Sour Cherry Melomel

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hroth521

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Friend of mine has a freezer full of sour cherries. What do people think of this recipe? I've borrowed freely from hightest's FAQ and other stuff on the web:


cherry mead

12 lb honey
12 lb tart cherries
sweet mead yeast
4 - 5 gallons water
5 tsp pectic enzyme

2.4g Sparkolloid
boiled in 100ml water for a
5 gal batch

heat honey in 2.5 gallons water @ 170 for 1/2 hour. Add thawed frozen cherries at the end. Add to water to make 5 gallons. Pitch yeast when 70 deg. F.

add 4.5g Superfood (or Fermaid-K) & 4.5g DAP at innoculation
add 2.8g Superfood (or Fermaid-K) & 2.8g DAP at active fermentation
add 1.8g Superfood (or Fermaid-K) & 1.8g DAP just before midpoint

3 days before bottling - a solution is made by stirring Sparkolloid powder into boiling water. After the
powder is added, the mixture should be boiled for an additional 5-10 minutes. The Sparkolloid solution is should
not be allowed to cool. The hot solution should be added to the wine /mead and stirred in carefully.
 
Looks yummy. Couple questions. When are you adding the cherries. Primary or Secondary? 12lbs seems like a lot to add IMO, unless you are going for a really strong cherry flavor. How intense do you want the fruit flavor to be?

I wouldnt plan on using the Sparkolloid unless your mead doesnt clear after significant aging (6+ mo).

Also, I am a no heat guy and just add the honey straight to room temperature water and stir like crazy until its dissolved. If you want to be safe and heat the honey to pasturize it thats fine, but you risk losing some flavor and aromatics from the honey. I know there are many mead makers out there that dont use any heat and havent had issues with infected batches.
 
I definitely want to taste the cherries. Most fruit melomel recipes I've seen seem to use equal amounts fruit and honey. I've never made it before so I'm open to suggestions. Also, I've seen recipes where the fruit is added half at primary and 1/2 at secondary or all primary. What about all secondary after the alcohol level and yeasts are very high?

Oh and another thing, I've read that other yeasts (Lalvin something) creates a more complex mead than sweet mead yeast. Do you have any experience with the different yeasts in melomel?
 
Check out http://www.cfhb.org/mead/yeast_strains.htm#cote Lalvin d-47 is always great and the lalvin 71b is great for melomels ESP with dark fruits. I like to use that in all my melomels. I prefer the dry wine yeast over the liquid. Most people get better, consistent results an they are much cheaper

I just checked my copy of The Compleat Meadmaker (a def buy) and he recommends 6-8 lbs of tart cherries, added to the secondary, for a medium cherry flavor. More than that gives a strong fruit flavor. So it's up to u and how much you want

personally I like to do all of my fruit additions in the secondary. That way the yeast doesn't scrub out a lot of the flavor. Some people like to do some in primary and some in secondary. To each his own. That's the fun part, finding what u like
 
Check out http://www.cfhb.org/mead/yeast_strains.htm#cote Lalvin d-47 is always great and the lalvin 71b is great for melomels ESP with dark fruits. I like to use that in all my melomels. I prefer the dry wine yeast over the liquid. Most people get better, consistent results an they are much cheaper

I just checked my copy of The Compleat Meadmaker (a def buy) and he recommends 6-8 lbs of tart cherries, added to the secondary, for a medium cherry flavor. More than that gives a strong fruit flavor. So it's up to u and how much you want

personally I like to do all of my fruit additions in the secondary. That way the yeast doesn't scrub out a lot of the flavor. Some people like to do some in primary and some in secondary. To each his own. That's the fun part, finding what u like

Thanks chode. This is very helpful. I'm going to heat the honey just enough to get it out of the containers easily. Think I'm going to add all the fruit in the secondary. I just need to settle the yeast question and I'm good to go.
 
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