Pomegranate Melomel?

I am planning on making a batch of mead here soon and I came up with the idea of a Pomegranate Melomel. I'm planning on a three gallon batch. It has been a long time since I attempted a mead and the result back then was a very high grade rocket fuel. I've been looking at the information on mead making and it sounds like there are a lot of things that can be done to make it better. My last attempt was honey, water, yeast nutrient, Champagne yeast, and acid blend all dumped into the fermenter at once. It fermented out quite well and was VERY hot. Even after 1 year. I plan on using some of the modern methods I have found here and hope for a better end result. I don't want the Melomel to be too dry so I was thinking about slightly back sweetening it before bottling. I haven't decided if it should be still or sparkling. I would force carb if I make it sparkling. I'll have to play with the recipe to get the OG to 1.100.

Questions I have:
1. Should I use Pomegranate juice or the seeds?
2. If I use the seeds should I crush them somehow before adding?
3. Would I back sweeten with Pomegranate juice, honey, or both?
4. How much juice or seeds should I use?

sounds tasty!

depends how much flavor you're going for here. i've used both juice and whole fruit in my melomels. for my key lime mead i used juice in the primary and then added more juice to the secondary to keep the key lime flavor throughout. for my blueberry mead, i used a sweet mead recipe and then added the whole blueberries to the secondary to get that deep purple color and blueberry flavor.

with the juice, you can control how much you put in, when you add it, and what flavor it adds. with the whole fruit, you get that nice, deep flavor and color. my recommendation? use juice in the primary and then get a bunch of seeds, freeze them, and then add them to your secondary a couple of weeks before bottling to get additional flavor/color. good luck and enjoy!

If you check to see the gravity of pomegranate juice that might give you some idea of the ratio of pom: honey for your mead. I would suggest that you consider using something like Pom and use that in place of any water that you might otherwise use to dilute the honey. You might use , say 2 lbs of honey per 1 gallon of juice. I suspect - but you should measure this that that will give you a gravity of about 1.100. In other words, you would be treating your melomel much like you might make a cyser and use no water at all...
I would use 71B rather than champagne yeast - champagne yeast is likely to blow off all the aromatics and much of the nuanced flavors if you are using anything but cheap honey... but to each their own...

I'm an idiot! Duplicate post.

I would like to start this tonight if possible. Two things I have learned so far:

Pomegranate juice is expensive!

Honey is even more expensive!

Here's what I have so far:
10 pounds honey ( I don't think I will need all 10 pounds)
120 fluid Oz. pure pomegranate juice (The SG for the juice is 1.070)
Lalvin 71B-1122 yeast
Fermaid K
Go-Ferm

I am planning on using all of the Pom juice then start with about 7 1/2 pounds of honey topped off with water to make about 3 1/4 gallons of must at 1.100. I'm not smart enough to get Beer Smith to calculate the amounts and OG so it is going to be trial and error! I'll post the final recipe when I have completed making the must.

I will primary in a plastic bucket then rack to a glass carboy after two or three weeks.

Can mead be cold crashed after fermentation is complete? This works well to clarify my beers so I would like to try it with the Melomel.

um... in my opinion, you need patience with meads. A mead will clear bright on its own if you give it time... Cold crashing is for brewing... wine (including meads) requires aging and aging benefits from racking. The secret of a good wine is patience. The secret of great wine... is more patience.

bernardsmith said:

um... in my opinion, you need patience with meads. A mead will clear bright on its own if you give it time... Cold crashing is for brewing... wine (including meads) requires aging and aging benefits from racking. The secret of a good wine is patience. The secret of great wine... is more patience.

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Yes. I agree. I was just thinking if I cold crashed there might be less lees transferred into the conditioning fermenter. I am planning on this taking a year or so before it is bottled.

OK. It's in the fermenter.
Ended up with 3.25 gallons

I was able to get an OG of 1.110
8.275 Lbs. of honey
60 Oz. pomegranate juice
1 3/4 gallons water

RichBrewer said:

Yes. I agree. I was just thinking if I cold crashed there might be less lees transferred into the conditioning fermenter. I am planning on this taking a year or so before it is bottled.

