Blueberry Pyment

Want to make wine but honey sounds more appealing than adding sugar to a fruit wine. So for a 2.5-3 gal batch Im thinking of 5# honey, 1 can of grape juice concentrate or some kind of grape juice maybe and like 3 64 oz of bluberry juice if I can find it. Trying not to make it difficult but still good. Probably want to hit a 1.10ish gravity.

Im considering to do secondary with blueberrys maybe also but would rather make it more simple. Ive heard of the concentrate needs to be vaccume extracted processed to be good for wine or something, so not shure about what to get.Im not shure If I want to deal with fruit and that campden-which im unshure of, to sanitize it and alot of those chemicals kind of freak me out a little bit that is added to wines and such.

I have montarachet yeast also,is this ok for this type of mead? As far as now I preferr off dry or semi-sweet,and dont care to be stabilizeing and backsweetening either with the use of more chemicals.
Any suggestions in getting what Im going for here with blueberry-Pyment with ratios of juices, using some grape(juice /concentrate) as far as simplicity with a quality result, is greatly appreaciated.

Also what is better? frozen grapejuice concentrate vs.jarred grape juice from concentrate vs jarred whole concord grape juice not from concentrate, and found jarred 100% bluberry juice but made from concentrate-havent found frozen bluberry juice concentrate yet or Jarred whole bluberry juice not from concentrate.RW-Knudsens stuff.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f79/awesome-blueberry-wine-33206/
This is the recipe I use and it turns out very good. You could probably substitute honey for the sugar

So Im thinking now for a 3 gal or less batch: Adding 5# of what will probably be local wildflower honey.2 cans of frozen cascade farms(WA)grape concentrate 2 quarts of Jarred-pasturized bluberry juice-from concentrate? Maybe just one then another quart of pasturized jarred blueberry juice(from concentrate) in secondary?. I have montorachet yeast but is not my first choice and can get something a little less attunative which I would prefer.Primary a month. Then rack and top off with a quart of blueberry juice/and or some frozen blueberries like a pound or whatever will almost max out my secondary,then rack again after so many more months,maybe longer the better? Ive seen some pyment recipes with fruit(in the compleat meadmaker) doing about 7 months total before bottleing.

Any ideas for a ratio of honey to grape to blueberry on a 3 gal batch? Im now thinking 6-7 # honey 2 cans of quality organic frozen grapejuice concentrate,probably like2 quarts of bluberry juice from concentrate for primary. Then like 2 more quarts of blueberry juice in secondary? I got some better yeast like Narbone 1122 thats good for melomels that Ill use. ARe frozen concentrate juices better than bottled whole juices for wines/pyments/melomels?
Do I need to sulfite frozen blueberrys if I decide to use them in secondary? even if I sanitize a blender and purree it and sanitize a bag to use it in?

I didn't sulfite the frozen cherries I put in my melomel. I can't remember if they had already been sulfited at the processing plant or not. I think the frozen concentrates might be better for backsweetening and adding fruit flavour later because a little bit will go a long way. For fermenting I like whole bottled juices.

Lungus said:

I didn't sulfite the frozen cherries I put in my melomel. I can't remember if they had already been sulfited at the processing plant or not. I think the frozen concentrates might be better for backsweetening and adding fruit flavour later because a little bit will go a long way. For fermenting I like whole bottled juices.

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So if I add bluberry juice concentrate later in secondary it will pretty much ferment out and not leave any sweetness but maybe a bit more flavor? How do you backsweeten exactly. Its the part Im unshure of and afraid of leaving any kind of residual sweetness, guess I will just have to get sulfite and potassium sorbate if I want any kind of sweetness? Ive had number of commercial good sweet/semi sweet fruit/ wines/meads and they are all sulfited. Is this just something Im going to have to do if I want to encorporate any kind of sweetness?

If you want to sweeten the mead and not ferment the concentrate you must still the must. Once fermentation has stopped, when your hydrometer readings have been stable for more than a week, you rack it onto metabisulfate and potassium sorbate according to the directions to still the yeast so fermentation won't restart and then let it sit a few days to do it's thing and add the concentrate until it tastes the way you like. If you don't want to sulfite and sorbate it, you could step feed until the yeast poops out and you have the sweetness you want

I dont know what the **** Im doing.

jonmohno said:

I dont know what the **** Im doing.

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No, its just that as a newer mead maker you're struggling with more variables than you expect too see...

It seems more complex than first thought....

Yet its actually reasonably easy to narrow down method and technique when you identify what you actually want....

Fruity and fresh ? Fermented and more wine-like ? Sweet ? Dry ? Etc etc....

My source of local honey never got back to me so I decided to make 2 one gallon batches. Ok so I made a blackberry wine and a blueberry melomel with some honey I already had.
Both are around 1.090 gravity.

I used 4# of commercial frozen fruit of each. I just thawed and mashed poured water and sugars (blueberry had mostly honey) on top, stirred then I decided to sterilize paintstrainer/grainbags to contain the pulp/mashed fruit later after realizing it might be a pain to rack off of it later if I leave the fruit loose like I was going to. I did not use sulfite-this ok with frozen fruit? Generally? I hydrated yeast and pitched shortly after the fruit thawed-so am I ok there?

