Looking for a little rubamel input

[Gemadrken]

Hey all i'll have 20lbs of fresh-frozen raspberries and 15lbs of honey within a few days here.

After sweetening one of my apple wines with raspberry puree i'll have probably 14lbs of raspberries left.

I want my mead to end up about 14% abv.

My main concern is how much rapsberry should I add to give a strong flavor/aroma without covering up the honey?

All ingredients are local and high quality, i'll be getting them directly from the hobbiests who produce them

I'm thinking about adding all 15 lbs of honey (gravity of about 1.126) and then juicing the 14 lbs raspberries and adding the juice to the must and seeping the pulp in a bag for about the first 7 days; along with other proper wine/mead making technique


^Does that sound like a recipe for success? Should I use less than 14 lbs of raspberries? I'm far more concerned with having a great final product than having it be 14 abv.

I want it to ferment dry and then i'm not planning on back sweetening. The honey I'll be getting is a very light honey

 

[Deafmeadmaker]

That sounds like you're right on target. What kind of yeast are you going to use?

 

[Gemadrken]

Awesome!

I was looking mainly at these two:

Lalvin 71B-1122
-"The 71B-1122 is a red wine yeast, great for cysers and other melomels especially ones using dark fruit like blackberries and cherries. Since it can metabolize maltic acid it produces a rounder, smoother, more aromatic mead that tends to mature more quickly than meads with the other yeasts."

Lalvin D-47
-"This white wine yeast is the primary choice for many mead makers. It ferments at a moderate to fast pace with little foaming and is good for medium to dry meads. It tends to accentuate the honey characteristics so it is a good choice for traditional varietal mead. It does however needs a nutrient rich environment, so add some Yeast Nutrient."


My tek would be:

Add honey, raspberry juice, K-meta, raspberry pulp in a seep bag: to primary fermentor, top up to 5 gallons (+/- to reach 1.097 OG, ~14% abv assuming fermenting dry would leave it at .990).

24-36 hours later
-Pitch 2x packs of properly rehydrated yeast (105f water, ~1g yeast nutrient)
-2g DAPT and 4g Fermaid O

At~1.040 gravity
-2g DAPT and 4g Fermaid O

Let it ferment dry, re rack at about 1/2cm of lees until clear

I'm looking for it to be dry; i'm spending a lot of money on quality local organic raspberries and raw honey and I want those ingredients to outshine any potential back-sweetening

 

[Deafmeadmaker]

Awesome!

I was looking mainly at these two:

Lalvin 71B-1122
-"The 71B-1122 is a red wine yeast, great for cysers and other melomels especially ones using dark fruit like blackberries and cherries. Since it can metabolize maltic acid it produces a rounder, smoother, more aromatic mead that tends to mature more quickly than meads with the other yeasts."

Lalvin D-47
-"This white wine yeast is the primary choice for many mead makers. It ferments at a moderate to fast pace with little foaming and is good for medium to dry meads. It tends to accentuate the honey characteristics so it is a good choice for traditional varietal mead. It does however needs a nutrient rich environment, so add some Yeast Nutrient."


My tek would be:

Add honey, raspberry juice, K-meta, raspberry pulp in a seep bag: to primary fermentor, top up to 5 gallons (+/- to reach 1.097 OG, ~14% abv assuming fermenting dry would leave it at .990).

24-36 hours later
-Pitch 2x packs of properly rehydrated yeast (105f water, ~1g yeast nutrient)
-2g DAPT and 4g Fermaid O

At~1.040 gravity
-2g DAPT and 4g Fermaid O

Let it ferment dry, re rack at about 1/2cm of lees until clear

I'm looking for it to be dry; i'm spending a lot of money on quality local organic raspberries and raw honey and I want those ingredients to outshine any potential back-sweetening

D-47 is the go-to yeast for many folks on this forum, myself included.

 

[Gemadrken]

D-47 is the go-to yeast for many folks on this forum, myself included.

Awesome thats the one I was looking the closest at; I will almost for sure be using it.

 

[Maylar]

Awesome thats the one I was looking the closest at; I will almost for sure be using it.

Just FYI - The guys at gotmead dot com say to keep it under 65°F.

 

[Gemadrken]

Good to know; is that during the bulk of fermentation or the entire time? I do have a zone where I can keep it under 65f, but with limited area (1 5-10 gallon abtch a ta time)

 

[Maylar]

During primary fermentation.

 

[Gemadrken]

cool so i'll be starting the rubamel tomorrow.

I put my raspberries (15lbs) in a sanitary 5 gallon bucket to thaw out over night.

My gameplan:

Yeast: 2x properly rehydrated packs of D-47
Add honey to my water until I hit ~1.090 abv; expecting it to ferment down to 0.996 (12.34% abv). I'll then add my crushed raspberries and its juice to the 1.090 mixture, oxygenate it, add 4.5g of Fermaid O and 4g DAPT and pitch my yeast. I'll use a proper staggered nutrient addition plan after that. I'll be saving about 1lb of honey and about 1.5lbs of raspberries to add once fermentation has completely stopped and the rubamel is stabilized.


Where I'm open to suggestions: Should I sulphite the must for 24 hours before pitching yeast? And any other solid suggestions anybody has.