Blackberry Mead (Melomel)

[esarkipato]

I was going to wait to post this, but judging from the success at a recent NYE party I thought it would be better sooner than later.

Yeast: Lalvin K1-V1116 Yeast Starter: no Batch Size (Gallons): 5 Original Gravity: 1.098 Final Gravity: 0.998

5 gallon batch

First, freeze 8 pounds blackberries (fresh preferrable). More is okay too I would think.

12 lbs Clover honey
water to 5 gallons

I pasteurized at near-boil temps while skimming foam off the top, about 15 minutes.

9/7/08: Added 4.5 teaspoon yeast nutrient, pitched yeast (Lalvin K1-V1116). OG=1.098
week 1: 1.064, added 1 tspn nutrient
week 2: 1.026
week 3: 1.008. Racked to secondary onto 7 pounds of thawed & crushed blackberries, plus 1.5 tspn nutrient. Topped off to 5 gallons with water.
week 4: 0.998, racked off blackberries to secondary.
week 8: racked to tertiary for clearing.

Bottled on 12/6/2008. I added another pound of crushed blackberries at bottling (soaked in the bottling bucket for .5 hours in a bag).

For still: Add stabilizer, wait one week, add 1 cup honey, bottle.
For sparkling: Add 2/3 cup honey, bottle immediately (beer or champagne bottles).

I just tried the sparkling mead (melomel) after 1 month in the bottle, and it's very, very good. Light carbonation, good blackberry and honey aroma. Color is light pink. Highly recommended. This went over really, really well at a NYE party!

 

[fratermus]

A buddy made a big mead and had some supplies left over. I made three half-gallon test batches to: one plain (half buckwheat, half table honey), one racked onto 1/2# of blackberries, and one racked onto 1# of blackberries.

All three were better than I expected. I bottled them after about 6mos total. I understand this is quick for a mead but I'm just playing rather than being serious about it.

 

[esarkipato]

Yea, I can't believe how good this tastes after only 4 months from start date! Another 6 and it's going to be stellar.

 

[superman1451]

Is there any special preparation for the blackberries? I was planning on washing them and then just adding them.

 

[esarkipato]

Nope, I just froze them to kill most if not all of the foreign buggies, then thaw crush and add.

 

[mkw87]

I made some blackberry mead last year (posted on here somewhere), it took about 6 - 9 months to mature but man is it awesome.

 

[nadeaunm5]

Hello this is my first post so i dont want to sound stupid. But when you first put this together how long do you need to boil it??

Also what tdoes this step mean??

week 4: 0.998, racked off blackberries to secondary.

Did you rack to a different fermenter discarding the old blackberries or did you take the blackberries into the fermenter?

 

[fratermus]

I think he means primary --> racked onto berries --> racked off berries (discarding them)

His post suggested it was not boiled at all; just brought to near boiling.

BTW, I tasted my blackberry mead at the year mark last month. Expressed in terms of pounds of blackberries per gallon of mead:

0# - drinkable. My first mead.
1# - interesting, but wouldn't want a lot of it.
2# - neat, pleasant, lots of dark fruit flavors. Like a port or something.

If I were to do it again I'd use 2#/gal of mead.

 

[Corey_James]

So, I am I going overboard with using 15# of frozen wild blackberries to 6# clover honey for 3 gallons?

 

[Notnice]

I wouldn't say overboard, maybe excessive. but who am I to tell u not to

 

[StoutFan]

Wouldn't freezing just suspend the lif cycle of the nasties? Could one blanch them for a second to not only sanitize, but lock in color? I used blackberry puree in a can, drained the syrup, and them added to the secondary. No access to trustable fresh berries at the moment (dad ate most of them), but organic blueberries for my "Buck and Blue" mead should be arriving next week.

 

[pnh2atl]

I just picked about 2# of blackberries today. I will notify the family they are now off limits as are all the blackberry bushes. If I don't have to go to work tomorrow I'm making this. I've been brewing for a couple years but this will be my first mead. I will try to take a few pics as I go. I've only tried mead once and it was still. If I get cracking on this it should be ready for Christmas.

Once you are finished you don't carb it do you?

Thanks.

 

[esarkipato]

Hey sorry let this lie for a while. I did carb some of this. Highly recommended!

I wasn't incredibly satisfied with this over time, and I think I know why. The berries were a mix of black raspberries and blackberries. As I was picking them this year, I noted that I really prefer the flavor of the BRB to the BB. The BB leaves an astringent aftertaste, and I really think this comes through in the mead. I plan on using the BB for beer, which will easily cover up the minor aftertaste issue, and try to just use BRB for another batch of mead.

