D0ug
Well-Known Member
My friends and I made a strawberry melomel on Friday. We have no idea what we were doing so we "wing-ed" it based of a batch of simple mead we made last spring.
Mistake 1, the recipe last spring did not have any SG readings taken and we used 5# honey/gallon. We did that again. We used 24# Honey, ~5# Strawberries, topped off to ~5.5 gals and had an OG of 1.168ish
Added a standard dose of Fermax and Pectic Enzyme for a 5 gal. batch and pitched EC-1118 (told you we didn't know what we were doing )
So now we have a high gravity strawberry melomel burping away at 60*F ambient. I've been rocking/swirling the carboy 3-4 times a day to submerge the fruit and degas some CO2.
My question, when do I rack off the fruit? Some people say when the fruit turns white (which it almost is) and some say to wait until the primary is done.
Please help me shepard this disaster through to something that can be drinkable!
Any and all advice/criticism welcome!
Mistake 1, the recipe last spring did not have any SG readings taken and we used 5# honey/gallon. We did that again. We used 24# Honey, ~5# Strawberries, topped off to ~5.5 gals and had an OG of 1.168ish
Added a standard dose of Fermax and Pectic Enzyme for a 5 gal. batch and pitched EC-1118 (told you we didn't know what we were doing )
So now we have a high gravity strawberry melomel burping away at 60*F ambient. I've been rocking/swirling the carboy 3-4 times a day to submerge the fruit and degas some CO2.
My question, when do I rack off the fruit? Some people say when the fruit turns white (which it almost is) and some say to wait until the primary is done.
Please help me shepard this disaster through to something that can be drinkable!
Any and all advice/criticism welcome!