. I just found out about Meadhing. My favorite so far was a fig mead, a local brewer used an ale yeast. Went down well... Part of a flight... Pairs well with 1 pound of beef brisket with a side of mustard bbq sauce. Thanks for all you do. Hope y'all have a blessed year. Cheers.
One of my absolute favorite fruits. I'll definitely try this one. I just started pineapple habanero mead yesterday, so this will be next month's brew.
I got one of those pitchers. It is the most awesome thing ever.
I agree!
Half way through watching it occurred to me I had an empty fermenter, and honey. So I paused and made a mead and finished watching. Thanks for reminding me.
You're welcome.
I ran across some apricot puree online and thought it might be good for brewing and probably would eliminate a little bit of loss.
But this sounds great, I love apricots!
I’ve been using dried fruit in most of my creations - especially cherries!😋
Works great. Also long shelf live so season is irrelevant.
Long time brewer and wood smith here. About a week in to a three gallon batch of kilju currently.
Quick!, do this again but with fresh fruit during the conditioning phase. When done, compare and contrast the two results.
Feel free. We don't have access to it atm and I have so many other projects before repeating one. 😀
Apricots and pineapple with cinnamon go great together just saying another great recipe
Buying those strips now!
12:00
Sitting here wearing my "Brew like a Viking, not like a Chemist" shirt, watching this awesome video, and have my mead you two inspired in glass while another set is being blessed by the Sous Vide before bottling. Life is good. I can't wait to do try out this Apricot Mead recipe! Thank you both!
Very cool!
Amen. I dont believe in getting too fussy when brewing; when our ancestors did it they certainly weren't fussy...
I would say they were very fussy. This was a food preservation method for them. It could mean the difference between having enough calories to survive or not enough. I would be pretty fussy if that was the benchmark I was working with 😊
We do know that people took alcohol seriously even many centuries ago.
@@CitySteadingBrews errrr.....I was merely saying they didn't monitor ph and use star san 😂.......
Oh... lol.
All I could think when seeing the apricots before squeezing is, "alcoholic candied apricots," and that sounds pretty darn good.
Oh yes please, making this one, apricots a plenty! Trying half dried and half fresh (after freezing). Yáll are funny!
Sounds good!
My bad experience with the premier classique yeast....had 13 gallons of blueberry wine going. Smelled lovely. Pitched that yeast, went to work, came home and it smelled like sewage. Took me days to realize the problem of sulfides. Tossed it all. 😢 Learning new things all the time. Okay, back to the video 🙂
Well... the smell will go away with age. There really was no need to dump it.
@CitySteadingBrews I did try a few things but I think it was just too far along in the fermentation process and no one could have ever convinced me that it would be okay. Still optimistic though and pitched some yeast into a smaller batch just yesterday and all is well so far. Fingers crossed!
Amazon finally had that 1.3 gallon fermenter in stock. I mistakenly drilled an off-center hole in the hard and soft lids. Realizing that they would never line up, I ordered these silicone gaskets to replace the soft lid (gasket). Here is the Amazon search phrase I used to find them. 6pcs 4.5 inch silicone replacement gaskets for jars rubber seals.
My first impulse seeing the rehydrated apricots would've been to try and eat one and then determine whether i would want to cook jam out of them...
Anyways i love your channel and started my first ginger beer last week; my first fermentation in 16 years, back then my family would annualy make fresh apple cider and just let wild fermentation do its thing.
Watching the airlock has brought back so many nice memories... i think i'll give the hendriks gin kilju a shot next.
I've tried quite a few boozy fruits and I usually don't really like them... Maybe if they were aged a bit, dunno!
For recovery from the saturated apricots you need a press to get the most of it.
You can probably fake it with two nesting bowls. Put the cheesecloth in the larger bowl, partially fill with the soaked apricots then put the smaller bowl in and rock it around in a circular motion. Probably should add a bit of weight as well to the inner bowl to get a more complete press.
Obviously, if you’re doing large volumes or repeat batches, it’s probably worth it to get a proper cider press, but I think this method should work as an inexpensive substitute.
Sounds yummy! Ordinarily fruit disintegrates but apricots might benefit from being sliced. Skins on apricots are “tough” enough to stay intact and hold in juice. Just a thought…
thumbs up for the matrix transition
I’ve got to say that I absolutely love your channel! I started making Mead recently, mainly a wildflower honey and raisin mead which has proven to be huge success with my friends! They can’t get enough of it when they come over. Anyway I stumbled across your channel while doing research for new recipes and I’m really loving the content and the way you present it! Can’t wait to try some of your recipes. Is there any specific one that you would recommend?