Then pitched yeast/nutrient/energizer. But then I transfered it to sanitized pots by pouring it by filtering with the bag and tied it to contain the pulp-so now I have it contained. I stirred more,decided I needed more sugar in each so I did so to get to 1.090 gravity. I actually have them in large stainless steel pots,with weights on the lids(Im afraid of fruit flys). Ill open stir them daily. Maybe even get the bubbler out every day.

I plan on doing the squeeze bag method after a week and then transfer it to the one gallon fermenters. Is it ok to filter it by using a metal strainer and funnel and just pour it in when transferring or do I need to rack it into the fermenters? IN other words do I have to worry about aeration if its mostly fermented or more than 3/4 fermented or do I need to siphon it? My plan is to get them clean to the glass gallon fermenters with little head space. I may have some left over which I can sanitize and airlock a 16-32 or growler size bottle whichever I need then top off with that when I rack later again.

Also I forgot to add pectin enzymn and I misplaced it or cant find it at the moment,is that ok to add it later? Ive seen a lot of videos where they add it right away.Does it matter? I didnt boil the frozen fruit so,think I may be ok with that? Or I can add later if it doesnt clear very good?

Sbould work fine.

Prrsonally I use fruit in both primary and secondary to maximise the fruit flavour, and I dont bother mashing or pulping the fruit either.

Yes that means I can't get a full measurement including the fruit sugars, but it ain't gonna add that many gravity points to be of concern IMO.....

Could've just used all honey in both.....with fruit batches I like to focus on the fruit flavour, so it's less of an issue where the honey comes from or what type it is.....

Well, thing is I dindt have enough honey and my local source of fresh now would be currently seasonal wildflower honey never called me back so I could pick it up to make my 3 gallon batch of blueberry-pyment this weekend. They did have some nice clover honey a few weeks before which I used before in a JAOM-hope I didnt waste it on that recipe. Thats why I decided to do a wine I had some sugar and mostly dextrose along with some frozen grape concentrate but yet enough honey for a gallon of melomel. And just spontaneously went with using frozen fruit.

My intentions origionally with the melomel really was to get a nice balance of honey and not overpowering of fruit, but since Im using an average ok honey not great-since I couldnt get fresh stuff yet, I went with a small batch of melomel with a stronger/overpowering fruit balance because Ill be treating this honey like average sugar because its pretty average honey,I think Im also not probably even using enough 0f it to make it honey like. Also I used up all my sources of fermentables and went out and picked up some more organic raw sugar to bring my OG up to 1.090 . Targeting around 7# of honey,but doing it this way with topping off and stuff I may not get a technical O.G. reading. Thats ok I guess but its nice to no exactly how much abv you have at the end.

All this blabbery said for my intentional 3 gal batch:, and I will get fresh late season wildflower honey-Im thinking I may need 7-8 pounds now instead of 5-6#, Im going to use bottled bluberry juice and some frozen grape juice concentrate with some whole grape juice jarred if they have it soon( they were out) to use in my 3 gallon carboy. I will topp off with more jarred blueberry juice for secondary and some honey to reach a full 3 gallons. Im hoping to add 2 quarts of bluberry juice for secondary and however much more honey it takes to fill it up. So alltogether like 2-3 cans frozen grape concentrate to 4-5 quarts of bluberry juice.

Ok. So I finally made this today heres how it went-and so easy I might add:

3 gallon batch(well.. currently 2.7 for headspace-will topp off secondary)

7ish # of local clover honey
1 liter of boxed vinters red grape concentrate-I got the better-wine stuff-instead of frozen grape juice concentrate.
3 quarts of RW Knudsens Just Blueberryjuice -from concentrate
Only needed about 1 gallon of spring water
Lavlin 71B-1122 yeast hydrated aerated well with bubbler and added nutrients,wine tannin,pectic enzymn.

The blueberry juice I was using is pretty tart and not really sweet much and I will top off with more for secondary to get it to full 3 gallons. I will aerate everyday for the first few+ days and do staggered nutrient additions. May let it sit for a month til secondary-not shure.

And holy crap maybe added a bit too much honey(maybe not) OG was 1.139- I hope 1 pack of this yeast will work ok for 3 gallons. I know one thing, I probably wont have to backsweeten.

And any comments or advice is greatly appreciated.

When is it ok to top off with water? When its near finish? Is distilled water ok? My gravity is 1.09 currently 4 days in, and am realizing this is a 14% tolerant yeast which will put a finish a lot sweeter (OG was 1.139) than I want, so I want to top off with water. Ive been stirring/degassing and doing staggared nutrients and today is my last nutrient addition. I would have liked to add more bluberry juice for secondary but am thinking maybe just water now. Wait til secondary to add water? Does it matter?

I would let it go a bit longer. I made a blueberry mead with 71b recently that I couldn't stop from going to 15% even if I had wanted to. It made it from 1.11 to .994 in just over a weak.

Oh yeah. Im defiinatly letting it go. I have a feeling Im going to get more abv myself-the ferment is really good and I attented to it well to do so. I just dont know when to add water- like if it will start foaming over when adding it--(Im really just considering racking it in a few weeks and maxing it out with frozen bluberrys though instead of topping off with water). Then when I do another racking,topp it off with water? Probably will hit it with co2 before sealing it too-that sound logical?

Im shure its close to almost done now and was wondering if it would be a good time to do it while it has some CO2 in it to exchange the oxygen when I open it and add water. I have been offgassing daily for almost the first week about so the majority of it is already offgassed.