Fruit preparation

I'm planning on making my blueberry melomel tonight. How do I prepare the fruit? I have 6 pounds of organic wild blueberries. Do I crush them, blend them, boil them, or just leave them be?

Brewed a fantastic raspberry ale in Nov... add a little water and heat the berries to 150F for at least 15 minutes to pasteurize... Freezing them and then doing this, will break the cell structure and allow the juices to flow into your brew more readily. SOUNDS GREAT!

Brewpilot

When doing a melomel, I'd think you would be lees worried about pectin haze, since it sits for so long, and you can deal with that, and more concerned about sterilizing the berries, since it sits so long, and you need to be sure it will be safe sanitation-wise.
That's just conjecture on my part though, never done one myself.

for my last fruit beer, I used raspberries and steamed them for 10 minutes. Any juice that came out of them, during that process, I just boiled for a few minutes and added it all to the fermenter.

I like to freeze the fruit. It ruptures the fruit and the juice just flows.

Brewpastor said:

I like to freeze the fruit. It ruptures the fruit and the juice just flows.

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I bought them frozen. I have them simmering in the water right now. I'm going to simmer for a half hour or so before adding the honey and cooling.

I was a winemaker before making beer, and I never boiled fruit. I believe it sets the pectin (think blueberry jam). I always freeze my fruit, as the BP said. After thawing them, I have poured very hot over them and added campden tablets (1 per gallon). Added all the other ingredients except yeast and then 12-24 hours later, added the yeast. The campden kills on the wild yeasts and bacteria, while still allowing wine yeast (which has a tolerance to sulfites) to do it's work.

In your melomel, add pectic enzyme and you're all set. Your biggest problem with the melomel after boiling the fruit is going to be a pectin haze, and the pectic enzyme will help with that.

It sounds really good!

Hey Yooper, did you get my Oatmeal Stout recipe that I posted on the other thread??

I did, thanks! I love a good stout (wolf gave me one of his) and I copied that recipe into my files. I'm not sure when I'll make it- but I will definitely make it. Thanks!

Lorena

Lorena,
What do you use for your fermenter when you make wine from whole fruit? I was told not to use any buckets that I made beer in. Do you have separate buckets for beer and wine?

Man, the session couldn't have gone worse.

First off, I ruined a white t-shirt, but that's the least of the problems.

I poured about 4 gallons of water into my pot and added 6 pounds of blueberries and got the heat up. Then I realized that I have a group project due tomorrow, so I had to work on that while trying to make my mel. In between breaks, I'd strain the fruit and put it in my blender then pour it back in.

After turning off the heat and sanitizing my carboy, I started to rack. As I cleared up some room, I poured in the honey, then another gallon of water to cool everything down. Are you paying attention? 5 gallons of water, 6 pounds of fruit, 12 pounds of honey.

As I came close to filling up my carboy, I realized my noob mistake. So I had to run downstairs and pull out a plastic carboy and sanitize it. I wanted to make some room in my glass carboy, to I put the funnel in the plastic and tried to pour.

After realizing I'm a frickin' idiot, I put the glass carboy on the counter and racked to my plastic. When I had enough room, I poured some more blended fruit into the glass carboy.

No clue what the OG is, since I can't find my hydrometer. It can't be high. And since I didn't take the time to set the pot outside to cool down, it's too hot to pitch.

Oh yeah, I need to be at work at 7:00am tomorrow morning, and my wife is out of town so I need to get my son ready by myself. And did I mention that the cleaning people come tomorrow, AND the garbage? Hey, guess what? Blueberry melomel is a FREAKING MESS. (But it tastes awesome).

Wow! sounds hectic! I just add the fruit frozen, thawed, and crushed to secondary because that way I don't have to boil the fruit (the alcohol keeps the must from getting infected). But your way should work fine.

RichBrewer said:

Lorena,
What do you use for your fermenter when you make wine from whole fruit? I was told not to use any buckets that I made beer in. Do you have separate buckets for beer and wine?

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No, I don't. I just use the same buckets. I only primary my wine until the s.g. is 1.020 or so, and that's usually about 4 days at most. My buckets are pretty pristine, though- and don't have any odors. Of course, if I'm only making a gallon or two or three, I use a smaller primary that has never had beer in it. I got some frosting buckets (about 3 gallons) from the local bakery in the grocery store.

Cheese- this is probably going to be the best tasting melomel ever, and you'll spend the rest of your life trying to recreate it. I bet your og is higher than you think- 12 pounds of honey and some fruit? Can promash calculate the s.g.?
Let us know how this comes out- I think it's going to be great.

Lorena

I still haven't pitched the yeast. I woke up two hours late this morning and had NO TIME to worry about brew stuff. I'll either pitch it on lunch or when i get home late tonight.

Yooper Brewmistress said:

No, I don't. I just use the same buckets. I only primary my wine until the s.g. is 1.020 or so, and that's usually about 4 days at most. My buckets are pretty pristine, though- and don't have any odors. Of course, if I'm only making a gallon or two or three, I use a smaller primary that has never had beer in it. I got some frosting buckets (about 3 gallons) from the local bakery in the grocery store.

Lorena

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3 gallon frosting buckets? Brilliant! Going to look for some today. I want to do 3 gallon test batches and those would be perfect.

Cheezefood. Sorry for hijacking your thread.

I'll be very interested to see how your melomel turns out. I'm thinking about making some one day.

It took a while for fermentation to start since I had to split the yeast between two carboy, but it's churning along now. I sniffed the airlock and it smells wonderful. The blueberries are sweet, not sour or acidic and the blackberry honey adds great character.

I'll follow up with this one in about 3-4 months when I rack and take a reading on it, then in another 6 months+ when I bottle it. Rich, I plan on letting it sit for another year but I'd be happy to swap something with you for a tester bottle and an aging bottle.

As soon as I rack and wash the yeast and make a fresh starter, I'm going to make another mel. If it tastes as good as the must tasted, and as good as it's smelling, I can easily see myself building a wine rack in the basement and stocking up on mels.