Latest project is carrot mead... From purple carrots!

Honey is a poor medium of nutrients for alcoholic fermentation, so the producer has to take that into account. I've managed to produce meads with just honey and water which are not repulsive, but they are not meeting standards either. Using water for diluting the honey to create a mead must is problematic, since it usually lacks nutrients and minerals.

If the producer switches the water for a vegetable juice, the category of mead becomes "Metheglin". In this case we are making a carrot metheglin.

Purple carrot was purchased from a local farmer and juice was made using a household vegetable juicer.

Local produced honey was used to raise the fermentables from 11 brix to 23 brix. If all the sugars gets fermented by the yeast, it would produce a 13% abv carrot metheglin.

pH was high with this one at the start; juice was at pH 6 and the enriched must at 4,4 (honey itself is acidic and I also added lactic acid 5 grams per liter), so it's quite high in terms of winemaking.

The minerals in carrot work as a buffer for the acids and they resist the pH change, which is agreeable when in proper levels.

First time ever though, it might be that there is too much of buffering capacity! We'll see when the fermentation goes forward.

I'm going to ferment this one with Laffort's XAROM, which is intended for both red and white wine.

Support the research to: koju@strike.me !

Have a nice day,

Janne