Fire on Snow is one of our favorite meads to brew. It just smells so fantastic during the fermentation, and every year we get to tweak the recipe a little bit based on what we're growing on the farm.
Fire on Snow is based on the Vermont tradition of making sugar on snow during the sugaring season. You can learn all about that here.
The advantage to brewing it yourself is that you get to decide exactly how spicy or sweet you want your mead.
Fire on Snow Mead Clone Recipe
5 Gallon/19L
OG = 1.100
FG = .996
ABV = 5.7% abv.
Ingredients:
- 5.5 lbs Raw Wildflower Honey
- 1 Cup Maple Syrup
- 4.5 Gallons Water
- 1 oz. Wyeast Wine Yeast Nutrient
- 5 packets Lalvin D-47 yeast
- 2 Cinnamon Sticks
- 1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
- Smoked and/or Dried peppers to taste, we like to use hatch, chipotle, and jalapeño at about 15 grams total for a batch this size.
Special Note: If you do sugaring at your home, you can always replace the water in the batch with sap, we just recommend that you bring it to a boil then cool it since the yeast and bacteria present on a maple are very different from those found in honey.
Recipe:
- Combine the honey, maple syrup, water, and yeast nutrient around 96-102°F (39°C)
- Wait until the temperature has dropped to 86°F (30°C)
- Add the D-47 Yeast following the hydration instructions on the package
- Twice daily shake your bucket to knock CO2 out of solution and rouse the yeast back up until the gravity is around 1.0008. Depending on your fermentation conditions, this can take anywhere from 2 to 12 days.
- Add the spices.
- Allow to finish and rest on the yeast for at least one week.
- Rack and bottle or keg whenever you feel it's ready.
Make careful notes when making this batch so you can adjust all the spices to taste next time!
