Oaked cherry melomel

3 gallon batch

9lbs orange blossom honey
Primary: 4.75lbs fresh sweet cherries (frozen, then thawed and pitted)
Secondary: 5.25lbs fresh sweet cherries (frozen, then thawed and pitted)

Lavlin 71B-1122 yeast

No heat method; mix honey, 3 campden tablets, 3 tsp. pectin enzyme with water to almost three gallons. Cover with napkin. Pitch yeast 24 hours later. Degas daily and follow staggered nutrient additions. Attach airlock after last nutrient addition.

Ferment for ~33 days, rack onto other cherries.

Rack after a month and top off with show mead (1 gallon batch made with 3lbs orange blossom honey and 71B-1122 yeast)

Rack and top off as needed until clear

Age on a medium toast oak spiral for six weeks and then bottle and age for at least six months.



2012 Mazer Cup - bronze medal category 26C (45/50)

Fantastic! The cherry and oak work perfectly! Dead on semi-sweet. Don't change anything!

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2012 NHC 1st round category 26C (40.5/50)

Very good mead; all elements are evident and in concert. No single ingredient is dominant. Very tasty!

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The cherries:


Fermenting:


About done fermenting:


Secondary:


Hydro sample at bottling (the hummingbirds went crazy! ):

Wow that looks amazing! I have a batch of your raspberry mead going now in it's 3rd month. This might have to be my next batch. Looks like you did another fine job there!

TY again AZ! Started a 6 gallon batch yesterday!

Let me know how you like it! This is for sure the best mead I've made!

Hey AZ,
My gravity is at 1.00 after 16 days. Should I rack to secondary onto more fruit and stabilize? Then how long do you leave it on the fruit before you add the oak spiral?

Yeah, rack it to the secondary and other fruit now. Leave it for about a month, then rack off the fruit, top off, stabilize and backsweeten to ~1.010 (unless you like it dry). I like to rack after another month (should be pretty clear and clean of lees), top off, and then oak for six weeks. Since I bottle right after oaking, I like for it to be clear and clean of lees before oaking.

Speaking of, I've a batch I need to rack off the secondary fruit any day now and a batch I bottled in wine bottles a few days ago that I need to store.

Since I'm still kinda new to meads when you stabilize a 5 gallon batch is this when you add 1 tsp of potassium sorbate and 5 campden tablets?

5 campden tablets, yes. But I think the bottle of potassium sorbate I have says 1/2 tsp./gallon, so use whatever dose your package says.

I like to add the campden/sorbate a day or two before backsweetening, just to ensure fermentation doesn't restart, but the reality is you've probably hit the ABV% tolerance of the yeast, so it shouldn't be too much of an issue.

Thanks again AZ for another great recipe! I bottled my 5gal batch today and its really good. I'll be holding on to this for a while to age it though and see how it changes over time.

Did you fill to 3 gallons in primary then add the cherries, or did you add all ingredients then fill to 3 gallons? Also, for a 6 gallon recipe would you use 18 lbs of honey (3 lbs./gal.) or 13.5 lbs. of honey (9 lbs. + 50%)?

I started mine in a 6.5 gal carboy with 18lbs of honey and 8lbs of frozen cherries. Racked it to a 5 gal carboy and added 8lbs of cherries again. I also made a gallon on traditional mead to top off with. After that I racked it again and topped of with the traditional mead, stabilized and added 2 med toast oak spirals. It is really drinkable now but I'm going to give it some time and drink them later this summer reserving a few for long term aging to see how it develops.

I've got a batch of cherry that I just squeezed the fruit after three weeks in the primary. I thought I saw a recipe that added bananas to the secondary, but I cannot find it now. Have you ever heard of using these two together, or am I confusing two different recipes?

Nastynate65 said:

Did you fill to 3 gallons in primary then add the cherries, or did you add all ingredients then fill to 3 gallons? Also, for a 6 gallon recipe would you use 18 lbs of honey (3 lbs./gal.) or 13.5 lbs. of honey (9 lbs. + 50%)?

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Add the honey and cherries, then top to just below 3 gallons.

Bigbeavk's advice below is good for larger batches.

Bigbeavk said:

I started mine in a 6.5 gal carboy with 18lbs of honey and 8lbs of frozen cherries. Racked it to a 5 gal carboy and added 8lbs of cherries again. I also made a gallon on traditional mead to top off with. After that I racked it again and topped of with the traditional mead, stabilized and added 2 med toast oak spirals. It is really drinkable now but I'm going to give it some time and drink them later this summer reserving a few for long term aging to see how it develops.

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cujo-99 said:

I've got a batch of cherry that I just squeezed the fruit after three weeks in the primary. I thought I saw a recipe that added bananas to the secondary, but I cannot find it now. Have you ever heard of using these two together, or am I confusing two different recipes?

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I haven't used bananas for mead. Sorry I can't help, but welcome to HBT.

I'm going to make this probably next weekend with the glut of cherries I've been having. I'm going to go for a 5 gallon batch though, and probably use about 20 lbs of cherries total. That should work right?

Sure it will, just freeze them for a bit and mash them up a little. Keep in mind though that the cherries take up a lot of room so you will yield less mead. When I used 16lbs total I had to top it off with a whole gallon of traditional mead. It is an awesome recipe as it is. Go for it you won't be sorry either way.

Fermentation just started really going on mine 6/23 (pitched on 6/20). Only made a 1gal batch as I'm still learning my Mead making skills, but its going strong.
I used dark cherries for mine.

cujo-99 said:

I've got a batch of cherry that I just squeezed the fruit after three weeks in the primary. I thought I saw a recipe that added bananas to the secondary, but I cannot find it now. Have you ever heard of using these two together, or am I confusing two different recipes?

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That was the Strawberry Cabana Mead and the mead was racked onto the banana in the secondary because apparently it imparts the banana flavour better.

AZ_IPA said:

Let me know how you like it! This is for sure the best mead I've made!

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Is it still the best mead you've ever made, or have you refined the recipe even further?

I'm very interested in making a cherry mead.

I think you may be trying to resurrect the dead. Not sure that Zombie threads have much life blood in them considering that this one, for example has been moldering for about six years and the poster you ask last posted about five years ago..

bernardsmith said:

I think you may be trying to resurrect the dead. Not sure that Zombie threads have much life blood in them considering that this one, for example has been moldering for about six years and the poster you ask last posted about five years ago..

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Huh? AZ_IPA posts all the time, including yesterday. It may be an old thread, but he's still active.

NeverDie said:

Is it still the best mead you've ever made, or have you refined the recipe even further?

I'm very interested in making a cherry mead.

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I haven't made this in awhile, but if I did make it again, I'd consider using a 50:50 mix of sweet and tart cherries in both the primary and secondary....

I thought your question was to Cujo-99