Poisonberry Mead

No boiling! Started with hot TAP water.

Brewer:	Richard Sieben		Email:	sier1@msn.com
Beer:	Poisonberry Mead		Style:	Melomel
Type:	Extract		Size:	20 liters
Color:	0 HCU (~0 SRM)		Bitterness:	0 IBU
OG:	1.227		FG:	1.075
Alcohol:	19.6% v/v (15.4% w/w)
Water:	tap water is softened by city, no adjustments made.
Boil:	0 minutes	SG 1.227	20 liters
	23.3 lb. Honey 7.31 lb. Boysenberry puree
Hops:
Yeast:	Whitelabs sweet mead yeast, no starter (bad idea, but I did it anyway). After primary fermentation was complete, I added isinglass finings to the secondary fermentor to clear. I later added dry champaign yeast as it seemed too sweet, very little additional fermentation occurred.
Log:	starting pH 2.92 Acid .40 Lactic. Added 2oz of acid blend and 5 teaspoons of diammonium phosphate and 1tsp of wine tannin. Also added 40 drops of pectic enzyme to must. The original gravity reading was off my refractometer scale, but working backwards, it was 1.227 and not the 1.142 I originally thought it to be! I thought the fermentation was stuck after a month, so I added yeast hulls and champaign yeast. There was a little activity evident, but I think that was mostly from just the nucleation points provided by what I added (dry yeast and hulls sprinkled on top)-I know bad idea, but wtf. I was preparing to make a light mead and blend it off with this, but first a final test....30.2 brix and pH of 3.10. I tasted the 10 ml I had drawn off for testing, while it is still sweet, it has a nice rounded flavor and alcohol is very evident. I worked the gravity backwards and found that my original gravity reading was much higher than I had calculated before and in reality had something that was close to 20% alcohol, not 2%. Ok, I call it done. I will keg it off and drink it veeeerrrryyyy slowly.
Tasting:	I forgot to mention, I only really started believing the alcohol content when I noticed a buzz from just drinking the 10 ml...this is what led me to re-run my calculations and discovered my error. bummer eh?

Recipe posted 01/25/03.