High Bush Cranberry Melomel

[Mizamook]

Starting another high bush cranberry experiment. A similar version from last year came out great, but was a very small batch, and very light on the cranberries.

Now that I know about the challenges these berries pose to getting fermentation started, I'm letting it get going as a simple mead, then intend to add the cranberries, either in steps, or all at once.

I'm using Wildflower honey from Mt. Adams Honey (all my honey comes from there - it's very active, which is good, as I wild-ferment my meads).

This was intended to be a fairly high OG 2.5 gallon batch, but I got carried away, and maxed out my Fermonster 3 gallon conical, so split it into two ... one of these will be a simple mead to showcase the honey (another thing I've done with the Mt. Adams honey ... a buckwheat and a snowberry .. both of which came out lovely)

Fermentation in both the 2.5 gal and the 1+gal fermenters started showing signs last night, and are going strong today (after 2 days) ... gotta be careful when degassing! (I love that part)

OG=1.108 pH 5.25

I have about 1.25 qts. of high bush cranberries in the freezer. More on bushes outside.

Wondering aloud here: When to add berries, and how much to add, and hmm .. maybe I should plan on moving the must to a bigger container to give it room while the berries are in there (they will be mashed and partially de-seeded)

Also ... do I want a stronger berry flavor in the 1 gallon melomel, or do I want a more subtle 2.5 gallons?

Oh, this is fun....

 

[Mizamook]

Day 2 of strong fermentation in both vessels, and I made up my mind to add the cranberries to the larger batch (2.5 gal) and leave the smaller 1+ gallon batch as a "simple mead". I fed both a feeding of nutrients (Fermax/FermaidO) then:

In order to prevent overflow issues I sanitized my 5L glass fermenter ... and promptly tossed the idea of sanitization out the window when I tossed the thawed high bush cranberries into it without so much as a rinse ... all 1 quart, 1/2 pint of them, with tiny bits of stem (tannin!) a la "Viking" (apologies to Mr. Zimmerman, under whose influence I was acting). Yes, I figured, "If I would eat it, I'm OK fermenting it!"

I mashed the berries with a clean stainless Kleen Kanteen that is actually a great berry masher, and tossed in a fair sprinkle of pectic enzyme while I did so. Here is part of the result:
This is the amount I added to the Fermonster, which, after draining about half a gallon from that into the 5L glass fermenter, which contained the remnant from the mashing. Probably about a sixth of this amount of mashed berries went into the 1/2 gallon.

Below is the fermenting mead, and then a picture of the foamy mass of goodness after it became melomel:

And finally, a shot of the unmolested mead (in Skull jar) next to the two with the cranberries to give an idea of the color change, and a side shot of it several hours later being (apparently) not affected by whatever evil anti-fermentation juju is in them cranberries: (and no, I did not check gravity ... my foamy gravity checks are always wrong or suspect) But flavor! Super yum with all the best parts of the berries coming through ... obviously too sweet, and not yet integrated or fermented, but ... hmmm ... might have to go taste again ...