Blueberry lemon mead

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TomTwanks

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Hey folks, just was looking for critiques with my recipes and techniques. I brewed up a 5 gallon batch of blueberry lemon mead
Ingredients -
14.5 lbs orange blossom
Topped up to 5 gallons with spring water
Added 42 oz of blueberry purée
2 lbs of frozen blueberries
Juice of one lemon
4 tsp of yeast nutrient
2 tsp of pectic enzyme
Stirred vigorously
Pitched 2 packs of d47.

I plan on racking in a few weeks into 5 or so more lbs of frozen blueberries. I'm just looking for recommendations on things I may be able to do to ensure a delicious mead. Any particular way I should rack the 5 lb of blueberries ( boil, thaw n pitch, etc?), maybe more lemon juice? More nutrient? Sorry for being so noobish but everyone starts somewhere and I don't wanna waste all this money!
Also, I'm aiming for a dry to very lightly sweet mead. Should this do the trick?
Thanks folks! Positive criticism is what I'm aiming for here!!
 
Just freeze your blueberries and thaw in your secondary Carboy. Your yeast should take your must dry so wait till you are sure fermentation is done. Also add in 5 crushed Camden tablets and 2 1/2 tsp of potassium sorbate. That will keep the yeast from fermenting the sugar in the second set of blueberries. That should give you your slightly sweat mead.
 
Should I be worried about contamination with the berries in the secondary? That's my biggest fear!
 
Never worry. This is mead my friend. Two points:
1) Mead in a secondary has already fermented to a high alcohol value. So contamination with a yeast or bacteria from the blueberries will be retarded by the existing alcohol levels. Your yeast still has a overpowering concentration in the fermented mead.
2) If you're concerned, get resourceful. Soak the berries for 24 hours in a small solution of water with a crushed Campden tablet. True your berries will get diluted with the soak but they won't be contaminated. If you do add sorbate, then fermentation will stop.
My recommendation is number 1. Don't worry.
 
Yea as long as you keep carboys, hoses, stiring spoons..... Basically your equipment super clean then anything on those berries are not going to hurt the mead one bit.

Your recipe is great and should be at about 14.5% ABV when fermentation is done in the primary. Oh and I am not sure how long this has been fermenting but a great thing about D47 yeast is that it is encouraged to let the must sit on the lees/yeast cake at the bottom for a couple months. I would let this primary sit a minimum of 2 months from the yeast pitch date and up to 4 months befor you rack to secondary. Sitting on D47 lees will impart a further citrus/fruity character to your mead
 
Thanks guys. It's refreshing having people with words of encouragement. I plan on letting it sitting for about 2-3 months in the primary. Now I won't worry about contamination because my stuff is really clean/sanitized. Once again, thanks so much!
 
Blueberries seem to be missing some nutrient you'd usually get from say grapes or other berries. I'd keep a nose on it, if it starts going stinky you'll want to add some more yeast nutrient.

I had that problem right as my last blueberry wine hit FG. It was annoying, but manageable.
 
Update -

One week into fermentation, some weird flavors going on. Not quite sure how to put it in words but not great or what I thought. Measures 1.020. Blueberries barely if at all detectable. Hoping if I rack it on 5-10 lbs in the secondary it will be more desirable. Any input is welcome!
 
TomTwanks said:
Update -

One week into fermentation, some weird flavors going on. Not quite sure how to put it in words but not great or what I thought. Measures 1.020. Blueberries barely if at all detectable. Hoping if I rack it on 5-10 lbs in the secondary it will be more desirable. Any input is welcome!

Also should mention I wasn't expecting it to be amazing but just a different beast. Anyone have similar experiences? I'm thinking of adding more lemon to give it some more tang.
 
Mead takes time. From what I've found with a melomel it's best to use half fruit in first and half in second. But if you want a stronger fruit flavor save most of the fruit for second fermentation.
 
Also. Taste changes over time. Patience is rule 1 of making mead.
Definitely. The way a mead tastes when it's fermenting is very different from how it tastes when it's done. Which is somewhat different from how it tastes after it's aged a little.
 
Haha golddiggie beat that into me. I just started 2nd fermentation on a peach melomel. Ill be honest it looks horrible. Strong alcohol smell, not much of a honey flavor when I added the peach purée. But the more I research and the more he said patience patience patience. I finally figure it out. Be patient. 30 day recipes are full of poo. :)
 

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