Blackberry Mead (Melomel)

esarkipato · 01-02-2009, 04:37 PM

I was going to wait to post this, but judging from the success at a recent NYE party I thought it would be better sooner than later.

Yeast: Lalvin K1-V1116 Yeast Starter: no Batch Size (Gallons): 5 Original Gravity: 1.098 Final Gravity: 0.998

5 gallon batch

First, freeze 8 pounds blackberries (fresh preferrable). More is okay too I would think.

12 lbs Clover honey
water to 5 gallons

I pasteurized at near-boil temps while skimming foam off the top, about 15 minutes.

9/7/08: Added 4.5 teaspoon yeast nutrient, pitched yeast (Lalvin K1-V1116). OG=1.098
week 1: 1.064, added 1 tspn nutrient
week 2: 1.026
week 3: 1.008. Racked to secondary onto 7 pounds of thawed & crushed blackberries, plus 1.5 tspn nutrient. Topped off to 5 gallons with water.
week 4: 0.998, racked off blackberries to secondary.
week 8: racked to tertiary for clearing.

Bottled on 12/6/2008. I added another pound of crushed blackberries at bottling (soaked in the bottling bucket for .5 hours in a bag).

For still: Add stabilizer, wait one week, add 1 cup honey, bottle.
For sparkling: Add 2/3 cup honey, bottle immediately (beer or champagne bottles).

I just tried the sparkling mead (melomel) after 1 month in the bottle, and it's very, very good. Light carbonation, good blackberry and honey aroma. Color is light pink. Highly recommended. This went over really, really well at a NYE party!

fratermus · 01-03-2009, 04:16 AM

A buddy made a big mead and had some supplies left over. I made three half-gallon test batches to: one plain (half buckwheat, half table honey), one racked onto 1/2# of blackberries, and one racked onto 1# of blackberries.

All three were better than I expected. I bottled them after about 6mos total. I understand this is quick for a mead but I'm just playing rather than being serious about it.

esarkipato · 01-03-2009, 01:20 PM

Yea, I can't believe how good this tastes after only 4 months from start date! Another 6 and it's going to be stellar.

superman1451 · 03-28-2009, 02:00 AM

Is there any special preparation for the blackberries? I was planning on washing them and then just adding them.

esarkipato · 03-31-2009, 06:11 PM

Nope, I just froze them to kill most if not all of the foreign buggies, then thaw crush and add.

mkw87 · 07-08-2009, 01:15 AM

I made some blackberry mead last year (posted on here somewhere), it took about 6 - 9 months to mature but man is it awesome.

nadeaunm5 · 07-08-2009, 03:00 AM

Hello this is my first post so i dont want to sound stupid. But when you first put this together how long do you need to boil it??

Also what tdoes this step mean??

week 4: 0.998, racked off blackberries to secondary.

Did you rack to a different fermenter discarding the old blackberries or did you take the blackberries into the fermenter?

fratermus · 07-08-2009, 04:34 PM

I think he means primary --> racked onto berries --> racked off berries (discarding them)

His post suggested it was not boiled at all; just brought to near boiling.

BTW, I tasted my blackberry mead at the year mark last month. Expressed in terms of pounds of blackberries per gallon of mead:

0# - drinkable. My first mead.
1# - interesting, but wouldn't want a lot of it.
2# - neat, pleasant, lots of dark fruit flavors. Like a port or something.

If I were to do it again I'd use 2#/gal of mead.

Corey_James · 09-02-2009, 12:31 AM

So, I am I going overboard with using 15# of frozen wild blackberries to 6# clover honey for 3 gallons?

Notnice · 09-02-2009, 02:11 AM

I wouldn't say overboard, maybe excessive. but who am I to tell u not to