 

[esarkipato]

Upon even further consideration, the taste that I'm picking up on is the same taste from chewing a fresh picked blackberry, which has a certain amount of stem or other fleshy component (I'm not a botanist!) behind the fruit. Anyway, I think the blackberry flavor would be better if you could juice/press the berries and ONLY use the juice. This might avoid the slight bitter taste, but give the color and flavor of the berry.

 

[Takeadoe]

Good evening - I stumbled onto your post and found it most helpful. I'm trying to get up enough nerve to start my first blackberry melomel. After reading your post, I'm left with a few unanswered questions that I was hoping you might be able to help me with.

You said: "I pasteurized at near-boil temps while skimming foam off the top, about 15 minutes."

I gather from this that you are cooking the 12 lbs of honey on the stove and bringing it to a near boil. Do you then move it to the primary and add water to bring the total to 5 gallons?

You said:
"Added 4.5 teaspoon yeast nutrient, pitched yeast (Lalvin K1-V1116)."

No idea what you meant here. It sounds as though when you added the 4.5 teaspoons (to the primary, I assume) you got rid of the yeast. I'm sure that's not what you meant though.

The rest looks pretty clear. If you could clarify for me, I would greatly appreciate it.

Mike

I was going to wait to post this, but judging from the success at a recent NYE party I thought it would be better sooner than later.

Yeast: Lalvin K1-V1116 Yeast Starter: no Batch Size (Gallons): 5 Original Gravity: 1.098 Final Gravity: 0.998

5 gallon batch

First, freeze 8 pounds blackberries (fresh preferrable). More is okay too I would think.

12 lbs Clover honey
water to 5 gallons

I pasteurized at near-boil temps while skimming foam off the top, about 15 minutes.

9/7/08: Added 4.5 teaspoon yeast nutrient, pitched yeast (Lalvin K1-V1116). OG=1.098
week 1: 1.064, added 1 tspn nutrient
week 2: 1.026
week 3: 1.008. Racked to secondary onto 7 pounds of thawed & crushed blackberries, plus 1.5 tspn nutrient. Topped off to 5 gallons with water.
week 4: 0.998, racked off blackberries to secondary.
week 8: racked to tertiary for clearing.

Bottled on 12/6/2008. I added another pound of crushed blackberries at bottling (soaked in the bottling bucket for .5 hours in a bag).

For still: Add stabilizer, wait one week, add 1 cup honey, bottle.
For sparkling: Add 2/3 cup honey, bottle immediately (beer or champagne bottles).

I just tried the sparkling mead (melomel) after 1 month in the bottle, and it's very, very good. Light carbonation, good blackberry and honey aroma. Color is light pink. Highly recommended. This went over really, really well at a NYE party!

 

[esarkipato]

Hey! Thanks for reading and welcome to HBT. Mead making is a great process and very rewarding if only for the fact that it requires the most patience compared to beer and even wine.

You said: "I pasteurized at near-boil temps while skimming foam off the top, about 15 minutes."

I gather from this that you are cooking the 12 lbs of honey on the stove and bringing it to a near boil. Do you then move it to the primary and add water to bring the total to 5 gallons?

I've done three meads now, this being the first. The honey was in a 1 gallon glass jar, which I first submersed in hot water to increase viscosity (or is it decrease? Made it flow, either way). I then brought the honey and about 2 gallons of water to near- boil temps for 15m in an attempt to pasteurize the nasties.

However, I personally don't pasteurize or boil the honey anymore. I truly think it drives off some of the very delicate aromas that tend to characterize mead after it matures. Also the honey is very resilient against bacteria and such naturally. My second batch took this approach and was much more delicious and complex after aging. (read here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/concord-pyment-oak-100798/index2.html)

You said: "Added 4.5 teaspoon yeast nutrient, pitched yeast (Lalvin K1-V1116)." No idea what you meant here. It sounds as though when you added the 4.5 teaspoons (to the primary, I assume) you got rid of the yeast. I'm sure that's not what you meant though.

"pitching" yeast means adding it to the must. So, after the temperature was favorable I added the nutrient and then added the yeast.

 

[Takeadoe]

Thank you very much for your time.

Mike

 

[bengerman]

why did you wait to add the blackberries until the secondary? is this just to make sure they don't become too overpowering?

 

[esarkipato]

why did you wait to add the blackberries until the secondary? is this just to make sure they don't become too overpowering?

inexperience. I thought they might be more prominent in the flavor if they were added in secondary.

At this point, if I were to make this again, the berries would go in the primary OR I would add more honey to restart fermentation. Having active yeast I think draws out the berry flavor more.

 

[angelmeat]

One poster, here or on another board, said that the rate of CO2 production would draw the blackberry aromas out of the airlock as well. I always wondered if there was any merit to this. It's never stopped me from adding fruit/spices to a primary vessel.

 

[Cascadegan]

Hey sorry let this lie for a while. I did carb some of this. Highly recommended!

