Those are BEAUTIFUL! What recipe did you use? Next summer I am going to make up a Raspberry for sure.
J
jewel8118
@foolsgold THANKS!! This was a trial batch at 1 gallon. The exact recipe I created was super honey & raspberry heavy.
Yeast - Lalvin EC-1118
4.5 lbs honey (primary)(Local, raw, wildflower, super light)
Juice of 1 organic lemon
Juice of 1 organic Lime
3 TBS strong english tea (Earl Grey)
1 tsp yeast Nutrient
30 oz fresh organic Raspberries (frozen, mashed in primary)
24 oz fresh organic Raspberries (frozen, mashed in 2ndary)
After freezing Raspberries I mashed them and added them to Must in muslin bag. Yeast was started in must mixture but didn't take off immediately. Added to must anyway (ended up being VERY VIGOROUS)
OG 1.13 at @61 F, house was at 73F so temp came up quickly)
Temp outside was negative 6 and bucket was near a window...so slow to start. After moving bucket, VERY VIGOROUS FERMENTATION. Primary remained at a constant 71F after it was moved. Punched down fruit bag about 2x a day.
Transferred to secondary carboy on Day 6 at Gravity 1.00 and no/little airlock activity. Added more fruit. Filled a 1 gallon carboy, plus 1.5 wine bottles (750ML each). I did not add additional fruit to the wine bottles but used them to top off secondary when i would gravity test. Airlocked them all.
After moving to Secondary, the carboy blew the airlock in 6.5 hours....raspberry overflow as the carboy raspberries were not in a muslin bag. Not much loss. Cleaned airlock and replaced. Punched down fruit cap through carboy neck SEVERAL times a day initially. Consistent 71F.
After three days I racked again into clean carboy off of second fruit. Gravity reading was 1.000 even after all that fruit had been added to secondary after last reading. After loss of fruit and lees, the fluid filled a 1 gallon carboy only. Tasted like jet fuel...horrible. Considered using a different yeast next time (but didn't).
Began clearing VERY quickly. Just over 4 months aging, began to lose a little of the jet fuel taste. Once that finally started, it changed quickly. By 5th month it didn't take your breath away. at 6.5 months it was great so I killed the yeast with a low a dosage as I thought I could get away with potassium metabisulphite and Sorbistat K and backsweetened with honey( a lot...but didn't take a reading. Bottled in about 24 hours.
SUPER sweet...like raspberry jolly rancher candy and about at 18% alcohol when it was all done...though you couldn't taste any alcohol at all. No off flavors, LOTS of both deep raspberry undertones as well as the lighter more subtle raspberry notes. I think this is why I love using fruit in both primary and secondary.
J
jewel8118
@foolsgold (Continued from above)
Was drinkable right then
Rave reviews. After 2 more months i noticed the bottles had re-started fermentation and were now "sparkling" rasp. mead. This was good for only a short time and then the last bottle (2 months after that, had begun to lose the sweetness I like.) It was a small batch and it simply didn't last long enough to see where it would go over time.
It was obvious I had not killed the yeast though.
The 5.5 gallon batch I have in secondary used 27 cups of local honey (light & raw), juice of 5 lemons (2/3 cup) & 5 limes (2/3 cup), 1 cup strong english tea (earl grey), 1.75 TBS yeast nutrient and same yeast as above. Amount of raspberries in primary was only about 80oz in primary. Color was less blood red coming out of primary. Used 72oz in secondary and it darkened.
OG was 1.13 at 75F
Day 3 = 1.10 gravity
Day 5 = 1.07
Day 7 = 1.047 (was still aerating by punching down)
Day 11 = 1.025 and still active
Went ahead and moved to secondary and added frozen/mashed organic raspberries...into 6.5 gallon carboy. No added fluid
Removed from secondary after 9 days. Gravity was 1.014 and 69F.
It's been in that carboy for 2 months and I can still see tiny bubbles though I can never see airlock activity (though there must be some eventually). I tasted it the other day and it does NOT have the jet fuel taste that the original batch had. I'm not sure why, but it's super dry and REALLY tasty anyway.
