Strawberry Melomel

[TattooCelt]

Mead newb here.

I started a 1 gallon strawberry melomel last Saturday and was curious about some things.

3lbs fresh (washed and sanitized) strawberries
3lbs honey
D47 yeast
Fermaid-K nutriant
Tanin

(This was all added in primary)

Now, nearly every beer that I've brewed (with the exception of an amber I did early in the year) had settled down by this time. The melomel is chugging away with a release of gas consistently at around once every two to three seconds. This has been going on since Saturday.

I've degassed and punched the fruit down to help release the Co2 and keep the heat down, have it on a blow off tube and continue to monitor it for any lees dropping.

Is it normal for a melomel to be this active with fermentation for such a long period of time?

The yeast appears to be very happy and active right now...and although I'm not opposed to back-sweetening to offset a really dry melomel, are there any bits of sage advice out there?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Masbustelo]

Are you using a hydrometer?

 

[JJack887]

Melomels, even when dry, are usually still quite sweet. And the fermentation is normal so far.

 

[TattooCelt]

Melomels, even when dry, are usually still quite sweet. And the fermentation is normal so far.

thanks! I'll add a picture of the melomel when I get home so there's some visual points of reference as well.

 

[CKuhns]

D47 with fruit 14 - 28 days in primary is not out of the "norm". Mostly depends on ferment temp and nutrient addition.

 

[Arpolis]

I agree with everyone else. You are fine. Let the wine ride. But if yeast start to collect do not rush to get the mead off the yeast. With D47 you let it sit a while. Do not rack off the lees until this is at least 30 days old but no more than 90.

A bit of advise for strawberry. Go to the LHBS if you have none and get some pectic enzyme. Normally it is best to add 12 hours after adding Camden to sterilize and before yeast pitch but not bad to add now. Strawberries have a lot of pectin and will cause a haze in the final mead and you may think it will never clear. I would add double the recommended doseage on the bottle since adding it a bit late. But any time within the next 3-5 days should be ok.

 

[TattooCelt]

Quick picture of the melomel. Had to sample a bit of it yesterday when I moved it off of the blow off tube to an airlock. It was sweet with a satisfying twang from the strawberries. Could taste the alcohol for sure.

 

[TattooCelt]

Thanks for all the suggestions and help. Both the Strawberry melomel and Apple Cyzers are doing great. Got labels ready to go for bottling!

 

[Arpolis]

Very cool. I need to get a good program running for some good high red label making. I use illustrator at work and if I could just spend the cash for it I could do some amazing things... Oh the dreams.