black rasberry mead?

I was thinking about making my first batch of wine or mead made from my own picked black raspberries. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to go about making a mead? I am reall y wondering about how to deal with the berries when adding it to the honey/water. Anyone have any simple, sweet recipes for a gallon>?

thanks

From what I've heard, the best way to extract the flavor from the fruit is to use it in the secondary. Ferment out your mead as a traditional mead (honey+water+yeast) and then rack after a month or so onto your fruit. Leave it there for a while, maybe until it clears, and then rack again into tertiary to clear before bottling.

Taking a page from the moonshiners at Bonnaroo this year, keep some fruit in the bottom of your bottles. It'll keep the flavor nice and potent and will look damn cool and the fruit will be mighty tastey

mike

For fruit meads, or melomel, you want to freeze the fruit first. It helps with the extraction of juice by rupturing cell membranes. Keep your fruit in the freezer while your mead ferments in primary, about 2 lbs of honey for 1 gallon of mead, with yeast and nutrient. When fermentation slows enough to rack to secondary, thaw your fruit, at least 2 lbs of berries. Place thawed fruit into sanitized secondary, rack your mead onto it. Allow fermentation to complete. You will need to rack frequently, as there will be lots of sediment, every month or two for half a year or so. When completely clear, and when SG is stable for several weeks, you can bottle. I have never added fruit to bottles, but I have added pieces of vanilla bean. Taste your melomel at regular intervals to see if it is sweet enough, and fruity enough. You can add more fruit/honey in secondary, just allow more time to clear. Good luck!

Black raspberries have a stronger flavor than red so don't overdo the berries or it'll get like cough syrup. Keep it light.

Start off with 3 lbs per batch and test the taste. You can always add more, but you can't subtract it.

Don't use a champagne yeast if you are wanting a sweet mead. Use a sweet mead liquid yeast for best results.

If you want to make it still (uncarbonated) melomel you can either stop the fermentation using potassium sorbate a day or two before bottling or let it ferment out under 1.000 and back sweeten it (after the PS).

OOh now we are getting somewhere.
Let me see if I can get myself a home made recipe built up here.

For a 1 gallon batch (I may multiply this if I intend to do more but this is the basics)

STEP 1- Put2-3 lbs of honey in 1 gallon of water and boil for 1 hour while skimming anything bad that floats to the top including foam?


STEP 2- Add yeast nutrient and yeast and ferment till it slow down enough to move to secondary.

You don't need to boil. Use a mead or champagne yeast and the alcohol will do all the work for you. However, if it is fresh honey from combs, you may need to do some heating to 180F or so.

Ahh now we are getting somwhere.
Lets see if I can get a recipe going for what I want to do with everyone's help.
This will initially be a 1 gallon batch unless I decide to do more. So all the ingredients are for 1 gallon.

Step 1- boil 2-3 lbs of honey in 1 gallon of water for 1 hour. Skim off any residue and junk that floats off the top.

(how much alcahol is 3 lbs to 1 gallon. I ask cause in the past I used champagne yeast for my stronger stuff but used a ale yeast for my stronger cider cause the yeast has a neutral flavor. I can get the ale yeast easier than the mead or champagne yeasts and it can handle I was told up to 14%.)

Step 2- Add to fermenter and than add yeast and yeast nutrient. Ferment in primary till is slows down.

Step 3- Thaw out BRs and make sure they are rinsed off to remove any stray bugs and other creepy crawlies. Put them in secondary and than rack fermented honey onto them.

(Are there any concerns at this point of anything on the berries growing and fouling up the mead?)

(Do I need to crush or smash the berries before I put them in the mix? What about the little seeds?)

Step 4- It was mentioned that at this stage I let fermentation complete but it also says I will need to rack frequently? Rack if off the fruit and put it in another fermenter ?

Step 5- Once fermenation is finished. Add lactose to add sweetness like I have done before for cider and mead. Also add sucrose to make it carbonated i.e. black rasberry champagne?

thanks again

Oops somehow that got posted while I was actually writing the entire post and I didn't notice it. Ignore the first one I guess.

I only do 15 min boils.

The majority of the skimming is actually done before the boil. As it's warming the wax, etc., raises to the top. I use a slotted plastic spoon and a saucepan to pour it in to.

As for your berries, if you use fresh you can wash them, place them on a cookie sheet and put it in the freezer. After they freeze you can scoop them up and put them in plastic bags. This way each one is frozen and they don't stick together.

When they freeze they break through the walls and breakdown so crushing is not necessary, but it's your choice. I still crush them to get all the juice and color. I recommend just squashing them flat.

So to expound, I have heard that boiling removes most of the honey flavor. Some heat to 180F to pasteurize for about 10 minutes. I did not do either and have heard of others just putting everything directly into the carboy and pitching the yeast (also what I did).

I guess if the berries overpower any honey flavor anyway, then it won't matter if boiling kills the honey flavor. Not sure myself. That is up to your desired result.

I asked about the frozen berries , because the berries I have are already frozen in the freezer. So I will have to use them and see how they do.

you want the berries to be frozen, I posted that earlier. Lemme see if I can sum this for you:

Add your envelope of yeast to about 1/2c. warm water to rehydrate.

Heat on quart of water to about 160F, take off the heat. No need to boil. Stir in 2lbs of honey till completely dissolved
(most honey is already pasteurized, and honey in its natural state from the hive is inherantly antibacterial).

Place honey mixture in 1 gallon glass jug, add 2 quarts cold (from the fridge) water, 1 tsp yeast nutrient/energizer. Cover the jug and shake the bejesus out of it.

Add the yeast mixture to your jug, don't add any more water, the level will be a little low.

Put fermentation lock on the jug, and put it in a nice warm place, free from drafts. In a day you should see lots of activity. When fermentation slows down, you are ready to transfer to secondary. This should take a few weeks.

Sanitize another glass jug while you Thaw the berries (2-3lbs). Put thawed berries into clean jug, syphon your mead into this jug, leaving any sediment behind. Put the fermentation lock back on. Fermentation will restart within a day or two. Let it sit in that nice warm place for a month or two.

When fermentation has slowed again significantly, check your SG. If it is near 1.000, or lower, taste it. If its too dry (which it probably will be), warm a lb of honey to body temp, put it into a clean 1 gallon jug. Syphon your mead into this jug, swirling at first to incorpirate the honey. Don't worry if its not all mixed. Let it sit till SG is back to 1.000, and cleared. Age in a clean Jug for a few more months (the longer the better). Bottle.