Feedback on my first mead (melomel)

Any thoughts on my fitst mead?

-9 lbs. Clover Honey (walmart)
-5 ripe bartlett pears (pulped)
-6 lbs Royal Autumn grapes (pulped, keep skin)
-2 cups white sugar
-1 lemon, juiced into pot and zest into prim. ferm.
-1 cup freeze dried blueberry to pot at end
-4642 Wyest Dry mead and 1 pack dry Red Star Pasteur Champagne (see below)

-Pasturized all but blueberry at about 170 for 30 minutes.
-Wyeast activator pack never expanded (it was expired but from 2008) so I started and added the Red Star to the activator pack that contains nutrients.
-Strained 90% of the solids, sparged them to the pot
-Concerned about the yeast so I added it at differnet cooling temps (100 (form starter), 78, and 72 degrees)
-Plan to rack in a week.

-SG (corrected) 1.123 ( might change the name of this melomel to (123melo))

Sounds pretty good. Did you add any nutrients? Unlike beer, honey doesn't have the vitamins and minerals that yeast need. Without nutrients you could have a very long and difficult fermentation. Even with nutrients, you shouldn't rack in a week. Wait till fermentation is pretty much done. Probably more like a month.

What's your volume? 1.123 sounds a bit high if this is a 5 gallon batch. Next time you might want to add more honey instead of sugar. Sugar bumps up your ABV, but doesn't add much else. Honey will do the same thing and will add to the honey profile.

All in all, it sounds good. Good luck.

GinKings said:

Next time you might want to add more honey instead of sugar.
All in all, it sounds good. Good luck.

Click to expand...

+2 Maybe I'm just a purist but, to me, sugar doesn't have any place in mead. If I don't have enough honey to make 5 gallons, I make 3.

When I first began making mead I too went on the high side of OG on my meads. As I started making a few more batches, I backed off. High gravity meads really take a long time to fully age - like 2-3 years at least, and likely even more. Now I'll do a higher gravity mead every 4th batch or so that I can put back. For most meads I try to stay at about 1.090.

As Gin said, though - good luck and happy mead making!