I wasn't incredibly satisfied with this over time, and I think I know why. The berries were a mix of black raspberries and blackberries. As I was picking them this year, I noted that I really prefer the flavor of the BRB to the BB. The BB leaves an astringent aftertaste, and I really think this comes through in the mead. I plan on using the BB for beer, which will easily cover up the minor aftertaste issue, and try to just use BRB for another batch of mead.

I thought black raspberries and blackberries were the same thing?

 

[taureangirl]

I thought black raspberries and blackberries were the same thing?

There is a very big difference. IMO, black raspberries are much better. You should get both and try them. You will quickly see qnd taste the difference.

 

[Cascadegan]

Ended up doing something like this with 1-2 lbs of marionberries, I think the yeast was already petering out when I put em in because it has a great berry flavor (with a bit of an astrigent bite) for a pretty small amount of berries

It was only a 3gal batch though

 

[MarsColonist]

Upon even further consideration, the taste that I'm picking up on is the same taste from chewing a fresh picked blackberry, which has a certain amount of stem or other fleshy component (I'm not a botanist!) behind the fruit. Anyway, I think the blackberry flavor would be better if you could juice/press the berries and ONLY use the juice. This might avoid the slight bitter taste, but give the color and flavor of the berry.

Im thinking the seeds impart a vinous, tannic quality. Jack Keller's blackberry wine recipes all have him freeze, thaw, crush, *pour boiling water over them* and let them set for several days, then just straining the berries over the sugar(honey), adding pectinase and waiting 24 hours, and then pitching.

 

[Grasslands]

I'm mixin' this up tonight, however I'm using White Labs' sweet mead yeast with some fermax yeast nutrient. Publix had a weekend sale where packs of blackberries were only $2 each. I've got about 8-10 lbs worth, I think, in addition to 8 lbs tupelo honey (3lbs unfiltered!).

Anxious to see how this sucker goes!

Quick question, did you dissolve the honey in the water first? I see that you did pasteurize the honey on your first batch... Also, did you do add any oxygen (via shaking or manually)?

 

[Grasslands]

After making this batch, I realized I only had 7 lbs Tupelo honey and 6lbs blackberries. However, I juiced the blackberries and pasteurized for about 10 minutes, skimming off the top as it cooled. I freezed the "remains" for adding later to get an extra blackberry flavor. I then filled to about 3 1/2 - 4 gallons and added the WL sweet mead yeast when it cooled off to about 72ish.

It's been steadily chugging along - not quite the activity of my previous JOAM or ale/cider...but it's going nonetheless. Can't wait for this sucker!

 

[WarrantedFED]

I just made a batch of this using a half flat (about 3-4 lbs) of great big black berries and about 4.5 lbs of huckleberries. All were mashed up pretty well and added to the boil for about 5 minutes.

I followed another recipe for mead that calls for 1 tsp of citric acid and 1 tsp of pectic enzyme. I figured the former would be okay to add and the latter would only help the yeast.

I plan on leaving the brew in the primary for about a month then transferring to a secondary onto an additional half flat of pasteurized and mashed black berries.

I also want it to be extra spritzy so I will be adding a little more than a cup of honey for priming when I decide to bottle.

Overkill? I don't know, but it should be quite good.

How long is too long for the brew to sit on the fruit in primary and secondary?

Thanks all,

-Will

 

[esarkipato]

Sounds pretty delic! I've never had a huckleberry let alone brewed with one. However, I think you will be pleased with the results - if you have patience . Higher gravity meads like this that are dry will take some aging to really bring out the hint of honey aroma. I think you've planned your fruit additions well and the more the merrier in my opinion. I think a month to extract the flavor/aroma from the berries is fine. I remember reading about some lambic breweries that will leave fruit in the must for 6+ months!

 

[esarkipato]

Im thinking the seeds impart a vinous, tannic quality. Jack Keller's blackberry wine recipes all have him freeze, thaw, crush, *pour boiling water over them* and let them set for several days, then just straining the berries over the sugar(honey), adding pectinase and waiting 24 hours, and then pitching.

I'm going to read those recipes right now! Good thinking. I've read many of his, but never the blackberry ones.

 

[esarkipato]

After making this batch, I realized I only had 7 lbs Tupelo honey and 6lbs blackberries. However, I juiced the blackberries and pasteurized for about 10 minutes, skimming off the top as it cooled. I freezed the "remains" for adding later to get an extra blackberry flavor. I then filled to about 3 1/2 - 4 gallons and added the WL sweet mead yeast when it cooled off to about 72ish.

It's been steadily chugging along - not quite the activity of my previous JOAM or ale/cider...but it's going nonetheless. Can't wait for this sucker!

Sounds awesome. I'm becoming a fan of weaker meads - not so dang long for aging!