First attempt at a cherry melomel

[parks1031]

Going to put in the recipe I'm going to attempt. Would love any input!

Total volume: 1.5 gal
Wildflower honey: 4.108 lbs
Sweet Cherries: 32oz primary (maybe some juice in secondary?)
Llavin 212 yeast: 3 g
Thinking somewhere between 13%-14% ABV when done (after cherry juice in secondary)

Going to use the TOSNA calc yeast nutrient schedule. Freezing the cherries and will thaw before adding them to the batch with a brew bag. Any suggestions/opinions based on previous brews?

 

[MightyMosin]

That's basically 13% before adding adding cherries or juice with the Cherries bringing you to 14% or so. I don't have the experience with sweet cherries but I have read that it can often add a cough syrup kind of flavor and that tart cherries are the preferred ones for brewing in a mead. Hopefully someone with that experience can chime in.

For myself, I would go with 3.4 Lb. honey and target 12% ABV as I find that a sweet spot that requires less aging time to get to a nice drinkable mead. The RC212 is nice with red fruits like cherries thought it can be temperamental with higher heat. 71B is a good yeast as it eats fructose before glucose and there is a decent amount of that in cherries.

 

[SimPilot]

add a cough syrup kind of flavor

Confirmed with personal experience. Mead came out "meh".

 

[Srimmey]

Here is my most recent recipe, if you want to drink early definitely don’t smoke honey and easy off on OG so it’s only 12%. Based off previous tasting it’s going to 18+ months to balance out. Update the yeast nutrients based off your OG using a calculator. I always used Brey’s mead calc, tonsa probably works better.

Right now the cherry flavor nicely balanced with the vanilla and the oak negated all the alcohol kick. The smoke is pretty overpowering and gives it all a “cherry bbq sauce” flavor. It’s also by far the most pricey mead I ever made.

Started 3/16/23
14.5lb blackberry honey, smoke 3 hours with apple wood (stirred every 20 minutes).
96oz organic tart cherry juice, not from concentrate.
1.5 gallons black cherry juice, not from concentrate

Pectic enzyme (double pitch with cherry juice when you start smoking honey and make yeast starter)
10g d47 yeast
Gofirm + a bit a cherry juice for a starter (do this as soon as you start smoking honey)
15g gofirm mixed into must prior to pitching yeast + 10g at 48 hours and 10g at 72 hours
Water to 5 gallons
OG 1.120
SG 1.008 (primary stalled mostly like because of PH)

4/2/23
Rack to brew bucket, stabilize.
10lb tart cherries in secondary for 2 weeks in brew bag.
2 tbsp vanilla extract
This increased FG to 1.014

4/16/23
Squeeze off remaining juice in cherries, rack to 5 gallon carboy
Single pitch pectic enzyme again
Age on medium toast American oak stave for 12 weeks

7/16/23
Add Sparkloid

7/30/23
bottle