1-28-25 We're hanging out with Traci Kufuss tonight, and talking about mead making, and putting recipes together. She's brought a couple of her recipes to share, and we'll dig into the mechanics of mead recipes and getting it to come out well.
Traci Kuhfuss comes to us from Texas by way of Arizona. She ís been active as a homebrewer and mead maker for 20 years now, participating in brew clubs and competitions in all the places she has lived and traveled.. Traci is a professional graphic designer who loves making mead.
Traci got into brewing once upon a time, she was newly divorced and her friends were all getting married and having kids. She was bored with sitting at home with nothing to do. Her friends got her a home brewing kit that year for Christmas. She made her first beer that New Years Eve. She eventually joined a homebrew club and was introduced to mead. She started making mead then and winning more medals with mead than beer. She has been consistently winning awards since 2005 to include many BOS wins such as Great Arizona Home Brew Competitions, Orpheus Cup, Queen of Beer, and Mead Stampede.
After moving to Texas, she briefly dipped a toe in the commercial realm but went back to the homebrew scene. She has even helped with Texas Rivers Distilling in advising how to make good mead to make award winning Honey Creek Honey Spirits. Which took a silver medal in February 2023 at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
She has been involved in many competitions including The Great Arizona Homebrew Competition and The Great Arizona Mead Competition when she lived in Phoenix, Arizona. Upon moving to Texas she became involved in the local Houston homebrew scene with her clubs the Cane Island Alers and Sugarland Imperialists, helping to grow the mead community & assisting in Operation Fermentation. Traci also ran the Texas Mead Cup from 2019 to 2023 and has new plans to grow the mead judging pool and assist other Texas clubs in growing mead entries in their competitions.
Here are a couple recipes she's made:
McNutt Rum Amburana (Multi BOS mead)
For 3-4 Gallons
12lbs Macadamia Nut Blossom Honey
Water to 35 BRIX (1.153SG)
Yeast: D-47 5 grams
(If you are in a climate too finicky you can use Lutra or EC1118)
Bloom yeast with GoFerm and Fermaid O (Follow dosing for your size batch)
Mix your honey and water, start measuring gravity once you have added 1.5 gallons. Keep adding until you get to 34-35 BRIX
Add your bloomed yeast and get some oxygen in it.
After fermentation is done (I finish at 1.030-1.040, 14-16%)
Add your rum soaked amburana wood.
Add amburana to white rum; use 5-6 wafers from a spiral. a little amburana goes a long way.
Add the amburana to your racked, stabilized and clarified mead.
TASTE IT DAILY. Pull when you are almost to where you want the flavor to be as it will continue to bloom flavors.
Very little acid adjustments, but adjust to where you like it.
Red Pyment (Terroir of the White Box)
For 3-4 Gallons
12lbs Orange Blossom Honey
1 Box of
Water to 33 Brix (1.1437 SG)
Yeast: 5grams 71B
Bloom yeast with GoFerm and Fermaid O (Follow dosing for your size batch)
Mix your honey and water, start measuring gravity once you have added 1.5 gallons. Keep adding until you get to 34-35 BRIX
Add your bloomed yeast and get some oxygen in it.
***add 10-12 cubes of Hungarian Oak to ferment on***
Finish at 10 Brix (1.040 FG) Yes it is sweet, the oak will help offset the sweetness.
Rack/stabilize/clarify
Join us to talk mead with Traci, and explore making better mead.
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