First Meads

Hey everyone, yesterday after checking the forums for tips and recipes, etc I came up with this two melomel's.

Clementine and Raspberry & Blueberry



The yeast used was lalvin EC-1118 (and because of that it will be dry) because of the temperature's of my house, I had some d-47 but i might use it in some mead I'm planning to do in the winter.
I made a starter for the yeast and maybe two hours later the airlock was bubbling like crazy

I'm planning to rack to secondary by the 30day mark or when the fruit sinks.

Cheers :rockin:

Comparing how yours look, to how some of mine made with fruit have looked, I thought they looked a little light on fruit ? Or is the intention to use more fruit, but put into secondary ?

As for your mention of dry meads, well I wouldn't use EC-1118 even for that (just for emergency restarts and the like). I would have used K1V, or even something with a lower tolerance and less honey etc......

fatbloke said:

As for your mention of dry meads, well I wouldn't use EC-1118 even for that (just for emergency restarts and the like).

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I actually like that strain.
I have used it in everything from juice wine to beer and everything in between. It is the same strain as Premiere Cuvee, and it is a very clean, very high tolerance yeast.
But that is why they have so many choices. Everyone has their thing.
Want to see something really cool? Try your same recipes with D-47 and an ale yeast. You will really get an idea of what the yeast does for you.

I dont intend to put more fruit in, i was inspired by the stormthecastle recipe i found here and youtube, since he only uses 1 orange and some raisins i thought i would use only 3 clementines, the zest of 5 clementines, 250gr of rasperry, a hand of raisins and 1 tablespoon of bee pollen. The other only have 250gr of blueberries and 1 tablespoon of bee pollen.
I only dont know if i will had more honney in secondary to try not to make a very dry mead. I really need to buy an hydrometer to do my next batches.

Both have an amazing smell now and the fruit is starting to desintegrate .

Hey everyone, just an update on my 2 week old meads.

My blueberry mead changed color in a couple a days and its starting to get clear but the clementine and raspberry isn't clear like the blueberry, probably because of the different fruits.

The fermentation almost stopped, dunno if i'm going to wait the 30 day mark to rack of the fruits.

HIRES picture HERE!

Happy brewing :rockin:

Did you Add yeast nutrient to your Mead? That might help your fermentation .

I only added some raisins, im new to brewing so i didnt bought nutrients or energisers. Mabe in my next batches

I did the same thing with my first batch, I only did one nutrient addition (traditional style with orange blossom).

The flavor is still amazing (great honey) but the alcohol content is lower than I had hoped since the yeast didnt have enough food.

today i racked both my meads and my cider to new carboys.

took a gravity reading first and they where both at 1.000 so i decided to siphon them, unfortunately on the clementine & raspberry i siphoned some fruits that where mashed in the bottom of the carboy , i might do a third racking when its clear to bulk age.

they tasted a bit on the alcoholic side but i can get some notes of the fruits.
I hope that the aging will do good on the meads

Also filled a 0.25cl bottle of cider with 1gram of sugar to try to get some carbonation.

It looks tasty...

trailbrewery said:

It looks tasty...

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look's more than it is... yet
After some advice i topped the carboys almost to the cork because of all the oxygen there was inside. :rockin:

The blueberry was bottled today, the clementine/raspberry is still very cloudy and i don't know why.

Blueberry


Clementine/Raspberry

Did u do a taster before you bottled?

trailbrewery said:

Did u do a taster before you bottled?

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Yup, its pretty dry but I could drink it right now.
I will wait a little more until August (1 year mark) to open the first bottle and I hope to it will be awesome

I'm sure it will be tasty looks good. I just bottled a pumpkin spice mead . I will let you know how it turns out.

cool

Im only concerned about the Clementine/Raspberry, it was made at the same time with the same honey and yeast and its not clearing at all, it was the same 5 months ago.

I did put it in the fridge today to try a cold crash to see if it clears a little bit more.

Can you write out your recipe and steps? I have never made mead and would like to try. It looks mmmm tasty.

The recipes:

Clementine & Raspberry

1.4Kg Honey
400g raspberries
3 clementines
the zest of the 3 clementines
6 raisins
1/2 table spoon bee pollen
Lalvin EC-1118
Water to 5L

——————————————-

Blueberries (The one that is bottled)

1.4Kg Honey
400g blueberries
6 raisins
1/2 table spoon bee pollen
Lalvin EC-1118
Water to 5L

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I poured about 1L of water to the jugs and added the honey, shake the hell out of them to dilute the honey, add the fruits (i froze them first and then thawed them) and the bee pollen.
Then I hydrated the yeast in some 40Cº water (15 minutes).
The next step was to top up the jugs and shake them again for 5 minutes to aerate the must and pitch the yeast.

After the fermentation was done I rack both to new jugs and kept racking them whenever was a good amount of lees in the bottom.
The blueberry one was crystal clear after some months but the raspberry isn't clear yet. I'm swirling the jug every day to degas to see if it clears up.

Cheers

you could use some bentonite, look it up. It will clear it in 2 days, very well.. Did you also try racking again, maybe?

research bentonite though, probably your best bet. it should have cleared at least something.

I would rack it but the jug don't have any lees at the bottom.

I ordered some bentonite, if it clears i'll bottle it as soon as i can