Strawberry Melomel

So last week on 12/02/03 I finally started up a Strawberry Melomel that I've been wanting to put together. Below is the recipe:

- 12 lbs. Honey
- 4 lbs. Strawberry
- 1 bottle (2 qts) of Welch's Red 100% Grape Juice
- 4 Gallons Water
- Yeast Fuel / Energizer
- Campden tabs
- 1 pkg of Montrachet yeast

OG: approx. 1.100

Heat up the water, you can add the honey to disolve (do not boil) or just straight into your fermenter. Add strawberry to fermenter, I added it in a bag and squished the fruit as much as possible with a mash potato tool makes it easier to pull out later on. Add water, honey (if not already added), yeast energizer/fuel, and grape juice. Add campden and mix well. 24 hours later pitch yeast. Cover loosely or with towel, continue to stir daily for approx. 5 days then rack off the fruit, or in my case remove the bag and then rack into a carboy. Top up to about 5.5 gallons. Gravity should be around 1.030.
You can add additional honey if desired. Then it's wait time. :cross:

Smelled delightful at racking and sample tasted wonderful, can't wait to see how it is a few months down the road. Below are two pics I took while racking off the fruit into the carboy to which I had 3 more lbs. of honey in. I'll update this thread later on to show progress. Enjoy.

 

Man....That looks like it's gonna be taste-TEE
Do keep up the progress updates.

 

you need more strawberries for secondary, more flavor.

 

Will do.

Probably will rack onto more strawberries later, I'll see.

 

I agree..or maybe a couple more pounds of a frozen strawberry puree you can buy at your grocery store..to really bring out the strawberry flavor.

Dan

 

sounds delicious!

 

something I forgot, when my local club tried my strawberry melomel I was given the suggestion of using a small amount, lets call it a lb, of raspberries. The justification is that it would accent the strawberry but wouldnt be enough to steal and of the show.

 

Update...

I had moved from my original residence when I did this melomel and left it there to bulk age. Didn't get any pictures till I bottled this past weekend. Strawberry character is hovering around in the background but it's aroma is there, I should have added more strawberry but due to the move and other issues it just got forgotten. Anyhow it's interesting nonetheless, although hot at 14.8% abv. I'll give it over 8 months to a year before I crack another one open. Here is a pic of the melomel (of course the spreadable honey is not part of the ingredients, just for show):

 

ooo that shot makes me cant wait till my mead is done.

 

I did a similar recipe and it was too good to last that long. Everyone who had tried it was wanting more of it. I am thinking I am going to have to try it again with some bulk aging.