Rasberry melomel.

I was given some fantastic frozen raspberries(10lb) and asked if I could make wine with it. After posting in the wine forum it was suggested to do a mead instead, so I am. I've found many conflicting opinions about primary vs secondary fruit additions and seeds vs no seeds. After much debate, this is my recipe:


-16 lb clover honey( no other variety available this time of year unless I want to sell my left kidney on the black market to pay for it)
-nutrient and energizer (recommended amounts)
- I cup strong black tea
-lalvins 1122 yeast
-filtered water to 5 gallons
-10lb raspberries, frozen, thawed and de seeded
-pectin enzyme

Combined all but the last two ingredients last night, aerated, rehydrated and pitched yeast, currently bubbling happily through the airlock. Can't for the life of me remember the SG.

Plan is to thaw, deseed, add pectin enzymes to the raspberries when I'm ready to transfer to secondary. Rack onto raspberries. Leave in secondary until the pulp is done, then rack again.

The goal is a semi sweet mead with a strong fresh raspberry flavour and nice color. Any glaring flaws you can see? Suggestions?

Looking at my notes, it was 17lb honey.

This is fermenting nicely. SG was 1.090.

For those who add fruit in secondary, how can you do this in a carboy? Is it advisable to have a bucket as secondary?

I just racked some mead onto blackberries today. I am using a 1gal jug just to test this out but anyways I juiced them first with my juicer which removed the seeds. I noticed a lot went to the bottom of the jug already and am wondering if I should have just used a mesh sock to keep all that crap from doing that. I guess time will tell.

just use a racking cane or auto siphon to split the horizontals (get the good from between the sediment and the floaties

De-seeding raspberries? Why in a world would you do that. I done couple raspberry melomels they turned out great with seeds and all.

I've heard the seeds can cause bitterness?

If you leave the seeds in to long seeds can cause bitterness, more common in blackberry. If you want a strong raspberry taste you are going to be disappointed, you might want to add a few more pounds of berries, and toss a few strawberries in there to give it even more of a fruity smell. WVMJ

Update. The base mead smelled great and tasted decent all by its self. When gravity fell to 1.010 I racked it onto the thawed raspberries, which has some pectin enzyme added. I decided to add with the seeds.

Turns out its 12lb of raspberries, not 10.
I didn't have a bucket, so I resorted to using a carboy. I reserved the extra must to add back in once I rack it off the fruit. It currently looks like this:

Looks great, I've always used carboys for melomels, just because I don't have any buckets. I use an autosiphon and rarely ever have any issues with cloggage or even getting the broken down fruit out, usually a few good shakes over a fine strainer and it all comes out, then I let it drain and use that sample for testing/tasting.

WVMJ said:

If you leave the seeds in to long seeds can cause bitterness, more common in blackberry. If you want a strong raspberry taste you are going to be disappointed, you might want to add a few more pounds of berries, and toss a few strawberries in there to give it even more of a fruity smell. WVMJ

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I've got a blackberry mead fermenting right now, I've never done mead before, but I got some honey at a good price so I figured I'd give it a shot. the blackberry melomel is only one gallon, so I'm not too concerned if it doesn't turn out perfect.

How long is too long to leave the blackberries in?

I'm leaving mine in for a week?


Thanks for the replies, really excited about this one

It depends on how you like the taste of the seeds Some people leave them in until the primary is completely finished, a week or 10 days, some people press them at the start and dont have to worry, depends on your berries, taste and experience. Why wouldnt you be concerned if it didnt turn out perfect, you should always try to make blackberry wine perfect! WVMJ

Thanks! I'll probably rack it off of them tomorrow in that case.

And sorry... Didn't mean to hijack your thread

Bluespark said:

-nutrient and energizer (recommended amounts)
- I cup strong black tea

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I plan to completely jack your recipe starting tomorrow. A few questions:

Could you be more specific on the nutrient and energizer? Amounts, type, and times?

What is the black tea for? and what did you use there?

Any idea of the FG?

The nutrient and energizer are 'spagnol' brand, all I can get locally. The package of any given brand gives amounts per gallon, in this case I think a tsp per gallon each. I added that at the beginning, then an additional tsp at 2, 4 and 6 days. I thoroughly aerated daily for the first 6 days, then just left it under airlock.

I used tazo black tea, two bags steeped for 10 minutes in boiling water, then remove the bags and add to the must. I've forgotten all the reasons for tea, but essentially it adds tannins and complexity. I figure it can't hurt.

I have to say, it looks and smells divine at this point, ruby red

Oh an the Fg will hopefully be around 1.010. It was nearly done fermenting and had a gravity of 1.010, but the fruit addition has bumped that up a bit, but should ferment back down.

The goal is 1.010 anyways.

BobTheAverage said:

What is the black tea for?

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Tea is a nice addition to meads for a couple of reasons.

First on a larger scale you can use it to infuse a specific flavor to make a tea metheglin.

Second on the smaller scale like mentioned above is the tannic properties.

Tannins added to any mead or wine have a lot of benefits. They are natural antioxidants and preservatives. Flavor/Mouth feel are effected because it give a bit of astringency and even brightness, which adds a nice character, especially to heavy fruit meads. They also combine with proteins and when they drop out of solution take the protiens with them helping to expidite the clearing process.

Yeast also seem to really like tea/tannins as everytime I have used them the ferment was very strong, very early. That's more an observation than about anything I have read.

Nice to hear. I think I will put some effort into getting tea then. When you say 1 cup strong black tea what does that mean really. Are we talking playground bully kind of strong or Hercules + Chuck Norris kind of strong? If you put a little sugar in that tea how would it compare to a normal cup of tea that you could brew to drink?

I'm from the south and around here it is sweet tea or nothin'. Any idea how Tazo is different from Luzianne sweet tea?

I use a plain black, no added flavours. Starbucks sells tazo.

Any decent quality plain black tea bags would work.

Strength wise, talking stronger than you would ever want to drink, and that's coming from someone who likes strong tea.

I think a better way to add tannins to a berry wine is to use dried elderberries, you can simmer the berries for 20 minutes, then toss it all in or strain off the berries, also adds some color and flavor which tea not so much. WVMJ