Peach and Ginger Mead

Yesterday I turned some of my recently acquired honey into some peach and Ginger Mead. It will take about 6 to 9 months to mature properly. I based the recipe on one I found in the book The Compleat Meadmaker.

The first thing I did was find about 10 pounds of tasty peaches.
Then my naughty wife helped cut them up.
The weight of the peaches after peeling and pitting was exactly 8 pounds.

After I sanitized all of my equipment, the next thing was to weigh out some honey and dissolve it in water.
I used 12.5 pounds of honey, which was about a gallon. I topped it off with enough water to make 5 gallons and stirred the heck out of it with a sanitized whisk.

I measured the specific gravity and it was 1.122. I also measured the pH and it was much greater than 4.4 so we are good to go.

Next I added 2 teaspoons of yeast energizer and 2 teaspoons of yeast nutrient. Those will help the yeast get going and will keep them alive. Honey is great but it doesn't have enough free nitrogen for the yeast to have a nice party.
I also added 2 1/2 teaspoons of pectinase enzyme. That is supposed to help break down the peaches and ginger so that more juice gets into the mead.

The next thing I did was to add the peaches to the honey water. I am going to add 2 ounces of peeled and crushed ginger after the primary fermentation is done. Because peaches aren't sterile and there are all sorts of natural yeast in there, I decided to use some sulfate to clean things up a bit. I added 3 finely ground Campden tablets. After adding the Campden tablets, everything has to sit for 24 hours before you pitch the yeast.

Meanwhile I made up a starter for my yeast.
I used a strain from White Labs called WLP720, a sweet mead/wine yeast. It has an alcohol tolerance of 15%. To make the starter I boiled 6 cups water, 1/4 t yeast nutrient and 1/4 t yeast energizer for 5 minutes. After I removed it from the heat I dropped in 1/2 cup honey and let the whole thing cool to room temp. Then I dropped in the yeast and shook it up.

I have to throw a liter of the starter into the 5 gallons of mead tonight. I have posted a summary formula below.

Peach and Ginger Mead

12.5 pounds honey
water to make 5 gallons
About 10 pounds of peaches, peeled and cut up to make a final weight of 8 pounds, added to primary
2 ounces of ginger, peeled and crushed added to the secondary
2 t yeast energizer
2 t yeast nutrient
2 1/2 t pectinase enzyme
3 campden tablets finely crushed
1 liter of starter made from White Labs WLP720 yeast