Raspberry Melamel (Bronze Medal winner at 2010 Great Arizona Homebrew Competition)

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This scored a 43 at the 2010 Great Arizona Homebrew Competition

7.5 lbs clover honey
24 oz. fresh raspberries
4 lemons, juice of
4 limes, juice of
1/2 cup brewed earl grey tea
Lavlin D47 yeast
staggered nutrient addition (see hightest's FAQs)

Mix everything together in a 3-gallon carboy. Top off with spring water to 3 gallons. Ferment until fruit loses color; rack off of fruit and top off with water; rack when fermentation is complete; rack as needed until clear; bottle with 3 oz. dextrose and age for 1 year

:tank:

IMG_10491.jpg


Boquet/Aroma: "good lite honey aroma, massive raspberry nose" "great raspberry up front, slight honey"

Appearance: "perfect color (pink!), clarity, & carbonation" "pink bubbly! lots of carbonation, great clarity, some legs"

Flavor: "good honey to fruit flavor balance. nicely warming alcohol. carbonation great." "good berry flavor, more dry than sweet, very carbonated"

Overall: "very nice mead. I'd like to have a case stashed away! great job!" "this would be a great celebration bubbly - very much like a fruity champagne. thank you!"
 
Wow, I make a very similar raspberry cyser (actually I don't know what to call it, its 1/2 gallon of apple juice, 3-4 lbs of honey, 12 oz. frozen raspberries, and about a quart of earl grey tea, total 1 gallon). I can't believe that someone else uses earl grey tea.
 
Nice work. Was your FG measured after priming sugar? How did you manage to get your yeast to peter out, but still carb?

I honestly think I just got lucky...

sweetness!

how's yours coming along humann?

Wow, I make a very similar raspberry cyser (actually I don't know what to call it, its 1/2 gallon of apple juice, 3-4 lbs of honey, 12 oz. frozen raspberries, and about a quart of earl grey tea, total 1 gallon). I can't believe that someone else uses earl grey tea.

a quart of tea in a one gallon batch? how many tea bags? let me know how that works out.
 
a quart of tea in a one gallon batch? how many tea bags? let me know how that works out.

2 bags, it turned out pretty well last time. The gravity was 1.128 so its not like it's watered down or anything, just a hint of bitterness and aroma fromt he tea. I'll let you know when the current batch is done, though I just started it last night so it will probably be at least a month.
 
Hey there AZ_IPA. Thanks for the recipe. I just started a batch this Friday, and unlike when I made a JOAM batch, this one seems to be off to a slow start. When you started with yours, did you notice your yeast getting off to a quick start or was it a slower, gradual process?
 
Hey there AZ_IPA. Thanks for the recipe. I just started a batch this Friday, and unlike when I made a JOAM batch, this one seems to be off to a slow start. When you started with yours, did you notice your yeast getting off to a quick start or was it a slower, gradual process?

It did start off really slow. I think it's because with JOAM, you're using bread yeast which probably takes off a little quicker.

Give it time, and if you think you're stuck, hit it with some nutrient (but watch out for foam over!)
 
It did start off really slow. I think it's because with JOAM, you're using bread yeast which probably takes off a little quicker.

Give it time, and if you think you're stuck, hit it with some nutrient (but watch out for foam over!)

When I made my JOAM I used EC-1118 and it took off at a blistering pace. I'll let this one go since the yeast groups appear to be growing, and they're giving off CO2. It's just nowhere near as fast as the JOAM recipe did.
 
Had a question about the fermentation: Mine has been fermenting for about 4 weeks now. At the three week mark I racked it off the raspberries to new carboys on to some vanilla. Since the racking, there's been zero activity from the carboys. Has the yeast given up? Is my fermentation stuck? Is it done and I'm just paranoid? Any help would be appreciated.
 
Have you made this again? If so did the same "luck" with the bottle carbonation take place? I'm interested to give this a whirl, it's sounds fantastic.
 
What's your gravity?

Nevermind. Apparently I was just paranoid. I think I went a little lite on the honey for mine, but I still have a nice semi-dry (it's not sweet enough for semi-sweet) mead with great raspberry nose and taste up front with a little tart aftertaste. Good stuff. Thanks again for the recipe.
 
Can i just divide the ingredients by 3 for a one gallon batch? Also, do you think this would taste good without carbonation?
Thanks!
 
Any pics of the finished product? I'm curious how clear this gets and whether it's still that red once it's cleared.

It's crystal clear - with more of a pinkish, strawberry color than red. I try to remember to take some pics next time I crack one open.

Can i just divide the ingredients by 3 for a one gallon batch? Also, do you think this would taste good without carbonation?
Thanks!

Of course!

I'm sure it would taste fine without carbonation.
 
