Making first 5gal batch

[killergoat117]

I Need some feedback on a mead I would like to do its for a couple getting married (trying to combine their favorite fruits) the recipe i have come up with is as follows:

(for 5 gallons)
15lbs clover honey
3lbs mangos
3lbs strawberries
yeast nutrient
yeast energizer
D-47 yeast

pretty simple recipe so far...need input and advice...have not seen any mango strawberry recipes on the internet.

 

[fatbloke]

Mango is likely to swamp the strawberry.

Plus D47 needs careful temp control (under 70f) so you don't get lots of fusels.

 

[killergoat117]

What if I did about half the mango I have a temp controlled fridge(johnson controls)I use for brewing beer so that should not be a prob

 

[Arpolis]

I am newb at mead but here is something to ponder. I have heard of a lot of strawberry meads getting that pretty strawberry pink color bleached out when strawberries are in the primary. If it is true that mango would swamp the strawberry and that the color would fade due to primary fermentation. Why not start this as just a mango mead and once fermentation is done just stabilize the mead and rack onto the strawberries?

 

[mysticmeadery]

I have done a few strawberry meads and have discovered a few things that may be useful. Strawberries fade quickly once bottled. The only batch that had good strawberry flavor I used 10# in 5 gal. The color tends to fade to brown over time. I would use 1# of crimson rhubarb for color, acid, and a bit of tartness. Also have had better luck with 1118 yeast for clean ferment. If you want it to finish sweet I would use 18# of honey with the 1118. Good luck. I haven't had a good mango anything yet.

 

[fatbloke]

Many people are fooled because champagnes are expensive, so the yeast must be good. It is......for making champagne and champagne style sparkling wines. Oh, and restarting stuck ferments as well.

Meads of most kinds, are not champagne! The yeast will blow most of the aromatics and some of the more subtle flavouring elements straight out the airlock.......

There are many yeasts, with properties that lend themselves to making meads.

So its better, usually, to ignore the poor advice of HBS who invariably, know little or nothing about fermenting honey.......

 

[Tyrone]

I just recently had the great occasion (over the past weekend) to visit another --again purely subjective-- local meadmaker who exchanged a few bottles of his product with me (including a five year old elderberry mead) and he insisted his BEST dry meads are EC-1118 and his BEST semi-sweets are Riesling yeast (a wyeast number I wrote down but don't have handy). We opened a few 187ml bottles of varying types and I found I had a preference for the Champagne yeasts that had fruit additions in secondary (a cherry and a raspberry) and slight back sweetening... These almost had a cross between a sherry and port like taste.

I've only experimented with a few and I can attest that the EC-1118 on my Ginger Cherry Melomel finished quite Dry but not unpleasant and I can smell the ginger and cherry very distinctly but not so much taste them. I'm trying others now including D-47, bread yeast, Wyeast Semi-sweet mead, etc.

I rushed into my first 5Gallon batch based on Papazian's book and in hindsight I wish I had done more 1GAL (US) experimentation.

 

[paraordnance]

yeah, as others mentioned 3 lbs of strawberries in 5 gal batch is nothing. I made strawberry melomel with K1V and I used 8 lbs of strawberries in 3 gal batch. 4 lbs - primary, 4 lbs - secondary. Strawberry flavor is there but subtle, aroma is really good and very nice color. I need to age it but I think it will turn out really good.

 

[fatbloke]

Just proves the point that different yeasts do have different properties, as suggested in the lallemand yeast chart, but even then, the data can only be used as a guide. The data is provided for grape musts.

What it doesn't say is the negatives i.e. D47 needing to be fermented below 70F to prevent fusels, or RC-212 is listed as medium nutrient requirement, yet with honey musts it can get stinky quite quickly etc etc.

The rest of it is relative to the types of fruit, how they perform when fermented and whether the fermented flavour is nice or not.

Which brings me back to my original point, that strawberry flavour would be swamped by mango and that for the strawb flavour to still be present, you'd need a much higher percentage of strawberry to mango. So its feasible that you could make a batch OS each and then blend them carefully.

Strawberry does indeed go straw to tan colour, I believe that mango usually becomes much lighter as well.

 

[Tyrone]

Gah, and I forgot my point uber alles: because we will soon be in the middle of our season here in a month I mentioned to my new mentor I would love to make a Strawberry Melomel and that sent him off on the difficulties of working with Strawberries given the volumes needed to get the flavor through resulting in too high OG and then he said when he used high volumes of berries he had a very astringent end result.

Again, subjective but that was really my point. I know it's sacrilegious but what about strawberry extract before bottling a mango melomel?

 

[killergoat117]

I am going to do a 2 gallon batch of each and blend them carefully to get the right mix thanks for all the posts!