Brewkowski

Recipes 

I was going to make a date melomel, but haven't gotten to it yet and as I was reading online I came across the idea of either a Muscat or Gewurtztraminer pyment and I was wondering if I could add the dates and figs to that since they're a subtle fruit or if it would clash or cover each other too much. Am I better off making this two separate projects?

Thinking about a 3 or 4 gal batch

7 lbs of honey
28 oz of dried kalamata figs
60 oz of dried tunisian dates

1 can of Alexander's Muscat or Gewurtztraminer concentrate

MedsenFey

Recipes 

You might find it better to make it separate and then try blending to see what proportions you like best. I'd be interested to see how the Gewurz does with some dates/figs.

Brewkowski

Recipes 

Well I just ordered 1 can of Alexander's Gewurztraminer concentrate and I think that's what I'm going to try. Hopefully with a low temp ferment I can keep as much aroma as possible and between the dates, honey and concentrate I should get nice body and mouthfeel. Planning on using Lalvin EC1118, but then I was planning on reserving some of the wine concentrate to backsweeten with to hopefully add to the flavor profile. Not sure exactly how much to add to it yet, but thinking somewhere around 3-4% residual sugar.

MedsenFey

Recipes 

EC-1118 is not a great yeast for preserving aroma as it tends to be an agressive fermenter that blows a lot of the aromatics out the airlock. If you ferment it very cool - below 60F, you might prevent that.

You might want to take a look a the Lallemand chart for gewurztraminer yeast recommendations.

Brewkowski

Recipes 

I actually found that chart online after I made the post, looks like the 71b is an option and I do have that on hand, but I was reading later alot of positive posts about D47, which I've never used but can get it at the brew store. The descriptions I read said it was a great choice for meads or semi-whites. Think that would work?

MedsenFey

Recipes 

I think D47 would work quite well.