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Assuming that the yeast you are using will not create problems, sur lee (allowing the mead or wine to age on lees) can provide additional complexity to the flavor and aroma of a wine... Now some yeasts - D47 have a bad name when it comes to that process, but many yeasts don't. Typically, vintners rack every 60 -90 days (onto K-meta to help inhibit oxidation) and with that kind of frequency of racking off the lees there should be no problem even with D 47 . Cold crashing MAY have the unwanted effect of removing overly quickly some remaining yeast... Obviously it's your mead- your call... but if time is not an issue then allowing the mead to go through all the fermentation processes in an organic rather than a manufactured way may result in a better final product...

bernardsmith said:

Assuming that the yeast you are using will not create problems, sur lee (allowing the mead or wine to age on lees) can provide additional complexity to the flavor and aroma of a wine... Now some yeasts - D47 have a bad name when it comes to that process, but many yeasts don't. Typically, vintners rack every 60 -90 days (onto K-meta to help inhibit oxidation) and with that kind of frequency of racking off the lees there should be no problem even with D 47 . Cold crashing MAY have the unwanted effect of removing overly quickly some remaining yeast... Obviously it's your mead- your call... but if time is not an issue then allowing the mead to go through all the fermentation processes in an organic rather than a manufactured way may result in a better final product...

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Thanks for the input. I think I'll do as you say and let time do its magic.

Sometimes meads will throw a lot of lees, depending on the honey source. You may have to rack a couple of times before bulk aging. Once you rack to the secondary, I'd consider racking again at 60 days if there are any lees at all (even a light dusting), but I bet you'll have quite a bit of lees within 45 days or so. After that racking, I'd go another 60 days and rack again if there are any new lees.

Yooper said:

Sometimes meads will throw a lot of lees, depending on the honey source. You may have to rack a couple of times before bulk aging. Once you rack to the secondary, I'd consider racking again at 60 days if there are any lees at all (even a light dusting), but I bet you'll have quite a bit of lees within 45 days or so. After that racking, I'd go another 60 days and rack again if there are any new lees.

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When racking, do I need to top up with water to eliminate head space or does it matter?

This is starting to bring back memories of making a kit wine some eight years ago. I really enjoy the process but darn it takes a long time! Well, I can brew plenty of batches of beer in the meantime.

RichBrewer said:

When racking, do I need to top up with water to eliminate head space or does it matter?

This is starting to bring back memories of making a kit wine some eight years ago. I really enjoy the process but darn it takes a long time! Well, I can brew plenty of batches of beer in the meantime.

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Yes, you need to top up although mead is less susceptible to oxidation than wine, it's not immune to it. You can use campden (sulfites) as an antioxidant if you want as well.

Since you have a 3+ gallon batch, you should be ok with a 3 gallon carboy I'd imagine. I'd try not to top up with water, so if you have some headspace you could try topping up by adding santized marbles (although it takes far more marbles than you'd imagine if there is more than a little bit of headspace), or racking to a smaller container or multiple containers (like 1-gallon sized jugs) to avoid too much topping off.

RichBrewer said:

Here's what I have so far:
10 pounds honey ( I don't think I will need all 10 pounds)
120 fluid Oz. pure pomegranate juice (The SG for the juice is 1.070)
Lalvin 71B-1122 yeast
Fermaid K
Go-Ferm

I am planning on using all of the Pom juice then start with about 7 1/2 pounds of honey topped off with water to make about 3 1/4 gallons of must at 1.100. I'm not smart enough to get Beer Smith to calculate the amounts and OG so it is going to be trial and error! I'll post the final recipe when I have completed making the must.

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I'm curious as to your choice of yeast. 71-B will metabolize some of the malic acid in fruit juice & I'm wondering if that was why you chose the 71-B. I've no idea as to the type(s) of acid in pomegranate juice, but I've been contemplating using 71-B in a black currant wine to "soften" it a bit; I'm just not sure if reduction in malic only would unbalance the flavor. I'm also interested in your thoughts on this Yooper.
Regards, GF.

gratus fermentatio said:

I'm curious as to your choice of yeast. 71-B will metabolize some of the malic acid in fruit juice & I'm wondering if that was why you chose the 71-B. I've no idea as to the type(s) of acid in pomegranate juice, but I've been contemplating using 71-B in a black currant wine to "soften" it a bit; I'm just not sure if reduction in malic only would unbalance the flavor. I'm also interested in your thoughts on this Yooper.
Regards, GF.

