Q2XL
Well-Known Member
Does anyone have one?
Looking for a good blueberry melomel recipe.
- Thread starter Q2XL
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KCWortHog
Well-Known Member
Sure. 5 gallon batch.
primary:
20 pounds of neutral honey like clover or sage blossom
14 pounds of frozen blueberries
2 packets D47 yeast
secondary:
16 ounces blueberry juice concentrate
Backsweetening:
1 cup honey of your choice (tupelo works)
Prep the yeast with go-ferm and ferment the honey with the blueberries, doing staggered nutrient additions and whatever else you do in your typical process. Once you hit your FG (should be about 2 weeks), pour the blueberry juice into a sanitized carboy & rack the mead on top of the concentrate. Let it ferment out again (another week or 2).
Add potassium sorbate to another sanitized carboy, rack the mead onto that, and let sit for 2 days. Add 1 cup of honey (that's been turned into syrup by adding about 1/4c of hot water to it). Stir lightly. Let sit for a couple of days under airlock and keep an eye on it to make sure fermentation doesn't start up again. Package & drink!
We made this back in April and drank a bunch of it this weekend - fantastic stuff.
primary:
20 pounds of neutral honey like clover or sage blossom
14 pounds of frozen blueberries
2 packets D47 yeast
secondary:
16 ounces blueberry juice concentrate
Backsweetening:
1 cup honey of your choice (tupelo works)
Prep the yeast with go-ferm and ferment the honey with the blueberries, doing staggered nutrient additions and whatever else you do in your typical process. Once you hit your FG (should be about 2 weeks), pour the blueberry juice into a sanitized carboy & rack the mead on top of the concentrate. Let it ferment out again (another week or 2).
Add potassium sorbate to another sanitized carboy, rack the mead onto that, and let sit for 2 days. Add 1 cup of honey (that's been turned into syrup by adding about 1/4c of hot water to it). Stir lightly. Let sit for a couple of days under airlock and keep an eye on it to make sure fermentation doesn't start up again. Package & drink!
We made this back in April and drank a bunch of it this weekend - fantastic stuff.
MeadWitch
Well-Known Member
I can just see you in the check out line at the grocery store! lol 14 lbs of frozen blueberries! That is a hellava lot of blues.
KCWortHog
Well-Known Member
Costco, baby 
Two 7-pound bags of wild blueberries for $6.99 each bag!! Can't be beat, and they're some of the BEST blueberries I've ever had from the store. I highly recommend using them.
Two 7-pound bags of wild blueberries for $6.99 each bag!! Can't be beat, and they're some of the BEST blueberries I've ever had from the store. I highly recommend using them.
LightningInABottle
Well-Known Member
I just got 4 5lb box's of organic michigan blueberries for $6 each last week. I went back this week and they were 10.99 a 5lb box! I'm going with 10lb in the primary and then 10 more when I rack them off. I picked up some blueberry honey when I was in west michigan cheaper than I can order it for. Hopefully get to pitch it tonight.
MeadWitch
Well-Known Member
Damn, I gotta get a membership to Costco. Everybody raves about it down here too.
funkapottomous
Well-Known Member
costco and sam's is where it's at.
all the Sam's down here have pretty good wine selections too.
LightningInABottle
Well-Known Member
Hey KC, did that 20lbs ferment out completely in 2 weeks? Also did the mead clear completely?
I did almost the same recipe last fall and the mead is not completely cleared yet. I thought it was due to the concentrate, but I used a different concentrate. It tastes amazing now but I want to wait longer for it to clear completely before I bottle.
I also used med toast french oak cubes for 3 gallons of it and that is even better.
I did almost the same recipe last fall and the mead is not completely cleared yet. I thought it was due to the concentrate, but I used a different concentrate. It tastes amazing now but I want to wait longer for it to clear completely before I bottle.
I also used med toast french oak cubes for 3 gallons of it and that is even better.
Q2XL,
Here's one I'm getting ready to bottle:
Primary:
12 lb. honey
2 lb. frozen blueberries, thawed
Secondary:
1.5 lb. honey
8 lb. frozen blueberries, thawed
Tertiary:
1 oz American oak cubes
1 oz Hungarian oak cubes
Potassium sorbate
Also did a GoFerm rehydration with a SNA with FermaidK and DAP. Mine dried out to .992, so you might want to back-sweeten or halt fermentation before it gets that far. Samples have tasted really good, but I'm just too lazy to bottle.
