Blaand - Whey Based Mead

[Flound]

Ok, until 10 days ago I'd never heard of a blaand. Clueless.

Once I did, though, I had to make one. HAD to. I mean, I try to use or give away the whey for another to utilize, but more often than I'd like, I'm binning whey. Now I have another use for whey.

Here's a link to the make: https://youtu.be/cSBCaF_mUIc

Blaand, a traditional fermented whey product, aka milk booze. Made and used by farmers in Scotland, Iceland, the Faroes and Norway for centuries, although any notable production ended around WWII. Prior to the introduction of tea & coffee, it was the most common daily drink in those cultures.

That I'm of Scottish descent with Viking ancestry, once I heard of this beast, it was a have to make situation.

1.14kg (2.5lbs) of honey
4L of whey
½ tsp yeast nutrients
½ tsp yeast energizer
150ml of steeped tea
5g D47 yeast

It’s a Romano whey, fwiw.

The color is better than I’d thought it’d be. I thought there’d be a milky opaqueness, but not only is that not true, the light caramel color is really attractive, imo.

The aroma from the airlock, gotta say, pleasant and intriguing. I’m pretty sure I haven’t ever been around a fermented whey product, so my baseline is non-existent. It’s clearly sweet, but there’s bit of acidic sharpness there. It reminds me a bit of fresh pineapple, with dairy, almost cereal milk like smell hiding behind that tropical fruit note. Kinda freaky from a milk product.

I’m even more curious now.

[B e n]

First I have heard of this, I knew milk and whey had been fermented on the Asian steppe, and that product is often distilled into a vodka. I wasn't aware of the Viking tradition though, it does make sense... whey would not have been thrown out in those cultures, and there probably wasn't enough honey available to ferment to meet demand.

Did you add any of the lactose fermenting yeast families? 

[Flound]

I wasn't aware of the Viking tradition though, it does make sense... whey would not have been thrown out in those cultures, and there probably wasn't enough honey available to ferment to meet demand.

From what I've been able to gather, in the short two weeks I've known about this, that there were two 'types' of blaand. One was just fermented whey, with yeast, on its own, which provided a lower ABV beverage with a relatively shorter shelf life. The second was augmented with honey and was a bit stronger, could be stored longer with an obviously higher ABV.

As a known mead producing culture, I'd think Norse honey production was not all that limited. But that's just me speculating...my - ahem - research is not what I'd call in-depth.

edit; 'blaand' (in Norwegian 'blande') means 'mix'.

second edit; I used yeast from the Côtes-du-Rhône region, Lavlin D-47. (Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. cerevisiae) Typically used for Chardonnay production. Also Gewurtz, Riesling, Saul Blanc, Viognier...I did not add anything with a lactase enzyme.

Again, this isn't based on hard evidence, but I think the presence of lactose is something that imparted a desired flavour note, i.e., a milky sweetness. I say this because the aromas coming out of the airlock are surprising as well as pleasant.

I say surprising, primarily because I'm getting pineapple notes, and what I call cereal milk aromas, because of a sweet dairy aspect to the mead, plus I'm getting hints of vanilla. Honestly, totally unexpected by me. Not what I would've predicted prior, that's for sure.

[B e n]

The whey will keep it sweet, in traditional cultures they would have been using non-pasteurized milk and very likely the same vats/containers over and over for production (no sterilization). They may have also kept live ferments going, constantly adding more honey and whey to the same magic vat without ever fully draining it. Lactose fermenters (Kluyveromyces, Candidas) would have built up over time, Viking era people had no idea what yeast were, just that if they made a sweet thing and left it laying around it would make them feel lovely when consumed.

They also had minimal/no access to vessels that would seal air tight, I would guess they would add honey to whey and let it ferment on a schedule to meet consumption (can be pretty loose, a mead can take months to ferment dry), rather than mead/blaand as a true long term storage plan. You can consume it as soon as it starts to taste good, will probably be more true to form if it is still yeasty and a little effervescent. It will be a massive "probiotic" hit for your stomach though, and depending on how regularly you consume live yeast could be an interesting sensation for a few days.

Depending on your honey content you may have something that will shelve up very well. Honey is a natural preservative (and a tough, slow fermenter), if the ABV is reasonably high, and your initial yeast pitch is adequate none of the lactose fermenters have a chance.

[Flound]

It will age for over a year, as I plan to open both the Vacchino Romano and the mead made from its whey at the same time.

This is the first mead I made with whey, but I've got at least 30 batches of meads, melomels & metheglins under my belt. All built for aging, one of the reasons I introduce tannins to them, either through teas or through wood in secondary. And even with honey's antiseptic qualities, I shoot for at least a 10% ABV.

Hit at original gravity of 1.145, with the wine yeast chosen having an alcohol tolerance of 14%, so the end product should hit around 13.5% to 14% or so, with the final gravity coming in the 1.040-1.045 range.

I chose Lavlin's D-47 over my typical favourite 71-Beast precisely because it is really competitive, where the Beast is very sensitive strain.The D-47 should crowd out anything else. I avoided EC-1118 because I didn't want a 17-18% dry mead. (I know, I could arrest fermentation at a lower ABV, but I don't like opening and testing the fermenters more than necessary.)

Undoubtedly a sweeter mead, approaching a sack level of sweetness. Not my usual preference, but this was my first kick at the can. The original recipe called for 3.3lbs and I dropped to 2.5lbs. Aye caramba, that's a lot of sweetness. Next batch, I'll drop to 2lbs just to see how it plays out.