Apricot Melomel Recipe Development

Alright, I was hoping we (all who are interested) could work together in developing a nice apricot recipe. I have some ideas based on some of Jack Kellers apricot wines and the only Apricot recipe on gotmead. I am looking for something fairly light, not necessarily sweet or at least not very if flavor proves to need some sweet. My thoughts are as follows:

12lb clover honey (light)
4oz grated ginger (gotmead recipe)
17lb Apricots (the amount that I have) or simply 10lb Apricots (upscale from Jack Kellers wine recipes)
5lb Cracked wheat (Jack Keller)
2 Lemons juice only (possibly not needed, I stopped using lemon juice in my meads some time back and haven't really missed it)
1 & 1/4 cup strong black tea (upscale from Jack Keller, the alternate listing is 1 & 1/4 tsp grape tannin, I have both available but figured the tea would offer a nice flavor with those tannins)

Typical SNA and Aeration technique

My biggest concern is that 17lb apricots would be overpowering, my second thought is to divide either amount of apricots used in half. Place half in primary and half in secondary (taken from basic brewing podcast regarding mead and fruit additions).

Anyone have an opinion or suggestion? random thoughts are welcome too

I'd definately lose the lemons, they won't add any flavour & will only contribute acid, lowering your PH & adding stress to the yeast. I doubt you'll be able to taste the tea in 5 gallons of melomel, but there will be some added tannins. You might want to reduce the amount of fruit if you're wanting some of the honey flavour to come through. Clover honey doesn't have much flavour when compared to a varietal like orange blossom, and is easily overpowered by fruit. I think I'd stay under 3lbs/gallon; you can always rack onto more fruit later if you feel it needs more.

I'd be sure to pit & quarter the fruit, then put it through a freeze/thaw, freeze/thaw cycle before the final thaw & addition to the must. Freezing helps to break down cell walls & extracts more juice/flavour from the fruit. a dose of pectic enzyme will also help with this AND will help in clearing, though it's not really a fining agent.
Regards, GF.

I agree with gf. Back off the Apricots. I would recomend more like the 3lb/gal he is suggesting for a prominent apricot flavor. I acutally am going to see about doing a Apricot Allspice soon. Soon being next year. But I only have like 8 pounds. I plan on freeze, thaw, blender with pectin enzyme, then mesh bag in the secondary. A touch of Allspice and vanilla. Oaking with lightly toasted oak. But if you are going less sweet I definitely would not use a large amount of honey. Apricots do have some good sugars in them too. THat should be factored in a little. Hope it turns out.

Matrix

In a 5 Gal batch, 12# of honey and 15# of the apircots asumming they have a contributing factor of 9.1% of their volume being fermentable sugar should bring the must to a gravity of around 1.099. Lalvin D47 or Lalvin 71B shoud be able to take this dry. Splitting the fruit though probably 5# primary and 10# secondary would be benificial to the fruitiness of the end product. I agree that taking out the lemons is a good idea. I am a big fan of adding tea to the must however. I would go 1 cup per gallon of strong black tea or try an herbal tea at 1.5 cups per gallon like "Celestial Seasonings Country Peach Passion Herbal Tea" or even " Celestial seasonings Tangerine Orange Zinger Herbal Tea".

So I would propose the recipe:

12lb clover honey (light)
4oz grated ginger
15lb Apricots (5# in primary & 10# in secondary using the freez/thaw methode)
1tsp of pectic enzyme
5lb Cracked wheat (Jack Keller)
5 cups strong black tea (Or 7.5 cups of herbal tea of choice)

Good luck with the recipe building.

That's almost exactly what I was going to do for the recipe after reading the replies. Though I was planning on using 10lb apricots, half in primary half in secondary. I can ways add more to
Secondary if need be. I was pondering using 71b or k1v-1116, I'm having trouble with temperature stabilization in my basement ( temperamental a/c). I'll likely wait until later in the fall or at least until I'm sure the ac won't break again. I will update this as soon as I start it and keep this updated. More ideas are more than welcome.

with only 10# of apircot abd 12# hony in 5 gallon I would go with 71b. 1116 is great but imo should be saved for higher gravity musts where you want 16%+ ABV.

