Watermelon Sack Melomel or whatever you'd call it?

Hi,

Pretty beginner brewer here. Done a JAOM, a blueberry melomel, mango wine along with a variety of kits. I had some watermelon in the fridge that I wasn't going to eat so I decided to make it into a mead.

I got excited when I was putting honey and added too much. Wasn't intending to do a sack, just wanted a lot of honey initially. Here's what I did.

2 lbs Watermelon w/ juice(chopped/deseeded)
4.62 lbs of honey
Water to gallon
Lalvin EC-1118 (1 packet)
1 tsp yeast nutrient

It's been sitting in primary for four days now goin along. I had originally intended to do a low alcohol % wine for my wife, but I wanted it sweet also. I plan on adding more watermelon in the secondary.

The EC-1118 has a tolerance of 18% alcohol. So I've assumed I'm going to get an 18% alcohol batch with residual sweetness from the extra unfermented honey (assuming it doesn't get stuck). The EC-1118 is very easy to find for me. Next time i'm going to do more searching for a 71B-1122.

Let's say I wanted this to sit at 10-12% alcohol. How would I do this?

Read some adamant against campden/sorbating it due to off flavors/possibilities it starts fermenting again later. Originally I had thought to do this when it was where I wanted it. Thoughts?

I read one of the issues with Sack's is the honey should be fed staggering since it will get stuck easily. If it gets stuck where I want it could I bottle it or does it run the risk of getting unstuck later in bottles?

Thanks!

This may not start, just due to the huge amount of sugar. If you add 4 lb honey (third gallon roughly) you're already fairly high, but it sounds like you added the watermelon before topping off with water. So your OG is up there even for a champagne yeast.

Provided it starts AND doesn't stick, it's not easy to stop. You can cold crash in the fridge, transfer after 3 days onto sorbate and sulfite and hope that the yeast gives up the ghost. But if you stop at 12%, you're still looking at a cloyingly sweet. You could add clean water to mellow it out?

Another recommendation? Let it finish, age it properly, start up another batch that is at maybe 6 or 7%, mix and backsweeten to taste after stabilization.

Sulfite and sorbate is highly recommended to stabilize and preserve, you really only get problems if you overdose it. Some people don't use it and it's normally fine if your technique is sanitary/sterile, but with honey costs it's a small price to pay for peace of mind.

Cool! Thanks for the tips!

It's definately trucking along. Just took a reading and it's already down to 1.090 after 5 days. OG was 1.159. Still real sweet. Definately gonna need more watermelon.

I'm still on the fence about what I'm going to do. I'm likely going to let it finish and see how it turns out. Mostly cause I'm more excited about the experiment and tasting it along the way. And even then not bother blending unless I think I wont drink it. I've never really done anything sweet so it's been a good learning experience.

Added a pic for funs.

18 would put it in the 20s so maybe this turns out ok.. probably needs to age a bit tho. Over a year most like. But don't give up on it!