Blueberry Melomel help

I am planning on making a blueberry melomel. I have a 3 lb. can of puréed blueberries but I'm not 100% sure how to add them. I plan on putting them in a grain bag and adding it to the must. do I have to ferment in a bucket or can I use a 6.5 gallon carboy? I'm not sure how I would get the bag in the carboy without causing a huge mess. I'm also not sure how to get the bag back out once I'm ready to rack

I use buckets for anything involving fruit. And a really big bag. Give the fruit 2 weeks and remove the bag. You can bleach the bucket afterward if necessary.

i was afraid of that. wish i had thought of this before i bought a 6.5 gal carboy specifically for this batch. oh well.

what i was thinking of doing is using a bottling cane to shove the bag into the carboy leaving some of it sticking out the top. then use a funnel to pour the blueberry puree into the bag. next tie it off and let it fall in rest of the way. then when its done fermenting and I've racked it to a secondary use a coat hanger to snag the draw string on the bag and pull it back out.

TipsyDragon said:

i was afraid of that. wish i had thought of this before i bought a 6.5 gal carboy specifically for this batch. oh well.

what i was thinking of doing is using a bottling cane to shove the bag into the carboy leaving some of it sticking out the top. then use a funnel to pour the blueberry puree into the bag. next tie it off and let it fall in rest of the way. then when its done fermenting and I've racked it to a secondary use a coat hanger to snag the draw string on the bag and pull it back out.

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You could try checking out the closest bakery for a frosting pail- they come in sizes from 3 1/2 to 6 gallons depending on the size of the bakery and their frosting needs- I have gotten them for free and some are about a Buck, they are food safe and easy to clean and usually even have a good gasketed lid that can be pounded back on and is drill-able if you want to add a rubber stopper and airlock. might be worth looking into if it can save you some clean up.

i have a brew bucket thats big enough to handle the job. i just wanted to use glass for sanitation and acidity reasons. mead is way more acidity than beer and may or may not dissolve a microscopic layer of plastic. i know if thats true its most likely non-harmfull but still. plastic bad.

I wouldn't recommend putting the bag into the carboy as it will be a pain to get out.

Also you will want to rack from your bucket into that carboy so don't feel bad about having it. Having a 6.5 gal around is nice, they always come in handy anyways.

i got the idea from another forum to tie some fishing line to the bag and have it stick out the carboy. then just pull the line when its time.

TipsyDragon said:

i got the idea from another forum to tie some fishing line to the bag and have it stick out the carboy. then just pull the line when its time.

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I wouldn't count on that working. Use the bucket for melomels. You can use the carboy to age it after your done with the primary.

Another thing I've read is a must is to add pectic enzyme to the blueberry mixture to keep the clouds away. I've always followed this with the exception of my last batch of Fig mead. That didn't work out so well. I had to filter the entire batch and it was so thick with fig goo, that it took almost 3 days to filter from one keg to the other. It's very pretty now and tastes great to

I'm not sure why you want to use a bag for your fruit. Just dump the fruit in loose. When you rack your mead into another container, just make sure your racking cane is above the lees and you'll be fine. Voila - no bag, no mess, no problem.

3 Dog Brew said:

Another thing I've read is a must is to add pectic enzyme to the blueberry mixture to keep the clouds away.

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way ahead of you on that one. i have my bag of enzyme all ready to go.

KCWortHog said:

I'm not sure why you want to use a bag for your fruit.

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so i can just pull the bag out at clean up time and be done with it.


the bag should contain any floaters that may be in the melomel at racking. dont think this would be a real problem but just in case.

I don't know if it was you on the other board I replied to or not but here is my suggestion.

Blenderize the bluberry puree with maybe 1 cup of water or so. Subtract the water from what you plan on adding to the mead. Then take the mix and run through a screen. put pulp with a little more water, not much and pectin enzyme it in the blender, freeze, thaw, blenderize again, run through screen twice. Take the resulting juice and add to your must worry free. Best option is to put the juice in the secondary. This way no floaty bits and you don't need to introduce extra enzyme to your mead. Just the juice/pulp itself. You also would be suprised as to how much you get out of the juice. I did this with both blueberries and pears and it turns out great. You can even use the pulp to make tasty muffins if you wish. Or dehydrate and turn to dust and add a teaspoon to future mead batches as your nutrient source and flavor kick.

Works great and less mess in carboy, easier to run the blender through the dish washer than a carboy.