Blood Orange Mel advice.

Hi,

This is for a 5 gal batch. I have 1 gal of Blood Orange juice. I don't know how much to put in primary and now much in secondary.

Can I freeze fresh juice till secondary in 8-10 days?

Size of secondary is 5 gal.

Primary
10 lbs Honey from Costco
1/2 gal of fresh blood orange juice.
Freeze the other 1/2 gal of fresh blood orange juice for secondary, after honey is done fermenting in about 8 days.
4 gal of Poland springs spring water
Yeast,
SNA chemicals..

Do you guys recommend experimenting with more expensive honey ?
(I figured that since I making mel as long as it's real honey..., Am i wrong ?)

I can get more blood oranges or juice.

What else should I add ?

Thank you for your advice.

Edit,
17 brix or OG - 1.07 Expected alcohol is about 11%

Add the whole gallon of juice initially. Pasteurize it at 160° for fifteen minutes, unless you boil your must. If you have an apiary near you, see what honeys they offer. Also, bump up the OG because you never know if it'll finish as dry as you expect it to. Just make sure most of your fermentables come from the honey and not the juice, but I think you could add more juice if you wanted to.

JJack887 said:

Add the whole gallon of juice initially. Pasteurize it at 160° for fifteen minutes, unless you boil your must. If you have an apiary near you, see what honeys they offer. Also, bump up the OG because you never know if it'll finish as dry as you expect it to. Just make sure most of your fermentables come from the honey and not the juice, but I think you could add more juice if you wanted to.

Click to expand...

Ok thanks, so how much should add to secondary if i add all of it to primary ? should i not add anything to secondary ?

I did not pasteurize the first 1/2 gal. is that bad ?

thank you

I added another gallon of Blood Orange juice after the 8- days of primary. 2 hours later I freaked out since this time the juice was pasteurized and I remember that there is a chemical pasteurization technique that would not ferment. But by next morning, foam came out. So I went to work happy.

So yesterday I tried it, and a gallon later realized that it tastes a little acidic, like lemons....

Also I have added so much juice to it that it's now closer to 9 gallons then to 5(size of my secondary).

I have allot of stuff to rack and bottle now.. I think I had another carboy somewhere.... Maybe Monday after work I will get a chance to do this....

I added another gallon of Blood Orange juice after the 8- days of primary. 2 hours later I freaked out since this time the juice was pasteurized and I remember that there is a chemical pasteurization technique that would not ferment. But by next morning, foam came out. So I went to work happy.

So yesterday I tried it, and a gallon later realized that it tastes a little acidic, like lemons....

Also I have added so much juice to it that it's now closer to 9 gallons then to 5(size of my secondary).

I have allot of stuff to rack and bottle now.. I think I had another carboy somewhere.... Maybe Monday after work I will get a chance to do this....

The left over mead went sour in my cup, otherwise I transferred 5 gal to secondary, filled 1 gall water bottle. Drank about 1 gal that weekend and discarded like .5 gal from the bottom. I am thing about adding clarifying agent to it. Ok time to start planing next mead !