Here's one I'm getting ready to bottle:
Primary:
12 lb. honey
2 lb. frozen blueberries, thawed
Secondary:
1.5 lb. honey
8 lb. frozen blueberries, thawed
Tertiary:
1 oz American oak cubes
1 oz Hungarian oak cubes
Potassium sorbate
Also did a GoFerm rehydration with a SNA with FermaidK and DAP. Mine dried out to .992, so you might want to back-sweeten or halt fermentation before it gets that far. Samples have tasted really good, but I'm just too lazy to bottle.
KCWortHog
Well-Known Member
It did - I think it took about 11-12 days for fermentation to finish, but I don't know what the FG was.... I can't remember if we took a reading or not, and if we did, we didn't write it down... And yes, it did clear pretty well on its own. We did end up adding some SuperKleer just to make it, well, super clear.
The oak cubes is an interesting idea; we found that the blueberry concentrate we bought had a TON of tannins in it, so we didn't need to add any tannins for balance... but I definitely think that if we had just used blueberries, additional tannin would have been warranted.
It did - I think it took about 11-12 days for fermentation to finish, but I don't know what the FG was.... I can't remember if we took a reading or not, and if we did, we didn't write it down... And yes, it did clear pretty well on its own. We did end up adding some SuperKleer just to make it, well, super clear.
The oak cubes is an interesting idea; we found that the blueberry concentrate we bought had a TON of tannins in it, so we didn't need to add any tannins for balance... but I definitely think that if we had just used blueberries, additional tannin would have been warranted.
Just reading this thread made me decide to do this. It sounds awesome.
I'm going to make a 3 gallon batch. Thanks for the recipe!
LightningInABottle
Well-Known Member
My current batch is bubbling along nicely. OG 1.16 and I only used 8lbs of berries because of headspace contraints.
8lbs of blueberries
4 gallons of water
18lbs of blueberry blossom honey (any light honey would work well here)
2 packets of D-47
Using SNA
I put the berries though a 2 cycle freeze thaw and then mashed them with a potato masher that had a flat head with good surface area (michael grave bought at target) The berries were all very flat and basically pulp. They are not swelling like the batch I made last summer.
I was amazed at the blueberry deals this year when the crops came in so next year I will have both brew buckets empty and honey on hand before the crop comes in. The goal is to try a bunch of different combinations to get the ultimate blueberry melomel. This could take years but I love blueberries!
8lbs of blueberries
4 gallons of water
18lbs of blueberry blossom honey (any light honey would work well here)
2 packets of D-47
Using SNA
I put the berries though a 2 cycle freeze thaw and then mashed them with a potato masher that had a flat head with good surface area (michael grave bought at target) The berries were all very flat and basically pulp. They are not swelling like the batch I made last summer.
Yes the concentrate did have a huge amount of tannins. I only had to use the cubes for half of the reccomended time on the package. I did a taste test every 2 days. I split my batch so I will have a sample of oaked vs non-oaked to compair. This year I am thinking of using more berries to top off 6 gallon carboy and concentrate. Once that is done fermenting I will rack it off into 2 3 gallon carboys and vanilla bean one of them and leave the other as a reference batch.
I was amazed at the blueberry deals this year when the crops came in so next year I will have both brew buckets empty and honey on hand before the crop comes in. The goal is to try a bunch of different combinations to get the ultimate blueberry melomel. This could take years but I love blueberries!
You need to go picking... My dad, bro, and I picked 100 lbs in a little over 2 hrs this weekend just East of South Haven for $1.25 a pound. Insanely nice weather and bushes just falling over full of berries. 45 lbs in my freezer now!
LightningInABottle
Well-Known Member
I wish I had the time to go picking! I have a 16 month old son and my wife was diagnosed with parkinson's shortly after becoming pregnant. Her meds have stopped working. East of South Haven, were you in Bangor? I've picked there before back in college when I went to Western Michigan U. For now I have to wait for them to show up in the stores. I barely had time to get the batch in the bucket due to her off periods. 100lbs! I would have to buy a dedicated blueberry freezer for that. Its tempting...
Sorry to hear about that, LIAB. My 14 month old had a riot wandering around with us and eating as many berries as she could find. They managed to turn her hind end blue for most of the day yesterday, though, so she paid the price for her gluttony, LOL!
Good luck to ya and if you need a good day trip with your little one in the next week or two, it was a lot of fun to watch a little one that age in the patch. The place we went was actually in South Haven. Stephenson Farms was the name.
Good luck to ya and if you need a good day trip with your little one in the next week or two, it was a lot of fun to watch a little one that age in the patch. The place we went was actually in South Haven. Stephenson Farms was the name.
