‘Boruvka Medovina’ is Czech for ‘Blueberry Mead’ (The ‘u’ should have a little ‘o’ above it, but WordPress can’t handle the character properly. I assure you that it will be correct on my label!). My surname is ‘Šimánek’, it’s printed on the bottle, so forgive me this one indulgence. I like the sound of it and since mead itself is pretty unusual for most folks, why not give it an exotic name? My dad might be amused also. He didn’t learn to speak English until he went to grade school, so I think he’s got a few Czech words still rolling around in his head. And, not being a grape wine drinker, he might actually enjoy this peculiar libation.
This batch was made from a 96 oz. can of Vintner’s Harvest Blueberry Fruit Wine Base ($40) and 16.5 pounds of Tennessee Honey ($65). I wanted to use local honey in order to get some kind of regional flavor. Some of the honey was ‘orange blossom’ and some of it was ‘wild flower’. I’m still wondering if the orange blossom honey was in fact harvested in Florida… oh well. The lady at the kiosk insisted that it was Tennessee honey. What’s important is that it isn’t some kind of blended grocery store honey.
I am using my own variation of a recipe called OMFG Blueberry Heaven by Dan Richardson. A bit of an experiment as usual. Dan’s instructions were a lot of fun and a huge help. I just made a few changes in quantity and used canned blueberries rather than fresh wild blueberries. I am also going to use the dry yeast packets that I am familiar with without doing any preparation. I have not spent much time dealing with the subtleties of yeast and yeast preparation, but that will come later after I’ve mastered all of the more basic practices of winemaking. Continue reading “Boruvka Medovina”