Umm... there are a lot. T really depends what you like and your experience level. Glad you're enjoying though!
Hey guys! I first want to say I absolutly love your videos and i have been watching y'all for about 2 years
I was wondering if you guys would do a mead video with dragon fruit
We can check into it.
Makes me want to try with fresh apricots come August. Afraid it would just end up like other stone fruits and pears and just end up painfully dry without much flavor in the end. Might try it anyway. Can always "fix" it with dried fruit like you used.
As of today I will be the proud owner of my own WUSS!! Had to get some new balloon whisks, got a set that includes a WUSS. lol
Lol.
I just make a Forrestmead, cant wait to taste it :)
Forrestmead?
@@CitySteadingBrews dont you have Forest honey "Waldhonig" in the states? Maybe its called different?
It's not really that common.
@@CitySteadingBrews so you cant buy it ?
@KeysundKreisPlaylists_Colt have yet to see it to be honest.
Sounds nice! You should do a Apricot-Vanilla so it can make like fruity Walls Ice Cream vibes.
Noted!
This video was really good❤ have you considered doing this with dry banana chips at the beginning of fermentation
We have not...
You could use a little .5 to 1.5 gallon fruit press to get that liquid out. My uncle had an orchard so every fall the family would meet at his place and make gallons of cider for everyone. And the three gallon one he had removed most of the juice from the fruit.
Hi both, I've just started brewing .had some demijons for a while .did a couple of apple wines years ago. I've bought alot of gear and taking it a bit more serious, Its still a nice hobby with benefits ,ive been watching your channel few weeks. I have to say yours is understandable and fun.The ,,Racking too soon,, vlog helped me alot , I've subscribed and a massive thumbs up.Mark from Wales 🏴 ❤
Thanks Mark! Glad you're enjoying it all.
@@CitySteadingBrews hi can you help.ive made a beaverdale white came out tasting great ,I bottled 4 bottles and left rest in 3 x3 gallon demi Jon's. I thought this would be better for wine to settle.i didn't add any Campden tabs or sulphate as my reading were 0.994 great .I've checked every other day bungs in place .today one bung was missing wouldn't say blown off just a gradual build up of pressure over 2 weeks.i have added a crushed Campden tablet ,although it tastes ok .all 3 demijohns have a little must in bottom.shall I add a Campden to all 3 .for 24 hours .and bottle.the other bottles are fine they have screw caps with shrink caps over top .,I forgot the wine dud come with stabiliser and finings Thank-you.
We don't use chemical stabilizers.
@@CitySteadingBrews do you allow the wild yeast grow in your wines without any chemicals.
Yeast compete with each other. Wild yeasts are fairly weak compared to commercial strains and die out to competition or simply from the alcohol produced.
❤️
I've recently started using fruit purees in conditioning instead of dried fruit, simply to avoid the volume loss you get from rehydrated fruit. It dilutes your mead, which is an issue, but you also don't have to worry about sulfates altering the flavor.
Not all dried fruit has sulfites but yeah, not a bad idea.
Nice!
When will you do a melomel with black berries? Add some clove and all spice too. Plz do it, its awesome
We have something with blackberry coming.
Regarding the headspace: have you ever considered filling that with an inert protective atmosphere like argon? That’s sometimes done for fancy wines. A small bottle of argon isn’t that expensive and should last you for a lot of batches
It's never caused a problem.
UNLEASH THE BEEJEEZUS!
I drastically underestimated the sugar added by plums in a beer I made once. Raised the ABV by a few percent.
Great video! I need to add apricot mead to my list, lol. Question: Why not start with slightly more honey? Won't the end product have the same ABV but be slightly sweeter?
It might or it could stall, or cause off flavors... in this case more sweetness would not have helped. There are of course many ways to do it!
Have you ever tried using a magnetic stirrer? I had an idea of using one during the entirety of fermentation to see the effects. I assume it will speed up fermentation with no negative side effects.
I don't think it would speed it up significantly. Would make clearing take longer though.
Just did some research and your dried apricots have 6.25 ounces per pound. Loving you UK references, “Milton Baby Steriliser”.
About the head space... Have you ever used like marble or something just to fill in the space? I got some just in case but haven't used it before
Sure, we use them sometimes.
