1st mead/melomel peach/blueberry

So here is what I did. I have read and learned MUCH since I did this but please don't hold back with your comments.

4 gal. Batch

10 1/2 lbs. Honey(orange/clover mix[not ideal I know])
1 gal. bag frozen peaches(frozen in apple juice)
2 quart bags frozen blueberries
D-47
cocktail of Carlson and Fermax nutrients.

5/12/10
Put the fruit and a gal. of spring water in my bucket with 2 campdem tablets.
Rehydrate yeast with pinch of yeast nutrients and 2 c. water.
Let sit 24 hours.

5/13/10
Add honey, water to 4 gal., and 1 1/2 tsp nutrients(3/4 tsp. each).
Much stirring.
Pitch yeast, more stirring, cover with clean towel.
Room temp. about 65-68 where the bucket was.
OG 1.115

5/15
SG 1.090
Added 1 - 1 1/2 tsp. nutrient.

5/17
SG 1.055

5/19
SG 1.048
Racked to 3 gal. carboy leaving very little head space. I did this mainly to get it off the fruit.

6/11
SG .997(hope it's done)
Racked and topped up with water.
So that gives me a ABV of around 15%(with topping up with water).

Things I would do different would be fruit in secondary and less honey.

At this point it is really undrinkable, I am hoping it will mellow with time but I am expecting a LONG aging process with the ABV. I get zero hint of honey or peaches. The best description of the aroma we could come up with is that of an orchard with rotting fruit(yea sounds great, pour me a glass huh!) and of course a heavy burn of alcohol.

Ok let me have it.

BGH


5/13/10

No comments positive or negative??? Huh......

Look at the views-count. The lack of response may be that there isn't any reason to.

It appears that you have your 'duckies-a-row' and your meticulous record keeping will serve you well.

I always plan on long aging for mead. Put it away and start another batch.

So, you have a month-old mead...only 11 to 23 more months to go before I'd expect to have a finished mead... Put it in a glass carboy, airlock it, and forget about it in a cool, dark place a while...I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised at how it's changed for the better.
In terms of your fruit, sometimes you can retain more flavor and aroma if you add it later in the process. Sometimes I will add juice or fruit as the initial primary ferment begins to slow, or at racking to secondary.

biochemedic said:

So, you have a month-old mead...only 11 to 23 more months to go before I'd expect to have a finished mead... Put it in a glass carboy, airlock it, and forget about it in a cool, dark place a while...I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised at how it's changed for the better.
In terms of your fruit, sometimes you can retain more flavor and aroma if you add it later in the process. Sometimes I will add juice or fruit as the initial primary ferment begins to slow, or at racking to secondary.

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Thanks. The fruit addition later is one of the main things I think I will do differently going forward.

At my next racking(which would be my third) would that be to late to rack onto some more fruit?

Thanks,

BGH

BillyGHusk said:

At my next racking(which would be my third) would that be to late to rack onto some more fruit?
BGH

Click to expand...

Not necesarily, but bear in mind that you may get some new fermentation when you add fruit, so it will set you back in the process of clearing/finishing.

Which would increase my ABV which seems fairly high as it is which would also add more time to the aging process.

BillyGHusk said:

Which would increase my ABV which seems fairly high as it is which would also add more time to the aging process.

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The increase in ABV would be fairly negligible...it's just that the new fermentation, however minimal, would stir things up again, and create sediment that would have to clear again. At 15% you're already looking at 12-24 months minimum aging, so adding a few 1/10ths percent wouldn't probably make much difference in the *overall* time, just that you'd probably need to let it sit longer before bottling, or perhaps use finings/rack a final time to get it clear.

Thanks for the replies and thoughts. Is that 12-24 month aging, bottle aging or does that include bulk aging?

Sorry for all the noob questions.

BillyGHusk said:

Thanks for the replies and thoughts. Is that 12-24 month aging, bottle aging or does that include bulk aging?

Sorry for all the noob questions.

Click to expand...

No Prob...when I use the term aging, I mean time elapsed from day of brewing and start of fermentation. It doesn't matter whether this is time in primary, secondary, tertiary, bottle aging, bulk aging, etc. Time is time, and it's the factor that is most important in mead. As far as I'm concerned, the only difference between bottle aging and bulk aging is the size of the container. Many times I bulk age because it's convenient, but if I need the carboy and I'm cleared up, I could just as easily bottle and age in bottles.