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I think a reduction in malic acid would be a good thing with pomegranate juice, and can't imagine that it end up unbalanced as a result. If so, it could be cold stabilized so that any excess tartaric acid (if any) could drop out. I don't think there would be much citric acid in pomegranate juice, but I could be totally wrong about that!
For black currents, they seem to be harsh at first when fermented out but that does improve (like cherry wine does).

RichBrewer said:

When racking, do I need to top up with water to eliminate head space or does it matter?

This is starting to bring back memories of making a kit wine some eight years ago. I really enjoy the process but darn it takes a long time! Well, I can brew plenty of batches of beer in the meantime.

Click to expand...

The more water you use to top up the more you are diluting your mead. I can think of two alternative options. The first is that you always start with more must than you intend to rack to the carboy and use that to close the headroom. So, if I am planning on making X gallons of a mead I start off with X.25 gallons. The two additional pints (more or less) that won't fit the carboy I will have sealed in glass containers and stored in the fridge. The other solution is one that you will have access to after a few years of wine making and that is to use a bottle of the same mead you have made before to top up the carboy. So, if I am making say, orange blossom honey mead I will crack open a bottle of OB mead and use that as my top up.

bernardsmith said:

The more water you use to top up the more you are diluting your mead. I can think of two alternative options. The first is that you always start with more must than you intend to rack to the carboy and use that to close the headroom. So, if I am planning on making X gallons of a mead I start off with X.25 gallons. The two additional pints (more or less) that won't fit the carboy I will have sealed in glass containers and stored in the fridge. The other solution is one that you will have access to after a few years of wine making and that is to use a bottle of the same mead you have made before to top up the carboy. So, if I am making say, orange blossom honey mead I will crack open a bottle of OB mead and use that as my top up.

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I will have enough to fill from the primary as I have 3 1/4 gallons. When I rack after that I was wondering if I could ferment some Pomegranate juice and save it for topping up.

Others may have a different approach but IMO you can ferment the pom juice separately and add the fermented juice to top up or you could simply add the juice to fermenter and allow the pom juice to ferment with the mead. The alternative is simply to make another batch of the pom mead and ferment that as your topping up liquor. While the first two options are OK if you do not need a great deal of topping up volume the last option allows you to use a liquor with precisely the same characteristics as the mead you have in your fermenter...

Racked to secondary today. 27 days in primary and airlock activity stopped. it is at 1.002. The sample I tried is just a tad hot and a slight hint of sweetness.
Not much honey or pomegranate flavor noticeable. ABV is about 14.5%
I honestly think it has the sweetness I want but I may add some pomegranate juice for flavor. I'll let it sit for a long time before I decide. It already tastes pretty good!

It seems to be clearing nicely.

I just racked it for the second time. I am surprised at how good it has gotten! I still get the alcohol warmth but it no longer tastes hot. It is at 1.00 so I added 48oz. of Pomegranate juice to sweeten it up a touch. The only gripe I have with it is that it hasn't cleared much at all and it is just about 100 days old. I made a 1/2 gallon batch of this in case I needed to top off the fermenter and it cleared within 60 days. Oh well. I figure I have a lot of time before bottling so I will just let it do its own thing. I might have to bottle the half gallon batch now that I don't need it.

Here is my 1/2 gallon version.

It has cleared nicely after a little over six months. I may bottle it soon.

Your melomel looks very good. Have you tasted it yet?

bernardsmith said:

Your melomel looks very good. Have you tasted it yet?

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I tasted it when I racked it the second time. It tasted pretty good but a bit dry for my liking. I haven't tasted it since I back sweetened it. I think I'll try a sample before bottling it.

That melomel is looking good!
Regards, GF.