Ok, here's what I am going to do.

12lb clover honey (light)
4oz grated ginger
10lb Apricots (5# in primary & 5# in secondary using the freez/thaw method)
1tsp of pectic enzyme
5lb Cracked wheat (Jack Keller)
5 cups strong black tea (Or 7.5 cups of herbal tea of choice)
71B Yeast
SNA management

I'l be picking up the wheat tomorrow and getting started when my AC is fixed.

I got to thinking about this a little more and hit another road block. The recipe that I am pulling the cracked wheat from is as follows:

APRICOT Melomel (4)


2 lb. chopped dry apricots
1 lb. wheat, cracked
3 lb. honey
1 gallon water
2 lemons, juice only
1/4 tsp. grape tannin or 1/4 cup black tea
Madeira wine yeast and nutrient
Bring apricots to boil in gallon of water, reduce to simmer, then strain into primary fermentation vessel without pressing after one-half hour, discarding pulp. Add remaining ingredients, except yeast and nutrient, and stir to dissolve sugar. When cool, add yeast and nutrient, cover, and ferment in warm place for three weeks, stirring daily. Strain into secondary fermentation vessel, top up to one gallon, and fit airlock. Rack after one month. When clear, rack again and bottle. Taste after six months, but allow one year for best quality and flavor. [Adapted from C.J.J. Berry's First Steps in Winemaking]

My question is do I boil any water or not, I have already decided that I do not want to boil the apricots and strain them, I want to keep them diced in a nylon sack in the primary for 5-7 days, then strain and discard. In the recipe above I am wondering if the warm water (allowed to cool for half-hour) is acting on the wheat at all to allow some enzymatic action to produce fermentable sugars. My hold back to that is I do not want the hot water to affect the honey and cause aromatic loss. The solution to this in my mind would be to bring 2-3 gallons of water to boil and pour over the wheat, obviously I would likely add the tea at this point. Allow this to cool to 90 degrees or so and add the remaining ingredients. Then comes a question about what to do with the wheat after that. Keller is a bit vague on whether or not the wheat is removed with the apricots or not. I assume that the wheat is not kept in any kind of nylon sack and is simply racked off of after removing the apricots and transferring to carboy. Anyone have any best practice ideas on this?

Are these fruits that are used to make melomels still edible after fermentation? Some cheap fruits maybe doesn't matter, but stuff like cherries are fairly expensive. If they are edible, are they still good?

It's not something I would do, I have tasted post fermented fruit and it really does not taste good. Think of the last time you bowed to the porcelain thrown....

Why are you putting cracked wheat in a melomel? Without mashing it'll just add starch. If you want more body, use a pound or two of raisins instead of wheat.
Regards, GF.

3 reasons.

1. I like wheat
2. Jack Keller appears to have done it to his wine.
3. I'm curious

That being said I'm not sold jack Keller didn't mash. The recipe is a bit vague... I'm not really opposed to mashing.

Alright, I think I am going to go ahead and mash/sparge the wheat so this will be more of a braggomel(?) Here is my plan.

Jacksons Apricot Melomel
12lb clover honey (light)
4oz grated ginger
10lb Apricots (5# in primary & 5# in secondary using the freez/thaw method)
1tsp of pectic enzyme
5lb Cracked wheat (Jack Keller)
5 cups strong black tea (Or 7.5 cups of herbal tea of choice)
71B Yeast (?)
SNA management

Heat 2 gal water to 156F, mash the wheat for 1 hour. Remove this from heat and sparge wheat in 4 gal water at 170F for 20 minutes. Place 5 tea bags in the Mash while waiting for this to cool along with the 4 oz of grated ginger. Once sparge is complete allow to cool to 120F or less and add 12lb honey. Place 5lb diced and pitted apricots in a nylon sack, mix mash and sparge in primary along with fruit and remaining ingredients except yeast. Top up to 5 gal if necessary, once temp has cooled to 90-95F add yeast and cover. Follow SNA guidelines and aerate 1-2 times daily for 5 days or ⅓ sugar break. Then remove fruit and rack into secondary, place under airlock. Leave until fermentation has completed and rack off sediment, allow to clear.

