Home Brewer's First Attempt at a Session Mead/Melomel - Questions

[pshankstar]

I have kicked around the idea of making a mead or melomel for some time now and after listening to a podcast by Experimental Brewing, it put me over the edge. Recently Denny and Drew did an interview with Kiley Gwynn about session meads. Well I picked up some local honey, the Lalvin 71B yeast and Fermax (LHBS doesn't carry Fermaid). With that being said I have a lot of questions and would like to bounce them off others who have experience with meads and melomels. I have read quite a few threads in this portion of the forum and was hoping there might be a FAQ or something similar too.

Did I make a mistake buying the Fermax as a substitute for Fermaid? I do have yeast nutrients (I believe its DAP). The LHBS doesn't carry any of the Fermaids, I'm always disappointed when I leave there. Should I use both during the first few days? Or just one or the other?

After a few weeks of fermentation, I plan to rack onto some strawberries and blueberries (or maybe some other fruit). Do you think a 6 gallon fermonster will have enough headspace for the second fermentation the fruit would cause?
OR am I better off placing the fruit into some sanitized muslin bags and place them in the primary (Fast Ferment plastic conical)? Of course I would be emptying the collection ball to drop the yeast and lees. I've never used this yeast before and I do not know what to expect with the krausen.

I am on the fence if I will keg all 5 gallons of the mead or keg half and bottle half. I do have a 2.5 gallon keg I would use if I go that route. My question with this is, if I keg half and bottle half should I pasteurize those bottles after two weeks of conditioning? If I do not carbonate them, I know there may be some regardless. Should I pasteurize those too? If I decide to bottle some off of the keg, would I need to pasteurize those bottles after filling them? The bottles would be all beer bottles with caps (no cages, corks or flip tops).

I'll be taking hydrometer samples along the way. Is there any suggestions or tips on what to look for? For example: Rack onto fruit or drop fruit in at X-range with a hydrometer sample. Backsweeten if it drops below X-sample from the hydrometer. ETC...

If there are any tips, tricks or insight anyone can share please do! I'm excited to try my hand at this and tomorrow I think I can squeeze it in. Thanks!

 

[loveofrose]

Many things are learned the first time you make a melomel. Here are some tips to help improve your day:
1. Fast ferment sucks for melomels. The collection bottle clogs and getting the fruit bag out of the tiny hole is damn near impossible after the fruit swells. Get a food grade trash can that is at least 2x the batch size you plan to make. You will thank me later.
2. Definitely bags the fruit and add to primary. Freeze the fruit first to aid extraction. You can always add more fruit in secondary for more flavor.
3. Expect 30% loss from fruit solids. This is even after bagging and removing the bag. Totally normal.
4. Pastuerizing is silly, lots of work, and dangerous. Just stabilize it with sulphites and sorbate.
5. Much better off with Fermaid O and GoFerm rehydration. See www.meadmaderight.com for TOSNA schedule. Even easier is the Meadmakr batch maker.

Here is my favorite melomel to help step you through: https://denardbrewing.com/blog/post/berry-bomm/