Sparkling Oaked Acerglyn (Maple Mead) Recipe (2024)

I have made a similar fermented beverage but with 2 gallons of Vermont maple syrup and no honey. I didn’t add the oak but was thinking of it in my next batch. I also make mine still and find that it ages wonderfully! I have a question about making mead sparking, I brew a lot of beer and naturally carbonate as you describe. With beers the if the small amount of sediment gets roused when pouring the flavor blends with the beer, but with meads I find the yeast flavor clashes with the mead. This is espceially true with lighter flavored and bodied meads. Therefore, I have been force carbonating my meads, ciders and wines because of this. I am now wondering if I need to use a yeast with better floculation or if I could add something to the mead at bottling to ensure the yeast stays in the bottle. I’m not worried about it with my personal consumption as much as situations where I am not pouring the bottle.

The one thing I question is adding simple yeast nutrient on the third day and again on the sixth. I think it is much better to do the typical staggered nutrient addition (SNA); make a blend of 1 tsp. Fermaid-K and 2 tsp. of DAP (diammonium phosphate), and then add to the mead as follows:

.75 tsp. when making the must
.75 tsp. 24 hours after fermentation begins
.75 tsp. 48 hours after fermentation begins
.75 tsp. when 30% of the sugar has been fermented.

In addition, stir the mead at least twice a day (if not three times a day) for the first six or seven days to aerate the must but more importantly to degass CO2 buildup in solution. Be careful of course, to stir *very* slowly at first to keep foaming to a minimum, otherwise you’ll end up with a mess! Do not stir at all once one third-to-one-half of the sugar has been fermented, at that point you do not want any additional oxygen contact.

Sounds like an interesting recipe. Do you have any recorded O.G and F.G?

I followed this recipe last night and the must was 1.070 at 94F, so adjusted for temperature it would be 1.073 OG. I can’t wait to see how it turns out!

Hello, I am making this mead, but not sure about the corks to use. Should I use just normal corks? Arent they going to explode with the carbonation created by the added sugar?

Thanks

Paulo

Okay, thanks.

Sir,

If one were to use two 10 litre carboys (2,64 gallons), would you advise to make two musts and therefore use two packets of yeast? I sadly do not have a cooking pot (to split it afterwards) or carboy large enough to make the recipe as given.

And which amount of oak chips would you advise as a replacement? In Europe they sell no cubes or spirals.

First I would like to say this looks amazing and I plan to start a batch as soon as I am able (along with the blueberry melomel) but I had a few questions. First off is a sanitiation question, I have never used wood in my brewing does it need sanitized? If so how? And I saw a question about corks where you said you use crown corks. Is it recommended not to use standard corks? Thanks in advance for the advice.

As far as the wood sanitizing goes, I dropped a chunk of my medium toast oak stave(about 3/4″ by 3″) in some cheap vodka for about 12 hours. This sanitizes and, I think, prepares the wood a bit. I then dropped that in a one gallon batch of blueberry vanilla that I was preparing to bottle in one week. Having no idea how long it is too long I wanted to make sure it didn’t sit on the oak for too long. Once it’s “overoaked” I think the mead is cooked. Chips differ as they transfer flavor more quickly and powerfully but they are pretty one dimensional in character and sanitizing would probably be a quicker process as well. I’ve also read that some temp change while the oak is in there can be helpful to draw the mead into and drive it out of the wood. The key is some oak/vanilla/toast in the finish, but not in the nose.

I’ve used oak chips when making wine with great success. 1 campden tablet per gallon makes a good bisulfite sanitizing solution. Add chips and mix around for 15 – 30 seconds. Fish ’em out add add to your wine, mead, etc. No need to soak because all you need is to get rid of the bad microbes on the surface.

Looks like an awesome recipe, going to try it this weekend. I had one question – on step 9 when you re-rack before aging 2 months, do you leave the oak spiral in the old carboy and let it age without it from here on (so total of just 3 weeks of contact with the oak spiral)?

Is it supposed to be completely clear, before adding the corn sugar? Mine is still cloudy.

Curious why specifically ‘corn’ sugar? Beet or sugar cane don’t work?

I have one question. What is the final volume of this in the 6.5 gallon carboy? Seems like half gallon of syrup, 5 gallons of water, and plus the volume of the honey (approximately 5/6 a gallon more) would end up somewhere a bit under 6.3 gallons total? Or am I supposed to only add water up to 5 gallons total volume in step 4? It seems pretty clear to just add in 2, just wanna make sure that the final volume is actually higher then 5 gallons. Planning on making it this week so I just want to make sure that i don’t screw it up somehow by having it too dilute.

This sounds awesome. Thank you for posting it. Quick question: I brew apple ciders but have been thinking about trying a mead, and I’m wondering if a mead can be made as simply as a cider (where you just combine juice, yeast, and extra sugar, if needed, and ferment). Why can’t you mix all the honey and syrup and water together, add the yeast, and start fermenting? Why the multiple stage process of adding yeast and sugars and aerating? Thanks!

Great recipe thanks, planning to try it shortly. Can I simply halve everything to make a half batch?

So, two weeks after pitching the yeast you aerate and add the last bit of maple syrup?
I thought you weren’t supposed to aerate after the first week of nutrient addition? That is post 1/3 sugar break?

After the second Maple Syrup addition, are you waiting for fermentation to stop at that point before racking or should fermentation be complete prior to racking and adding the oak spiral? Can’t wait to try this!

I will be making this very soon as I have 12 gallons of other meads in my closet. The life of a single father when his kids are at their moms. Where do I get the spiral oak? Is it just in the primary or secondary. I probably got excited and over read that. Oh do you have a cyzer recipe?

Do you stabilize the mead with sorbate and sulphites before adding the corn sugar? Wouldn’t stabilizing stop carbonation?

What was the OG and FG?

We have followed the recipe to the letter and are delighted with progress so far. Our next step will be to add the corn sugar to carbonate the mead in bottles. What type of bottles and bottle tops do you recommend? We were going to use beer bottles with metal caps – or the Grolsch swing top type bottles – just looking for re-assurance as we really want this to work!

I want to try this for my wedding but I was late to come up with the idea. The wedding is in 3 months. What would the taste be like after only 3 months from beginning the process (so probably 2 months of aging)?

Weird question, but would wood chips, like used for smoking do the same job as the infusion spirals?

I love this, just doing some research on making pure maple aceglyn. So what if you reversed the measurements on the honey and the maple to make a more pure maple mead?

Would you happen to have a 1 gallon comparable recipe for this? I love the sound of this recipe but I am just starting out with mead and want to do a smaller batch. Thanks!

I’ve done a few iterations of this recipe. It’s not quite dialed-in, but it’s getting closer to my taste. I did a 1 gallon bourbon-soaked acerglyn in 2018 – maybe I’ll pop one of my remaining bottles this winter.

I used 1/2 packet of EC-118 with 3lbs of Trader Joe’s Mesquite Honey and 1lb. of Grade B VT. Maple Syrup at primary. OG was 1.098. I topped off to a little more over a gallon (I like the litte bigmouth bubbler’s so I essentially top up to shoulders. I left it in primary for about a month and then in secondary I added potassium sorbate and let it rest for a couple days and then added; medium toast oak spiral pre-soaked for a few weeks in Evan Williams Bourbon; Replaced spiral with another soaked spiral two weeks later and added 1/2 cup honey and 3/4 maple syrup (was very dry prior to doing this). Too sweet – added re-soaked spirals and a full oak spiral on 11/20. I found that it fermented quite dry at primary. My recommendation, whether you use a bourbon-soaked spiral or just a toasted spiral is be patient and conservative as you backsweeten.