We turned a subscriber's wine into a mead | Making a Strawberry Jam Mead

Michele sent in a strawberry jam wine recipe and asked how we might convert it to a mead. We thought showing how to brew a jam mead at home might be a fun adventure, so we took her up on the project. In this video, we show you our riff on a recipe using honey, jam, frozen fruit, and other homebrewing ingredients to make a simple jam mead. There is certainly room for improvement, but we enjoyed bringing you our first go at converting this recipe. Thanks for checking out our channel - we love making wine, cider, beer, and mead and showing you how easy and simple it is to brew at home!
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[@GreenWitch1]

I’m happy to finally see the end result! I couldn’t venture a guess as to what killed the color or why it took so long to ferment. I’ve got 5 gallons going now with a 50/50 mix of sugar & honey. I wasn’t able to find the Kirkland brand of jam, so I used Smuckers. Definitely makes a difference. I do find that the kiwi tones down the acidity. I choose champagne yeast this time, but I must say the 71B worked well in my original batch. I’m glad you like the taste 🤙🏼

[@DointheMost]

Thank you again for sending in the challenge! I might do a second batch and try and improve on some of the areas it was lacking in my batch.

[@jeremycorvialis4085]

My first run at a strawberry mead was, mixed. I'm excited to try this. Maybe it's the jam I'm using, but the "stir, stir, stir" on this one is no joke!

[@silversasquatch79]

any one else expecting to hear the melvins when bc said honey bucket or was it just me? :)

[@Murlockingqc]

Try adding some purple carrot juice for color ;) Made a sour cider with strawberries and it had a really bright red color. I used fresh boiled strawberries in sugary water and I let them with heat turn off and covered for 25 min. It extract all the colors and they turn white. Then, I combined the strawberry syrup (with fruits) with a strawberry-banana smoothie that had purple carrot in the ingredients and added pectinase and dextrose with Philly Sour. Made a delicious drink ! Was good to drink right after it had finished fermenting and was super simple. I aimed for 1.055 OG, didn't care much about final ABV because it's meant to be refreshing :)

[@Murlockingqc]

I used about half and half of both liquids. The smoothie was from the brand "Irresistibles". When the water start boiling, add white sugar and corn sugar and turn heat off and cover. I used about 3/4 of a pound of each. It was super good, with some malted wheat steeped with the strawberries it would have a better mouthfeel and probably taste amazing. I was trying to make a smoothie cider but all the pulps fell off and I was given a very clear bright red drink instead, not a bad thing anyway ! EDIT: Might be the acidity from the Philly Sour yeast that helped keep the red color.

[@Hunterstoneking]

My best to date has been a strawberry hibiscus made with that same jam! 😋

[@juliaharbeck774]

I am thinking about making a rhubarb standard mead but adding the jam in also. My last strawberry rhubarb was lacking but I have been using jams in my meads lately and really like how they turn out. Then maybe more fresh strawberries in secondary.

[@kb2vca]

Not certain but I think the color loss is due to insufficient acidity during fermentation and possibly insufficient tannin. Both needed (I think) to fix the color in the wine and so prevent color loss. Even less certain but cold maceration might allow the anthocyanin (the red color) to be extracted from the fruit - Heat, I think, may fix the color in the fruit (the fruit and not the wine) and so the wine (or mead) looks like a certain nameless NY property developer's hair color.

[@DointheMost]

I’ve been reading lately about adding citric acid to help maintain color in strawberries. Information I wish I had when I started this mead many months ago!

[@GreenWitch1]

Strawberries are actually quite acidic when fermented. I use kiwi to tone down the acidity. It’s my belief since I’ve made this recipe twice & BC has made it now that the brand of the preserves has everything to do with the outcome. Mine is bright red and tastes amazing.

[@danharkness7868]

Thank you for sharing your experiences, triumphs, defeats and something in-between. It helps us novice with ideas and inspiration. While watching, I was hoping for a brighter red as well. I noticed you chose not to add the kiwi. Will you share why? Thanks for all you do. Dan

[@DointheMost]

I did neglect to mention that, I am allergic to kiwi fruit. :)

[@johnburke8337]

I've been in love with red wine yeasts recently, but I wonder why the color didn't stick so well. It was also really cool seeing how you hammered all that pectin out; it doesn't seem an easy task. If you want a fun read that you possibly haven't encountered, the "S. Cerevisiae derivatives" on the Opti-red package made me think of Fuzhou Hongjiu and Hongzao. It's right up there with the typical mix of Chinese rice wine that has the sort of double ferment with koji and yeast, but it's one of the very few examples of brewing alcohol where the lees are preserved for further use (mainly in cooking). It probably could be argued that the lees, the hongzao, are the more desired product sometimes. To tie up the possible loose end, the connection here is the color red, but I don't think the particular kind of koji would be of much use in a recipe like this one.

[@DointheMost]

This was a fascinating read! Super interesting stuff, thank you for sharing! I am only slightly bummed that the red color didn’t stick. Just because I love my aesthetics!

