Blueberry Mead

mgayer · 07-15-2007, 08:55 PM

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Lalvin D47
Yeast Starter: 30 Mins with water and must
Batch Size (Gallons): 5 Gallons
Original Gravity: 1.13
Final Gravity: ??
Boiling Time (Minutes): none
Color: Blue/Purple
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14 days @ 72
Additional Fermentation: as needed
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 120 days

5 lbs Frozen Blueberries
16 lbs Honey
5 tsp Yeast Nutrients
2 tsp Yeast Energizer
3/4 tsp Pectic Enzyme
5 Campden tablets
3 packets of Lalvin D47 Yeast

Mix 13 lbs of honey with about 1 gallon of water. Shake until your arms are tired. I use about a half a gallon of hot water from the tap per half gallon of honey. Pour into fermentor and add one gallon of room temp water. Add nutrients, energizer, pectic enzyme and crushed campden tables. Allow blueberries to completely thaw and mash them with your hands to just crush or split the berries. Add the blueberries to the must and cover for 24 hours.

Make a yeast starter with a cup of water and a cup of the must, around 84 degrees. Add the yeast and make sure it is working. Pitch the yeast after 30 minutes and stir to suspend.

Be careful how much water you add at this point as the blueberries will rise to the top start to swell. Not over 3/4 full in the fermentor. Cover with a towel or something that can breath. You need the O2 now. Stir every day for 10-14 days. Rack off into secondary and top off to proper level. Put the Air-lock on the secondary and rack about every 30 days for 4 months. Add 1 lb of honey for the next 3 rackings for a sweeter mead. It should not be in the dry range but it is much better in the semi-sweet range, the yeast should take this to about 14.5% ABV before it is overwhelemed.

You should have it clear and fermentation finished by around 4 months. Age as needed and I recommend bulk aging this one.

mgayer · 07-18-2007, 11:59 AM

The must has turned almost a blood red/purple color now and the blueberries are floating. It is lovely! I am stiring everyday and it seems that the blueberry smell is stronger as the days go by!

mgayer · 08-01-2007, 11:57 AM

In the Secondary and checked the Gravity. 996! Went ahead and added 1.5 lbs of honey. She is bubbling away again this morning.

mgayer · 08-27-2007, 05:28 PM

She finished and has a serious kick! In the end I used 17.5 lbs of the honey. The step adding raised the ABV way up. I should have just added the 1 lb of honey at the end as it is almost at the dessert wine stage. Still wonderful! It went back into a carboy for aging the next few months on 8/25.

wdent · 10-30-2007, 06:40 PM

Can I get an updat on this.
This sounds awesome.

Currently I have a 5 gal batch of blueberry wine that is almost ready to be bottled.

I still have 9 lb of the fresh picked frozen blueberries in the freezer so I may want to try this

mgayer · 10-31-2007, 06:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wdent

Can I get an updat on this.
This sounds awesome.

Currently I have a 5 gal batch of blueberry wine that is almost ready to be bottled.

I still have 9 lb of the fresh picked frozen blueberries in the freezer so I may want to try this

Everything went into bottles this last weekend. It is a very sweet Melomel. Changes I would make are to add more berries. I will go with about 10lbs next time. I would also not add the last pound of honey. I believe this would be a better table Mead or one which more could be drank in one setting. Where now it is almost a dessert drink.

My niece and her friends from college loved it and went through a bunch very quickly. They then became very wild for some reason. Could it be that the 17% ABV was masked by the sweetness!!!! Anyway it was a great bonfire and the Melomel was a hit.

The nose had both the blueberry and honey with a stronger overtone of honey. The flavor gives some great honey tones at the begining with the blueberry in the middle and then the two different honeys give both undertones in the after taste. I used Texas wildflower and cranberry. I am sure different honey would produce some great flavors.

scinerd3000 · 05-04-2008, 07:35 AM

did you have any blowoff issues? currently i only have a 5 gal carboy free and im worndering how much head space im gonna need.

mgayer · 05-06-2008, 11:46 AM

Blueberries expand massively! I cover the carboy with a towel for the first 10 days to let the yeast get O2 and if I did not have it tied on it would have pushed the berries out. You will need a lot of headspace and top up when you remove the berries. I usually cook with wine so I buy the gallon jugs (good carboys) and they make a great way to do a whole 5 gallon batch then pour off a gallon and after you remove the berries it can be topped off with the gallon jug.

I would suggest cutting down the honey to about 11 or 12 pounds. Unless you like a very sweet wine. This is wonderful now and is a dessert style wine with a heck of a kick that is not realized until you stand up. It continues to get better with age.

**Yooper** · 05-06-2008, 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scinerd3000

did you have any blowoff issues? currently i only have a 5 gal carboy free and im worndering how much head space im gonna need.

You know, I got several food grade buckets for free at the grocery store's bakery. Frosting came in one, peanut butter in the others. You could see if you could find some buckets, and just cover the primary with a towel, as mgayer says. I almost always use plastic buckets for primary. It makes it much easier to stir, and to clean after!

mgayer · 05-06-2008, 11:58 AM

Great idea YooperBrew. I've been out of the loop for a bit but not slowing on the batches.