For a 1 gallon batch I used:

-2 Med. Pomegranates
-1 Packet Lalvin 1122 Yeast
-1 Gallon Water
-Nutrient/Energizer

I crushed the berries and squeezed them out through a hop bag (I don't have a juicer or the like at the moment). It wasn't a very deep red and I'm not certain if they weren't fully ripe or what. Active at about 45 minutes. OG: 1.143

In secondary I added 1/2 cup of store bought Pomegranate Juice. It gave it a nice red color finally. Unfortunately all the fermenting had ceased and I don't believe any of the new juice was fermented (the next time I'll try to add the juice towards the end of the ferment so it gets processed by the yeast a little).

It had one hell of a time clearing even after 3 months and not a single bit of activity so I mixed up some bentonite and gently stirred it in. It cleared a little but still held a haze so I cold crashed it for about a week. It finally became CRYSTAL CLEAR and stayed that way after leaving it at room temp for a few days. I bottled it without a hint of sediment.

It tasted very nice but was a little too sweet. Overall it was a hit with the work friends even very young (no doubt thanks to the 1122) and I assume it'll age out the harsh smell you get up front when sipping. I couldn't get a final Gravity as my 1 gallon fermenter wasn't deep enough after racking to measure (and no, I don't own a refractometer yet). If I had to guess it was around 14 to 15%.

Well, I bottled it this last weekend (34 375ml bottles) and I have learned a lot from this batch.

I swear it was clear as a bell in the carboy but when I filled the bottles, the mead was a bit cloudy. I put a couple faulty corked bottles in the fridge and they cleared within a day (See photo below). There is quite a bit of sediment in them but I really like the color.

I blended the 1/2 gallon batch with the 3 gallon batch and then tasted both from the fermenters after bottling was complete. The big batch is OK but it is pretty bland. The 1/2 gallon batch however was awesome! It is exactly what I was shooting for. It is slightly sweet with nice honey and pomegranate tones. It also cleared much better and faster than the larger batch. Neither of the batches taste hot. In fact they are both pretty smooth.

The 34 bottles I have are quite drinkable and we will enjoy them thoroughly but I can't wait to make the next batch using the ratios from the 1/2 gallon recipe.

My modified recipe will be as follows;

Recipe is for three and1/2 gallons:

10 1/2 pounds Ambrosia Raw Honey
160oz. Pom Pomegranate Juice
Filtered tap water to bring volume to 3 1/2 gallons
Yeast : Lalvin 71B-1122
5g. Go Ferm during rehydration
1/2g. yeast nutrient mixture made from 1g. fermaid K and 1.5g. DAP added every other day for 4 additions.

I did not back sweeten the 1/2 gallon version and it was perfect without it. The biggest change increases the honey from 2.75 pounds per gallon to 3 pounds per gallon.
I will be in no hurry to bottle!

Hey people. I previously made meads and recently made some sima which is a super simple recipe and got me relatively drunk as I hiked up the sugar measurement.

Since then I have been looking at other recipes for ciders some are a bit ingredient heavy and apples are expensive so I'm going with fresh pomegranate.

I was wondering if I used;

20 litters (5.2 galons) of fresh squeezed pomegranate juice,
3kg (6.5pounds) of sugar
1 tea spoon of baking yeast.
1 tea spoon of natural yeast.

Would I have a successful brew and how long should I let it brew?

Any info would be great.

Thank you.

Subscribing to see how your bottled pom mead ages over time RichBrewer. Looks fantastic. Beautiful color. I have a pomegranate tree in the backyard, and this year I've got pounds of seeds in my freezer just waiting to be used in a mead, a sour beer or something else.

Question. Did you use metabisulfite or potassium sorbate when racking or bottling?

No. I didn't use anything. I haven't tried it in quite awhile. I actually made a top off batch and in it I used more pom juice. It actually turned out better than the original. I'll open a bottle today and see how it is doing.

I tried a bottle of this and it is really quite good after ten months. The addition of the pom juice after fermentation was complete, definitely helped to give it a better pom taste but there isn't any honey notes at all.
I find it slightly sweet, with a nice taste and no alcohol burn. On a scale of one to 10, I give it a 7.
It will be interesting to see how it changes over time.

Good luck with yours. Let us know.