[@FunkyFyreMunky]

Yeah, I've gone off 71b yeast in a big way as well. I made a light, delicate wine with it and it gave it an almost artificial banana flavouring that completely crowded out the fruit. For dark colour and tannin preservation in wines I tend to use Lalvin RC212, it makes *really* nice pinot-noir style out of blackberries. I'm currently in love with Gervin GV6. It's a true sauternes yeast and makes the best light dessert wines. Gives the wine dried apricot/honeysuckle notes. It's worked very well in a tea mead, a mandarin mead, a physalis mead (this is my absolute favourite!) and a lychee wine. If anyone has a fruit-yeast pairing they love I'd be interested to learn it.

[@DointheMost]

I recently bought a bunch of RC212 and I’ve been enjoying working with it! Great choice!

[@FunkyFyreMunky]

@@DointheMost Zero foaming, drops right out of suspension when it's done, high alcohol tolerance at about 16%. I can't fault it.

[@Nestlethehobgoblin]

THANK YOU! I thought i was the only one who thought 71b was incredibly inconsistent. I'm just not impressed with what its done to some of my meads. Going back to KV1-116 I suppose.

[@DointheMost]

So many great yeasts out there - no reason in my mind to use 71B. :)

[@wizpig64]

Hey I started this recipe this month and it's my first brew bigger than a gallon. Do you not have to stir the frozen berries over the two weeks? I'm leaving for a 10 day vacation in a few days, and i hope the yeast can take care of it for me!

[@brandonsockrider7350]

I see you left out the Kiwi! I would have done the same because of my allergy. :)

[@crcarlsonUT]

Nice video and recipe, I'd like to do some country wines with honey as well. I recently made Strawberry, Blueberry and Raspberry country wines with cane sugar. 3lb fruit per gallon, 12.5g citric, 1.25g malic acid, 0.5g FT tannin, 1/2 tsp pectinase, SG 1.080, QA23 yeast. The color in each came out pretty nice, blueberry the darkest, raspberry pretty intense and strawberry a rose color withe a tinge of gold. I have read that lower alcohol (more like 12%) will hold a lot more color than higher alcohol ~15%+ w.r.t. the seedy / plasticy aromas from strawberry seeds, I have taken to pectinase maceration in a bag with sulfite and straining the solids after 24hrs to pull the seeds out of the must and so far have been happy with the lack of seed phenolics.

[@DointheMost]

Someone mentioned this the other day, and maybe it was you! That the seeds are largely responsible for the off aroma. After posting this video I sort of thought about doing a video series of trying to perfect this recipe… Maybe I’ll do that!

[@crcarlsonUT]

@@DointheMost I don't recall whether I mentioned it or not... I appreciate the drive to improve the recipes, so many things to try and so little time!

[@tammyjackson7672]

What kind of airlock do you use?

[@Zeke8762]

Awesome recipe. How do you rack off of fruit without plugging the cane? I tried tracking off my blackberry melomel from primary with both and auto siphon and racking cane with some cheese cloth over the tip and both clogged immediately.

[@DointheMost]

You might instead try tying some cheesecloth into a little bag around the hose end of your siphon to catch debris rather than trying to prevent debris from getting into the business end. Sanitized kitchen twine works well for tying the bag on. Usually when I rack off of fruit I do it when there’s still quite a bit of gas pushing the fruit cap up and just make sure I keep my racking cane beneath the fruit until the very end. Hope this helps!

[@Zeke8762]

@@DointheMost ooooooo that's clever. I'll try the gassy version first, but the little bag seems neat. Thanks!!

[@dudetapedtoafridge3073]

You have to make a cactus friut wine lmao

[@DointheMost]

I’ve used it in hot sauce before, but never in an alcoholic fermentation!

[@stillwalkergamesplus]

I thi k for the color i would have added some hibiscus tea

[@wildman3506]

Once bottled you stated bottled age....How long did you bottle age??

[@ClassicRyder1]

what type of airlock are you using? I haven't seen something like that before.

[@DointheMost]

They are breathable silicone airlocks which require no liquid. We love them!

[@mart62730]

I would love to get more information on how you "disposed" your straweberry wine :)

[@DointheMost]

Haha. Don’t think we can show that!

[@harashiSAN]

Alc. cont by vol?

[@stephenhegarty6179]

Airlock is waterless where is available?

[@mdspider]

Not sure how hibiscus would impact the flavor but I think it would have helped with color retention. 1 oz of Jamaican hibiscus.

[@DointheMost]

Maybe drop the tannin and hit it with hibiscus or sorrel flowers!

[@maxrocks00]

stir stir stir !!

[@DointheMost]

HE SAID IT

[@christianmendoza8543]

Crispy strawberries

[@DointheMost]

c r i s p y

[@jbtravelssolo7596]

Why make 5 gallons if its just a test and not just a 1 gallon? Will you just distill the bulk of this batch?

[@benjamindaniels1273]

When you did the erythritol, I definitely expected you to carbonate this

[@DointheMost]

Heavily considered it!

[@GreenWitch1]

Hey BC! Somebody just subscribed to my KZbin channel. Problem is, I don’t have a KZbin channel. Can you explain this? Maybe I need to start one 😂

[@skylargrey8354]

The " plastic smell " is from you sticking the plastic jars into a microwave they where designed for that .

[@jasonlayman8817]

I keep hearing strawberry wine doesn't age well.