My melomel project

I took a break from 5 gallon batches in favor of starting several one gallon experimental batches.

first of all i dont measuer or anything, i just throw stuff together and taste it. It's way more fun!

Here's the recipe for 1 gallon:

38oz raw honey (very dark!)
3.5# of pears
1 pinaple
Pears and pinaples were put through the juicer
1 pound of brown sugar

I sulphited it yesterday and will be adding the yeast tonight. I will keep updates and add pictures.

magickbottle said:

first of all i dont measuer or anything,

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Years, wisdom, experience....you'll figure out why we measure! Especially when you make that 1 perfact batch.....and it is the best of the best....and you can't remember what you did.... Made me very sad!


Welcome! Do keep us posted!

BigKahuna said:

Years, wisdom, experience....you'll figure out why we measure! Especially when you make that 1 perfact batch.....and it is the best of the best....and you can't remember what you did...

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You must have read my mind. I was thinking the same thing when I first read this post, but decided not to say it. I'm glad I'm not alone on this thought...

I dont' measure anything either. I do however keep a very detailed meadlog of everything i do. amount of this added, when they were added during the process, all the timings and anything weird that might've happened.
Then I'll write down my own impression of the mead and what comment is get from other local brewers. So if i decide to make the same thing again I'll have a very detailed record knowing exactly what i tasted like and what i did to get that result down to the brand names of the ingredients.

zonchar said:

I dont' measure anything either. I do however keep a very detailed meadlog of everything i do. amount of this added...

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I'm somewhat confused by the apparent contradiction here. How does one not measure anything, and yet keep a detailed log that includes the amounts added..." Are you saying you "guesstimate" the ingredient amounts added?

I am assuming both of them don't measure SG's, as they both have pretty specific measurements as far as ingredients.

correct i dont measuer SG, my taste decides when it's done and my ABV is decided by the following measurements

1. Not high enough
2. High enough
3. HOLY S***

I do however measuer ingrediants approximately.

I've made alot of great batches of wine over the years that i cant remember the recipe to, but typically i dont want to make the same thing twice anyway. I usually go to the grocery store with no plan and pick stuff that's on sale. I do keep an ingrediants log (when i remember to), and if something turns out spectacular (like my peach wine) i will repeat.

The only thing I've made in great amounts are the peach wine and apfelwine. I have a year old batch of apfelwine i should be bottling this weekend

I will also be switching to mason jars for bottling the wine. Cleaning bottles is a real pain, i can throw mason jars in the dishwasher. I can also throw the flled bottles back in the case and stack the cases of jars.

so my process may be pretty lack luster to most, but everyone loves my "Gypsy Juice Brewery" porductions. I'm young (21) and have been brewing for a couple of years. I am a broke college student looking for an alternative to buying cheap 40's of steel reserve.

Ive turned over quit a few parties with my brews. good times, thats what it's all about, right?

Oh and i will be adding photos after the bottling...errr i mean canning? I will be spicing a portion of the wine with cloves and ginger and will include that recipe. this is an experiement and we'l see how it goes.

So based on your clarification, when we read

zonchar said:

I dont' measure anything either...

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it really means, "I don't measure any SGs, and I only approximate ingredient measurements..."

Sorry to belabor the issue, but it's really difficult to glean that interpretation from the original text...

So based on your clarification, when we read

zonchar said:

I dont' measure anything either...

Click to expand...

it really means, "I don't measure any SGs, and I only approximate ingredient measurements..."

Sorry to belabor the issue, but it's really difficult to glean that interpretation from the original text...

magickbottle said:

1. Not high enough
2. High enough
3. HOLY S***

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Now that is an ABV scale I may start using on my label's, but in my case it would only be 2 or 3. :rockin:

haha not a bad idea.

update on the apfelwine. i didnt bottle, however i did fill up a 1 gallon carboy, pop the stopper on it and take it to my friends get together. the stuff is pretty sour and not balanced well unless it's carbonated, so we mixed it with cola. tasted just like a rum and coke. we all underestimated it's power and had a great evening.

I just wanted to update everyone on the experimental melomel

it is amazing! it tastes delicious, i had to fight the urge to drink the must. The fruit flavors come through very strong and sweet.

so i started another batch

a 6 gallon batch with 20 pounds of honey, and i will add 5 pineapples to the seconddary. i wont be adding pears to this batch, i think the pinapples give more bang for the buck and add alot of acid to the mix.

i will be freezing the pinapples after i slice them up to santize them.

my question is how long should i leave the fruit in the secondary before racking the wine off of them. I've never added fruit to secondary, only primary.

I personally don't like to use fruit other than fruit juice in the secondary. Mostly from what I have seen, when using fruit, it is a matter of choice, 2 weeks to 2 months is fine for putting it in the secondary. Me, I would freeze it, thaw it, blenderize it, then drop in some pectin enzyme for an hour, send it through the blender again and run it through a screen to remove pulp. Sometimes I run it through a screen a couple of times and then try to puree the pulp and freeze and thaw and enzyme the pulp to get a bit more of juice out of it. Then I end up with just liquid that I rack the must onto. Sounds like a lot of work but to me it beats cleaning out the carboy and a bit cleaner, less mess. All up to personal taste.

i did that the first time. but i used a juicer. i may do it again but i tasted the pulp from the juicer waste bucket and it tasted very flavorful.

Yes the pulp does taste good. The petin Acid and freeze/thaw process does for me yeald an additional cup or two of juice. I have seen some put the pulp in a net bag. I did so with strawberries because getting the juice out of the pulp is difficult. I had no ill effects either way.

cool, thanks for the tips!