You'll see a question mark on my yeast choice. I have no issue with 71b, it has served me quite well. I am simply wondering since my estimated gravity is only 1.090 would anyone recommend using an ale yeast such as nottingham or US-05? I figure if the yeast does poop out and leave it too sweet for my taste I can always pitch the 71B after and let it finish the job? Though I seem to recall something about ale yeasts being a bit destructive to the aromatics of the fruit....

Alright, I think I am going to go ahead and mash/sparge the wheat so this will be more of a braggomel(?) Here is my plan.

Jacksons Apricot Melomel
12lb clover honey (light)
4oz grated ginger
10lb Apricots (5# in primary & 5# in secondary using the freez/thaw method)
1tsp of pectic enzyme
5lb Cracked wheat (Jack Keller)
5 cups strong black tea (Or 7.5 cups of herbal tea of choice)
71B Yeast (?)
SNA management

Heat 2 gal water to 156F, mash the wheat for 1 hour. Remove this from heat and sparge wheat in 4 gal water at 170F for 20 minutes. Place 5 tea bags in the Mash while waiting for this to cool along with the 4 oz of grated ginger. Once sparge is complete allow to cool to 120F or less and add 12lb honey. Place 5lb diced and pitted apricots in a nylon sack, mix mash and sparge in primary along with fruit and remaining ingredients except yeast. Top up to 5 gal if necessary, once temp has cooled to 90-95F add yeast and cover. Follow SNA guidelines and aerate 1-2 times daily for 5 days or ⅓ sugar break. Then remove fruit and rack into secondary, place under airlock. Leave until fermentation has completed and rack off sediment, allow to clear.

You'll see a question mark on my yeast choice. I have no issue with 71b, it has served me quite well. I am simply wondering since my estimated gravity is only 1.090 would anyone recommend using an ale yeast such as nottingham or US-05? I figure if the yeast does poop out and leave it too sweet for my taste I can always pitch the 71B after and let it finish the job? Though I seem to recall something about ale yeasts being a bit destructive to the aromatics of the fruit....

Alright, I think I am going to go ahead and mash/sparge the wheat so this will be more of a braggomel(?) Here is my plan.

Jacksons Apricot Melomel
12lb clover honey (light)
4oz grated ginger
10lb Apricots (5# in primary & 5# in secondary using the freez/thaw method)
1tsp of pectic enzyme
5lb Cracked wheat (Jack Keller)
5 cups strong black tea (Or 7.5 cups of herbal tea of choice)
71B Yeast (?)
SNA management

Heat 2 gal water to 156F, mash the wheat for 1 hour. Remove this from heat and sparge wheat in 4 gal water at 170F for 20 minutes. Place 5 tea bags in the Mash while waiting for this to cool along with the 4 oz of grated ginger. Once sparge is complete allow to cool to 120F or less and add 12lb honey. Place 5lb diced and pitted apricots in a nylon sack, mix mash and sparge in primary along with fruit and remaining ingredients except yeast. Top up to 5 gal if necessary, once temp has cooled to 90-95F add yeast and cover. Follow SNA guidelines and aerate 1-2 times daily for 5 days or ⅓ sugar break. Then remove fruit and rack into secondary, place under airlock. Leave until fermentation has completed and rack off sediment, allow to clear.

You'll see a question mark on my yeast choice. I have no issue with 71b, it has served me quite well. I am simply wondering since my estimated gravity is only 1.090 would anyone recommend using an ale yeast such as nottingham or US-05? I figure if the yeast does poop out and leave it too sweet for my taste I can always pitch the 71B after and let it finish the job? Though I seem to recall something about ale yeasts being a bit destructive to the aromatics of the fruit....

Alright, I think I am going to go ahead and mash/sparge the wheat so this will be more of a braggomel(?) Here is my plan.

