Easy Strawberry Kiwi Mead

directions

Gather Ingredients & Equipment To Make Your Strawberry-Kiwi Mead

1. Get together your bag of frozen fruit, your gallon fermentation container, your gallon pot with lid, a lemon and 2-2.5lbs of honey.

   If you buy honey containers that weigh a nice whole number like 1lb or 4-5 lb jugs of honey, it makes measuring out the honey needed easier

Macerate Frozen Blackberries

1. Macerate frozen kiwi & strawberries in your large gallon pot with lid by thawing them over 24 hours and letting them reach room temperature.  You can also add a half pound of sugar (subtract 1/2 lb from honey used) to aid the maceration of the berries.

   This additional sugar can help to draw out additional flavor - after 24hrs, the frozen berries will have macerated with the sugar to make a red, syrupy liquid which will make a delicious strawberry kiwi mead after fermentation!

Add Water, Lemon Juice & Honey To Pot Over Low Heat

1. Mix in the water, lemon juice and honey to your pot containing the macerated kiwi and strawberry blend. 

   Turn heat on low under the pot.   

   It helps to drop the honey container in a warm water bath to make the honey more liquid.   

   Stir occasionally for about 10 minutes until fruit breaks down into a saucy liquid

Strain Saucy Liquid Into Fermentation Container

1. Put a funnel on top of a gallon container and lay metal strainer on top. 

   Pour saucy liquid from your pot onto the strainer and funnel to transfer the liquid into the gallon fermentation container. 

   
   You can use the leftover fruit in the strainer to make strawberry/kiwi preserves.
   The recipe is simple: weigh the remaining fruit, return to the pot you just used, and add 50-75% of their weight in sugar. Heat on medium-low for 45 mins and can in sanitized preserves container

Add Brewsy Bag To Fermentation Container & Shake

Apply Airlock To Fermentation Container

Place Fermentation Container In Dark Warm Place

1. In order for the brewsy bag to completely ferment your mead in 7 days, you'll need the container to stay in a dark place that's 65-75°F, like the top of your closet. 

   If it's on the colder side, the fermentation will take longer, somewhere around 10-15 days. 

   Swirl your fermentation container every other day and check an hour later, when it stops bubbling, the fermentation is complete.

Cold Crash Your Mead

1. Remove the airlock from your fermentation container and put the fermentation container in the fridge.

   Place the original container lid loosely on the top of your container to let some air out.

   This will bring down the temperature to de-activate the yeast and will help to drop the remaining lees (sediment) to the bottom of your container.

Wait 3-5 Days And Rack Your Mead

1. After about 3-5 days you'll want to rack your mead from one gallon container to another leaving behind the sediment.

   This is a great time to start tasting your mead, it's still a little long but you'll get an idea for what it'll taste like after aging.

   A lot of those harsh ethanol like tastes disappear after 2-3 weeks. 

   Repeat this step 3-4 times every 3 days until there is very little sediment left

Bottle your Mead for immediate drinking. OR, refrigerate to age, sulfite-free, for 3-4 weeks

1. There are a few options here - you can start to drink your creation if you keep it refrigerated. 

   If you can resist the temptation to drink your strawberry-kiwi mead, you can leave it in the refrigerator to age for 3-4 weeks and even up to 6 months, it'll taste better the more you wait!