So I was curious since I live in Washington and the coolest part of my house will be one bedroom(we don’t have air conditioning) and that window air conditioner will be set at 66 degrees(per parents request) I’d say it will get around 75 degrees at max in there, if I have a fermenter in there going, what type yeast would you recommend for the summer months? Other parts of my house will be at make 80-85 degrees for the coolest part not air conditioned. So not sure if I should ferment in those areas since the temperature will fluctuate about 5-10 degrees.
Our environment is normally 72-77. Many yeasts work well and anything good for is is likely good for you as well.
Those apricots could be a mason jar boozy snack to enjoy with the mead? Maybe... Sounds tasty
Might have to try this one too. My list is getting a bit long. Lol
Ours too!
My most requested mead is Apricot. I spice it up with Garum Masala and use sage honey.
Nice!
23:00 > Get a small press, to squeeze the Bazatan out of it?
I did a brew like this about a year ago (dried apricot and mango.) It had the footy note as well, and it was still there at the 1 year tasting. Delicious, but not great on the nose.
Do you think the smell could have been avoided if you stabilized before adding to fruit? To avoid fermentation in presence of sulfur compounds?
Doubtful. There was sulfides on the apricots themselves.
Yeah, I have given up on "hoping it will finish sweet." My dandelion wine finished at 0.982! 😮
When I found I had a legitimate reason to buy a graduated cylinder, it was important to me that I get a glass one, because it’s the mad science more than the alcohol or any other reason that this hobby appeals to me. I bet a large portion of the fans of this channel wanted to be scientists as a kid but didn’t have the grades, like me
I had the grades, just didn't see myself stuck in a lab all day, lol.
Try and find a small wine press for squeezing any fruit that you use.
It's possible those preservatives you pointed out at the beginning of the video is what stopped the fermentation.
Possibly.
I forgot to smash the blueberries in an apple wine I am currently making (2 week rn) and at Day 7, removed them slowly, smashed them with ease and added to brew again, and I am thinking (depending on flavor) add the other 1.5 lbs to it in conditioning.
Last month I made apricot Sour Beer and peach mead. Both went very dry
I wonder if you could make a apricot (fresh fruit) wine and a mead, then combine them. Would you get the same result or close to it?
It's just going to remove the honey character, so I don't think it would be the same.
Is there any possibility that one could use dried apricots that were preserved by adding oil? I happened to have a batch of them and would love to use them if possible
Oil can go rancid.
Would a rough chop of the apricots keep them from filling with as much with mead?
Maybe?
Have you tried using fruit nectar from Goya or Jumex? 64 oz is around $3 and my stores have apricot, mango, guava, peach and pear.
We haven't, sorry.
I use the same fermenter with the same purple lid. 😀 I threw the plastic seal out and found a rubber (food-grade) ring of suitable size on eBay.
How about using a cheese press?
Have you guys made jackfruit wine yet? I hear it taste like juicy fruit gum but I haven’t tried it yet.
We have not 😀
Every time you toss somthing i 5hink "new cat toy"
So do our cats.
Can I use frozen diced apricots that have sugar, water,ascorbic acid citric acid. It made great jam if so how many lbs. To make a gallon or 5 gallons. I was given cases of it. Thank you .Enjoy your channel. I have been making elderberry n blueberry n wild cherry for years.
Seems like you want to check pH. How much? Can't say as we didn't use those, but likely more as dried are lighter vs frozen.
Thanks will experiment, I have 2 beekeeper friends, and when I need more honey before they extract , I use Costco honey as well.
Question: how can a smell come out of a brew when it's closed off with an airlock? Will it ever really produce enough pressure to push that smell out?
Of course it can. Aromas are volatile and the pressure during fermentation can easily do that.
Could it be a GED cylinder?
Only if it takes a test.
do alpha amylase Enzyme and glucoamylase is necessary for mead fermentation?
i ask around to be able to ferment mead more than 7%, i need to use alpha amylase enzyme and glucoamylase to break down carbohydrate so the fermentation wont stuck at 7% alcohol
i am so sorry always asking
Nope.
@@CitySteadingBrews thank you
Have you two thought about using a juicer to get your liquid out of the fruit instead of squeezing it?
Cool.
Hands down apricots were my favourite fruit in my childhood.
I think I may be tempted by this video to make my second mead with oh so expensive honey.
When apricots are back in season in the southern hemisphere lol
Hah!
I just read your ingredient list.
You used dried apricots, I'll be making it a lot sooner than I thought 😊
Was just about to tell you that. We said it in the video too.
