Strawberries

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Frige

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I`m gonna give this mead stuff another shot after the agave disaster. So far I got.
18 lbs of strawberries
15 lbs of cosco honey
2 packs of ec 1118 yeast

I mixed 10 lbs of honey into 3 gals of filtered water, stirred the heck out of it with a paint stirrer, hydrated my yeast with a weak must, added a teaspoon of yeast energizer, and pitched. The og was 1.100

After the og goes down I will add the other 5 lbs of honey and 1/2 the berries.
Then put the rest of the berries in after a few weeks.

As always open to suggestions. :fro:
 
This is for a 3 gallon batch not 5? That much honey in 3 gallons on top of the strawberries makes this super sweet. Even 1118 will not ferment through it all and that is assuming it ferments on the high end and even hits 19% ABV.

Here is a couple suggestions that may help.

1) up the nutrients. At a minimum it should be 1tsp per gallon. If no fruit in there now then closer to 1.5 tsp per gallon. Good news it is best to split nutrients into multiple additions. For the next 48 hours add in an additional 1 - 1.5 tsp of nutrients over two more additions.

2) Get a 5 gallon carboy in the next couple weeks.

3) when you rack next put it in the 5 gallon carboy with your closer to 15lb strawberries and your honey. Then top off with additional water till at the 5 gallon mark.

4) you probably already planned this but once fermentation is done and you are racking off the old strawberries then rack onto the other half (another 15lb minimum) of strawberries. It may be good to just place in a clean carboy and stabilize with Camden and sorbate and 12-24 hours later then add your strawberries.
 
My idea is to make it a 5 gallon batch, make it as a dry batch with just the honey, then after its had stabilising and a first racking put the strawberry in and leave it fo a month or two, jusr rocking the fermenter to keep the top surface moist.......

oh and use nutrient.......
 
Opps I forgot to mention that it is going to be a 5 gallon batch, I just started if off at a low water level so it wouldnt make a mess.

I checked this morning and its off to a good start. Bubbling like crazy and the gravity has already started to drop down to 1.098. So I`m stirring it everyday and next week I will add more nutrient. When should I add the rest of the honey? Any particular number? Also cosco sells the strawberries in 9 lb bags will another 18 lbs be too much?
 
Not at all. I mentioned the 30 total at a minimum. Usually a good number to be around 2-3lb per gallon worth of fruit addition.... Wait I type this now and wonder why I typed befor to add 15lb then another 15lb in secondary. 15 total or your original 18lb should be good. I was drinking some really nice JAOM last night. I may have had one to many. I like fruit in primary and secondary but as FB said he like it all in secondary. Your choice.
 
I usually use 15 pounds in the secondary for a 5 gal. chop up, put in mesh bag and let sit in my brew bucket for 3 weeks. Boom done.

I have noticed that most strawberry meads do take a full year to age properly. Just FYI on the taste.

Matrix
 
Making progress,
The gravity went down to 1.060 and I added the next 5 lbs of honey, that brought it up to 1.090 again. I have been stirring it everyday and adding nutrients. It has dropped back to 1.58, so I seem to be on the right track.
 
It stalled out at 1.052 so I put in 8 lbs of berries. Then I had to change buckets bubbling like crazy...
 
Moving right along now at 1.032 And tastes amazing....
Also added another teaspoon of nutrient.
 
Update I put the rest of the berries in 10 days ago. Today I transferred to secondary and strained out the berries. The gravity ended up at .996 and the taste while heavy on the strawberries is not sweet at all and very tart. I think it will be awesome once it matures for a while.
 
Yea it will not be sweet since all the sugar is now turned into alcohol. You may stabilize this with Camden and sorbate and slightly back sweeten with more honey to possibly the 1.002 - 1.004 range and give it another taste. Then up it from there if you want more sweet but plan to stop just before you think it is perfect. Meads seem to "sweeten up" with a few months of age.
 
Yea it will not be sweet since all the sugar is now turned into alcohol. You may stabilize this with Camden and sorbate and slightly back sweeten with more honey to possibly the 1.002 - 1.004 range and give it another taste. Then up it from there if you want more sweet but plan to stop just before you think it is perfect. Meads seem to "sweeten up" with a few months of age.

The sweetening up is like just compounds dropping out of solution. A mead or beer with yeast in solution will seem dryer and more astringent than something bright. I generally add Bentonite before racking, along with sorbate & sulfite. I end up with doing fewer rackings as a result.
 
Ok I can understand the sorbate & sulfite but bentonite?
Isnt that what they use for drilling mud out in the oil patch?
 
bentonite is an odd one - it is a clay, but it has some specific properities that it is highly charged, so oppositely charged residues attract to it, and it pulls them out of solution and they fall to the bottom.

I don't know who thought it was a good idea to put bentonite in wine in the first place though, dude musta been a bit off his rocker (or some genius chemist, the stuff is so cheap).
 
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