We harvested around 100lbs of quinces from our trees the other day and my wife processed them into quince paste. The first major step of making quince paste is poaching them, which my wife does in a spiced water. As a result, after 50lbs or so we were left with 3qts of concentrated quince juice, sugar, and spices. It tasted quite good, and had a decent amount of sugar, so we decided to make it into a mead.

It's been almost 7 years since I last made a mead that was higher than 6%, so this is also about remembering how to do so.

This batch was dumped out unfortunately

Recipe

• 5lbs clover honey
• 3qts Quince poaching water
• Lalvin 71B (exp 11-2019)
• 7.1g Fermaid Go
• 8.4g Fermaid-O

Data

SG: 1.068
FG:
ABV:
pH:
Ferm Temp: 68F

Steps

First we let the poaching liquid boil for a few minutes to kill any potential contaminants. After cooling to under 140F we added the 5lbs of honey as it was quite crystalized. This allowed the honey to fully dissolve into the liquid prior to transferring to the fermenter.

Filtered tap water was added to make a final volume of 3 gallons.

I then used 50c water to dissolve ~7g of Fermaid Go, then added the yeast (around 40C) and let sit for 10 minutes.

I pitched in must and then aerated heavily.

Fermentation was visible after 12 hours.

Nutrition Schedule:
0hr 7g Fermaid Go
24 36hr 2.1g Fermaid-O (this addition was 12 hours late, so I will be pushing back all nutrient additions)
48hr 2.1g Fermaid-O
72hr 2.1g Fermaid-O
96hrs (added a bit earlier than planned) 2.1g Fermaid-O

Feb 9 2025 - Unfortunately the mead did not fully ferment, and is very cloudy, so I pitched 2g of Lalvin K1V-1116 to finish the ferment.

May 19 2025 - Sadly the mead has developed an off-flavor that I don't believe will age out fully. I've decided to dump the batch rather than try to devote more time or resources to fixing it.

Sometimes it's worth just resetting. We will definitely be attempting this mead again in the fall with a new crop of quinces.