Jacksons Apricot Melomel
12lb clover honey (light)
4oz grated ginger
10lb Apricots (5# in primary & 5# in secondary using the freez/thaw method)
1tsp of pectic enzyme
5lb Cracked wheat (Jack Keller)
5 cups strong black tea (Or 7.5 cups of herbal tea of choice)
71B Yeast (?)
SNA management

Heat 2 gal water to 156F, mash the wheat for 1 hour. Remove this from heat and sparge wheat in 4 gal water at 170F for 20 minutes. Place 5 tea bags in the Mash while waiting for this to cool along with the 4 oz of grated ginger. Once sparge is complete allow to cool to 120F or less and add 12lb honey. Place 5lb diced and pitted apricots in a nylon sack, mix mash and sparge in primary along with fruit and remaining ingredients except yeast. Top up to 5 gal if necessary, once temp has cooled to 90-95F add yeast and cover. Follow SNA guidelines and aerate 1-2 times daily for 5 days or ⅓ sugar break. Then remove fruit and rack into secondary, place under airlock. Leave until fermentation has completed and rack off sediment, allow to clear.

You'll see a question mark on my yeast choice. I have no issue with 71b, it has served me quite well. I am simply wondering since my estimated gravity is only 1.090 would anyone recommend using an ale yeast such as nottingham or US-05? I figure if the yeast does poop out and leave it too sweet for my taste I can always pitch the 71B after and let it finish the job? Though I seem to recall something about ale yeasts being a bit destructive to the aromatics of the fruit....

Alright, I think I am going to go ahead and mash/sparge the wheat so this will be more of a braggomel(?) Here is my plan.

Jacksons Apricot Melomel
12lb clover honey (light)
4oz grated ginger
10lb Apricots (5# in primary & 5# in secondary using the freez/thaw method)
1tsp of pectic enzyme
5lb Cracked wheat (Jack Keller)
5 cups strong black tea (Or 7.5 cups of herbal tea of choice)
71B Yeast (?)
SNA management

Heat 2 gal water to 156F, mash the wheat for 1 hour. Remove this from heat and sparge wheat in 4 gal water at 170F for 20 minutes. Place 5 tea bags in the Mash while waiting for this to cool along with the 4 oz of grated ginger. Once sparge is complete allow to cool to 120F or less and add 12lb honey. Place 5lb diced and pitted apricots in a nylon sack, mix mash and sparge in primary along with fruit and remaining ingredients except yeast. Top up to 5 gal if necessary, once temp has cooled to 90-95F add yeast and cover. Follow SNA guidelines and aerate 1-2 times daily for 5 days or ⅓ sugar break. Then remove fruit and rack into secondary, place under airlock. Leave until fermentation has completed and rack off sediment, allow to clear.

You'll see a question mark on my yeast choice. I have no issue with 71b, it has served me quite well. I am simply wondering since my estimated gravity is only 1.090 would anyone recommend using an ale yeast such as nottingham or US-05? I figure if the yeast does poop out and leave it too sweet for my taste I can always pitch the 71B after and let it finish the job? Though I seem to recall something about ale yeasts being a bit destructive to the aromatics of the fruit....

Alright, I think I am going to go ahead and mash/sparge the wheat so this will be more of a braggomel(?) Here is my plan.

Jacksons Apricot Melomel
12lb clover honey (light)
4oz grated ginger
10lb Apricots (5# in primary & 5# in secondary using the freez/thaw method)
1tsp of pectic enzyme
5lb Cracked wheat (Jack Keller)
5 cups strong black tea (Or 7.5 cups of herbal tea of choice)
71B Yeast (?)
SNA management

Heat 2 gal water to 156F, mash the wheat for 1 hour. Remove this from heat and sparge wheat in 4 gal water at 170F for 20 minutes. Place 5 tea bags in the Mash while waiting for this to cool along with the 4 oz of grated ginger. Once sparge is complete allow to cool to 120F or less and add 12lb honey. Place 5lb diced and pitted apricots in a nylon sack, mix mash and sparge in primary along with fruit and remaining ingredients except yeast. Top up to 5 gal if necessary, once temp has cooled to 90-95F add yeast and cover. Follow SNA guidelines and aerate 1-2 times daily for 5 days or ⅓ sugar break. Then remove fruit and rack into secondary, place under airlock. Leave until fermentation has completed and rack off sediment, allow to clear.