OK...I am new to making mead, but I took the instructions literally "mix all the ingredients together" using the no-boil technique, and threw it all into a 6 1/2 gallon carboy. I shook the ever livin' piss out of the thing, but I have a nice 2 1/2 inch layer of honey on the bottom of the carboy, and all my raspberries on top. Will the yeast eat away at the honey layer on the bottom, or am I screwed? The honey just would not dissolve, which I guess is indicative of 100% pure honey.
 
Wow, I make a very similar raspberry cyser (actually I don't know what to call it, its 1/2 gallon of apple juice, 3-4 lbs of honey, 12 oz. frozen raspberries, and about a quart of earl grey tea, total 1 gallon). I can't believe that someone else uses earl grey tea.

Cyser and pyment are subsets of melomel, like apples and grapes are fruit, but not all fruit are apples and grapes. Tea in mead makes it a metheglin, but I'm not sure what you call a metheglin mixed with a melomel...

... a meloglin?
 
SWMBO and I put on a 5 gallon batch of this today -- after I gave her her birthday present, "Misty's Birthday Fruit Punch, 10.3% ABV, we had an extra vessel. We had a few pounds of raspberries, and a half full bucket of honey, mixed it all up, and started a starter. We'll pitch that tomorrow. I'm paranoid about yeast -- well, I'm paranoid about everything in winemaking -- so I *always* make a starter. 30 batches in now, and I haven't lost a one of them to contamination or infection. Hooray OCD!

See you in a few weeks with updates!
 
Cyser and pyment are subsets of melomel, like apples and grapes are fruit, but not all fruit are apples and grapes. Tea in mead makes it a metheglin, but I'm not sure what you call a metheglin mixed with a melomel...

... a meloglin?

It can either be a Spiced Melomel or Fruited Metheglin :)

Sounds lovely, did you use local spring water?
 
OK...I am new to making mead, but I took the instructions literally "mix all the ingredients together" using the no-boil technique, and threw it all into a 6 1/2 gallon carboy. I shook the ever livin' piss out of the thing, but I have a nice 2 1/2 inch layer of honey on the bottom of the carboy, and all my raspberries on top. Will the yeast eat away at the honey layer on the bottom, or am I screwed? The honey just would not dissolve, which I guess is indicative of 100% pure honey.

I just did the same thing when I made this recipe today. Any insight???
 
Okay so it may just have to sit a while longer, but in the end I'll achieve the same result?

*whew*...that could have been a costly mistake.
 
Yes. The results will be the same...

It's kinda fun to watch the honey "layer" disappear over the next couple weeks.
 
I took a small taste of this at it's last racking. OMG it's fooking amazing! Huge raspberry flavor, a bit sweet (it crapped out at 1.010)... I seriously wanted to grab a straw and drink it straight out of the carboy. I can't wait for this to finish!
 
The wife and I bottled this a couple days ago, it's freaking amazing. My first wine/mead using raspberries, and I'm quite pleased. I can't wait until it ages a little, if it improves the way my blueberry mead did!
 
What is the full recipe for a 5 gallon batch?

Would it be okay to use local Wildflower honey?

Has anyone considered trying a chocolate based Rooibos instead of a black early grey?

Obviously, if I change the recipe, it's NOT THE SAME MEAD. :)

But, would the general idea be the same w/o using Clover honey, and using Wildflower instead? I have 15lbs of local wildflower honey and would like to make a nice raspberry mead w/ a chocolate based Rooibos, but should I still add the limes and lemon? Interesting!

Thanks!
 
I'm not an expert on mead, but I think any honey would be fine. I made this from Blackberry honey (it's what we had - a 60 lb bucket) and it turned out great!

Actually, all our meads so far have been made from Blackberry - we just used up the bucket and our next few batches will be from mixed black/blue/raspberry. :)
 
Will let you know how this turns out (in about a year!) - started my batch on 11/6 and plan you either force carbonate it in a keg or prime. But I will be putting this in champagne bottles either way and cellaring once I decide the carbonation method.

Looking forward to it!


Update: I racked it off into a keg for aging and carbonating when I feel froggy. My F.G. was 1.000 so I fermented dry. I added campden, and sorbate and honey to get to 1.014 (my wife likes things a little sweeter).
 
I picked up a few bags of frozen raspberries on a whim today. I'm thinking this might be my next batch.
 
I picked up a bag on a whim two days ago and think I will make this one as well.

Except that I plan on using 1122 and forgoing the Dextrose (it won't be carbonated, don't want to age on 1122 anyway). Probably backsweeten with more honey and/or cold crash where I want it.

I'm using Raspberry honey.
 
AZ, I found your recipe looking for a nice Raspberry mead and would like to make a 5 gallon batch of this.

Could I simply take your existing recipe, divide the ingredients by 3 to get the base for a 1 gallon batch, then multiply by 5, perhaps going a bit light on the earl grey tea?

Or is there a better method for scaling this up?
 
Any idea what your ABV works out to be on this? A raw OG to FG conversion shows it about 12.7% but I'm guessing the additional ferment able sugars in the fruit push it higher?
 
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