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5 from 1 vote

Homemade Blueberry Clementine Mead

This Blueberry Clementine Mead is the perfect marriage of blueberries and citrus. An easy-drinking mead that's customizable to your tastes!
Prep Time2 hours
Cook Time40 minutes
Resting time365 days
Total Time365 days 2 hours 40 minutes
Course: Beverage
Cuisine: British
Servings: 1 Gallon
Calories: 4407kcal
Author: Marie Porter

Equipment

  • 2 gallon fermenter bucket and lid
  • 1 air lock and stopper
  • Siphon, siphon tubing.
  • 1 - 2 1 gallon glass carboys

Ingredients

  • 1 lb Fresh or frozen Blueberries*
  • 5 Clementine oranges
  • 3 lbs Honey
  • 1 Vanilla bean 1 is good for up to 3 gallons
  • 1 gallon Water
  • 1 teaspoon Yeast nutrient
  • ½ teaspoon Pectic Enzyme
  • ¼ teaspoon Acid blend
  • Yeast We used Lalvin EC-1118
  • Wine stabilizer of choice

Instructions

  • If using fresh blueberries, rinse and pick through blueberries, removing any that are moldy, etc. Remove stems, chop them up, place in a large pot.
  • Use a vegetable peeler to get the outer peel off the clementines, taking care to not include a lot of with pith on the peels. Juice the oranges.
  • Add orange peels, juice, and honey to the large pot. Using a potato masher or VERY clean hands, stir and mash blueberries. Let sit for an hour.
  • Add vanilla bean and water, stir well. Heat to ALMOST boiling, then simmer gently for 30 minutes.
  • Stir in yeast nutrient, pectic enzyme, and acid blend
  • Pour mixture into a freshly sanitized fermenting bucket. Cover with sanitized lid and air lock, allow to cool to room temperature (overnight).
  • The next morning, give the mixture a quick stir with a long, sanitized spoon, and – using sanitized equipment – take a gravity reading of the liquid (strain out any blueberries). Keep track of the number! (This is an optional step, but will allow you to calculate your final ABV %)
  • Sprinkle yeast into fermenter, cover with sanitized cover and air lock. Within 48 hours, you should notice fermentation activity – bubbles in the airlock, carbonation and /or swirling in the mead must. This means you’re good to go!
  • After a week or so, use your sanitized siphon setup to rack the must into a freshly sanitized carboy. Put the carboy somewhere cool (not cold!), and leave it alone for a month or so.
  • Using sanitized equipment, rack the mead off the sediment, into a clean, freshly sanitized carboy. Cap with sanitized airlock, leave it alone for another 2-3 months.
  • Rack one more time, leave it for another 3 months or so.
  • When your mead has been racked a few times and shows NO more fermenting activity for a month or so (no bubbles in the airlock, no more sediment being produced, you can move on to bottling. **
  • If stabilizing, follow the instructions on your selected type of wine stabilizer to stop fermentation. For potassium sorbate, this needs to be done 2-3 days before bottling.
  • Using sanitized equipment, take a gravity reading, then rack the mead into clean, sanitized bottles. Cork.

Notes

* If using frozen blueberries, allow them to thaw. Don't bother straining them - just skip the sorting/pitting step, and letting it sit in honey for an hour!
IMPORTANT:
Software generates nutritional information based on the ingredients as they start, and is unable to account for the sugars consumed in the fermentation process. As such, the calories, sugars, and carbs are shown WAY higher than reality.
Additionally, the listed value is for the entire recipe, NOT per serving.

Nutrition

Calories: 4407kcal | Carbohydrates: 1188g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 248mg | Potassium: 1057mg | Fiber: 14g | Sugar: 1163g | Vitamin A: 245IU | Vitamin C: 51mg | Calcium: 222mg | Iron: 7mg