You'll see a question mark on my yeast choice. I have no issue with 71b, it has served me quite well. I am simply wondering since my estimated gravity is only 1.090 would anyone recommend using an ale yeast such as nottingham or US-05? I figure if the yeast does poop out and leave it too sweet for my taste I can always pitch the 71B after and let it finish the job? Though I seem to recall something about ale yeasts being a bit destructive to the aromatics of the fruit....

(i sincerely apologize for the triple post, I kept getting an error when trying to post)

Ok, I went ahead and did this yesterday, recipe as follows:

10lb Clover honey (costco)
2lb local raw wildflower
5oz grated ginger
5lb Apricots Primary
5lb Apricots secondary
1tsp pectic enzyme
5lb cracked wheat, malted, mashed, and sparged
5 cups strong black tea
71b Yeast
O.G. 1.106

Heated 2gal water to 160F and mashed wheat for 1 hour. Chopped apricots and pealed/grated the ginger. Poured mash into primary over fruit and ginger. Added honey, pectic enzyme, and nutrient. Heated 5 cups water to boiling and added 5 black tea bags, let steep for 20 minutes. Sparged wheat in 4 gal water at 170F for 20 minutes. Drained sparge water into primary. Aerated must to oxygenate and ensure proper dissolution of the honey. Pulled out 1 cup of the must and re-hydrated/started 71b yeast. Checked gravity while waiting. Gravity reading taken at 112F was 1.100 which corrects to 1.106. Mixed active yeast into must and placed under airlock.

Today I had to take off the airlock and add a blow off tube after ending up with apricot on my ceiling... I've heard of you guys talking about that but this is the first time it has literally happened. I had to take the curtains down and everything... Its off to a great start to say the least and smells awesome!

Well, fermentation got off to a great start, but I'm pretty sure its infected. :-( It has a nasty rotten/slightly sulfur smell to it. I have smelled this before and every time I do the batch is completely ruined. It only happens when using locally grown fruit. The first time was a blueberry wine that I used locally grown blueberries that were prefrozen so I didn't rinse them at all when smushing and placing in the brew. This time the apricots were pre-frozen as well, and again, I did not rinse the apricots, assuming the person who prepared them had, nor do I really know that simply rinsing would have prevented this. I could have pastuerized the fruit and perhaps I should have but I seem to get stuck applying the no heat honey mentality to everything that goes into that brew (other than the mashed wheat in this case). I will likely make this again and tweak the recipe a bit following more along the lines of Jack Kellers process of heat extracting the apricots with the wheat. This should pastuerize the apricots as well. So far I have racked off the fruit and aerated $hiznit out of it, along with adding 2tsp nutrient. Trying to work out the sulfur smell, I've caught it a lot earlier than I did in the past and will try and aerate 2-3 times a day until I don't smell the sulfur any more or I puke and throw it away. I shall keep you all updated.

Feel free to post any comments, suggestions, or ridicule, I'll take it all.

Amazingly this finished its main ferment yesterday at 1.010, I racked into a Carboy of the bulk of the lees. The yeast is still cleaning up but it's activity is very minimal in stark contrast to where it was just night before last. To my great relief my aerating for 5 minutes 3 times a day since my last post seems to have eliminated the sulfury smell. It still doesn't smell great but it does smell more like an over abundance of yeast and apricots. We'll see how it smells after it clears.

For clarification my usual aeration technique is to whip with my lees stirrer and drill gently at first to prevent a volcano, then vigorously for close to 1 minute once a day. This batch I did 3 times a day and once the volcano danger was over I whipped on high speed for 5 minutes. I added close to 5 tsp nutrient total as well staggered, I usually only do 3 tsp staggered.

🍻

Pic

Well, I racked this the other day after stabilizing it. It has a new smell, smells of fruit flavored cough medicine. I tasted it as well and it tastes the same... Odd considering it has a fake red berry flavor I have to assume that the flavor imparted from the Carboy that I racked it into. I did the first racking into a better bottle that I bulk aged a strawberry skeeter pee. I know I cleaned it extremely well before racking and I don't recall smelling any strawberry flavor after cleaning it. It is plastic however and I have to think that it may have leeched into the plastic after sitting so long... I'll let it clear and age and keep you all apprised. I'm a little wary to waste my remaining apricots in secondary on this one now though....