Saskatoon melomel

[dave35]

I just squished waaaaay too many Saskatoon berries. What I've got in the fermenter now:

27kg crushed Saskatoons -- about 40% easily squished-out juice @ 20ish brix
6kg unpasteurized clover honey
9kg water

Saskatoons are pretty dry and strong-flavored so they need to be diluted a little -- there's way more pulp than juice until the yeast start breaking the pulp down.

By my very imprecise calculations, this should produce about 26L after pressing the fermented pulp after a week or so, and should ferment from ~1.110 to ~1.015

Letting meta-k do its thing before I pitch two packets of 71B tomorrow.

In the past I've had good luck doing a slightly weaker recipe with D47 but it finishes quite dry. Hoping I close in on 71B alcohol tolerance when it hits off-dry, if not I'll stabilize.

This is my third batch of Saskatoon melomel and results have been very good in the past. It's nice to drink after a couple of months of bulk and is especially nice mulled. Jack Keller has some very weak Saskatoon/serviceberry recipes that are mostly sugar-water and claim to need long aging, but that hasn't been my experience so far.

Thoughts from experienced berry wine/melomel makers before I pitch? I'm contemplating adding some nutrient, not sure how 71B does without it.

 

[RPh_Guy]

This is my third batch of Saskatoon melomel

You are probably the expert . These berries seem pretty limited in range & it doesn't look like I can buy them online.

My non-expert opinion based on readings is that nutrient won't be needed and 71B is not very particular.

 

[dave35]

They're basically a Canadian prairie thing. Saskatoon pie is a big deal here. They've tried to market them commercially but it's pretty niche.

Imagine a wild blueberry that's larger, less acidic, and much more complex -- hard to describe. Blueberry-cherry-almond-caramelly_dried_fruit taste all together, maybe?

 

[RPh_Guy]

Sounds tasty!
Wanted to bump since I edited my last post and your reply was ninja quick.