This sounds delicious! I definitely will try it. However, at this point, I have a question I think will have great entertainment value for you. I was digging around in my garage and found a box of 350-ml. bottles (11 of them) of my own personal "Jothead Jalapeno" cooking wine I made in 2007, when I knew nowhere near as much as I do after several months of watching you folks. (Thank you!) It has an "off" smell, which I attribute to my not having let it condition, as I didn't know to do that at the time. There was a little evaporation, I think, because I saw a wine-colored ring up in the neck. The heat stayed beautifully, but that's all there is. I don't recall it being much different when I first made it, but it has been a while. Could I perhaps decant all these little bottles into a fermenter and adding raisins, honey and a little acid to add more flavor to it? After nearly five years in a Texas garage, I am not worried about refermentation. I don't really want a mouthful of "meh." Or is this just throwing away good products after a sad wine I should just dump out? I eagerly await your guidance on this. Thank you!
If it's dump or try... I say try.
@@CitySteadingBrews Thank you! What do you recommend? Since it is supposed to be a cooking wine, would raisins be a better choice?
I can't taste it. The risk is in pouring out the bottles. I couldn't tell you how to flavor it really.
How would a person change the ph from 2.5 to 4-5 after adding yeast
Potassium bicarbonate 😀
Was hoping D would go old school and give us a foot score lol
Nope. We stopped that a long time ago realizing the negative connotation.
I remember that you used a bunch of glass balls earlier instead of racking into a smaller bottle.
Why didn't you use them this time when apricots took a lot of liquid?
We had a smaller container...
Are the apricots dried with the skin on or are they peeled? Could it need pectin enzymes to break that down?
Not sure to be honest. Pectic enzyme may have helped clear it a bit.
I was planning on copying your mango mead recipe except with apricot nectar this weekend, but got held up and then here we are, ha ha ha
Sounds great!
Hope you enjoy
I've noticed my bung won't stay in the one gallon jug unless both the bung and the jug are dry so I wipe both dry before installing it. Had one jug recently that wasn't bubbling, the glass had a crack. Noticed the next morning so reracked to a different jug and away we go.
Yeah we don't dry them due to sanitation but it does work.
Rollin pin on a large platter or tray pour off the rest
Hi!
I think i just came with an idea to select wild yeasts to an alcoholic tolerance you might need (or like)
So, yeasts have certain tolerance to alcohol, some higher some lower
How about WE FORCE THE ONES WITH THE LOWER ALCOHOL TOLERANCE TO DIE by submerging the fruit we want to obtain the yeasts from, at in an ethanol solution @ 10% concentration by at least 24 hours. That way, most acetobacter present in the fruit will die, and we can have natural yeasts (not just S. ceriviciae) that can keep working at higher alcohol concentrations. Once submerged in a solution with fermentable sugar and proper yeast nutrients the ones that survived will be the strongest.
As you have mentioned, alcoholic tolerance doesn't equal yeast performance, just that they will keep living, so maybe sibmerging fruist at alcoholic solution a bit higher like 15%
Hope you can see this and answer :DD
Gove it a try but it's likely to just kill all the yeast. Without a strong colony, it would just die.
me and my friend are making cherry wine and he forgot to push the cherries down foe a few days and some mold apeared at the top so we just took the top layer out and it looked fine, could it be a problem
It can be toxic.
@@CitySteadingBrews let's hope it isn't, a lot of time went into picking those cherries
If mold forms, it's best to not consume it. I'd rather have more time out of the hospital than be concerned with the time spent picking cherries. Seriously, molds drop toxins into the liquid. They can be very dangerous.
@@CitySteadingBrews ok, thank you
Derica @ 30:46, I completely understand what you mean by "book boyfriend voice" XD
would the volume loss from the apricots cause the high grav reading or did they just give off a pound of sugar lol
The gravity wouldn't change from volume differences. There was almost a pound of sugar in the fruit though.
@@CitySteadingBrews thats crazy sweet fruit haha havent seen one of your brews finish that high lol
@blu3l3vithan86 yeah. The fruit was added after fermentation was done so it was really just sweetening. Dried fruit has a ton of sugars.
I started thinking a bit... When you aerate the liquid, the sugars are mixed up, but wouldn't the oxygen interfere with the gravity by pushing the hydrometer? Just wondering here.
There isn't that much oxygen.
During this batch was cinnamon ever considered? I've done a similar mead with apple, apricot halves cinnamon and a hint of vanilla. I call it apple jack mead.
I literally tastes like your drinking apple jack cereal...
It might be nice but we didn't add any, no.