Mixed Berry melomel?

[danerelj]

Afternoon ladies and gents!

I have just finished making my first traditional mead, it is rather dry but I will be back sweeting in the near future.

I am wanting to start another batch, and I want to do a mixed Berry melomel. I know I need frozen berries and to let them thaw out, but what I'm confused with do I just chuck them in the primary demijohn along with the must, or do I have to strain them? Also do they need to be blended up or left whole? And if you have a recipe please do share as I'm going to lessen the amount of honey I add so that the yeast can eat the sugars from the fruit!

Probably some noob questions but it's all about learning!

Many thanks,

Dan

 

[porterpounder]

Check out Curt Stock's mixed berry melomel recipe. Lots of big fruit, very tasty. He also has a video somewhere of him making it which shoes his whole process. Very enlightening.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwjAZI86bOo[/ame]

 

[Beek]

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrew-recipe/mead-recipe-of-the-week-super-berry-melomel

 

[sheepcat]

I made the recipe Beek posted, and it's been a huge hit. Highly recommend it!

For adding the fruit: don't blend it. Strawberry seeds can be very bitter when cracked. Instead, I used a sanitized potato masher or something similar and smashed them by hand into a pulp.

With a melomel, fruit will form a "cap" on the brew and need to be broken up a few times a day during the first part of fermentation. CO2 will build up under it, raising your temperature. I used a sanitized wooden spoon to push the fruit goo back into the must.

When the fruit started to lose color, I scraped most of it off with a sanitized strainer. The rest settled out in primary.

If I did it over, though, I'd probably only use 15 or so lbs of honey rather than 21. The final product is very sweet.

 

[danerelj]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I wouldn't be able to do the scraping off the top as you mentioned I'm only going to be making a small 1 gallon batch in a carboy so the neck is quite narrow. I was thinking of getting the fruit into muslin bags and chucking it in that way?

Also any quantities for a 1 gallon batch honey, yeast strain, fruit etc?

Great replies though guys

 

[Masbustelo]

Most mead makers would suggest fermenting this batch in a food grade plastic pail loosely covered with cloth or a towel. I would suggest KV1-1116 for yeast.

 

[danerelj]

Would that not risk contamination?

 

[Beek]

I like to use cheese cloth to cover my buckets during primary. You don't have to worry about contamination because as the yeast eats through the sugar it releases CO2 which the puts a nice cap in the headspace of your bucket. The cloth is to keep things like fruit flies out. Once in secondary, it's recommended to put an airlock on and leave little to no headspace.

 

[Ethan-]

that is new information to me as well, i did not think a cloth and bucket would be sufficient for primary.

if you're lifting the towel to stab the "cap" and remove the fruit would you have to worry about replacing the CO2 in the bucket?

with the gallon carboys i've found myself giving them light shakes/taps to break up the "cap".

the bucket method seems... "too" easy. i have to try it now.

thanks for the info Beek.

 

[Masbustelo]

The very act of punching down the cap releases a blanket of CO2. The alcohol also acts as a sanitizer. Mead and wine is much easier, simpler and less complicated than brewing beer. When it ferments down to 1.010 squeeze out the juice from the fruit with your hands. You should use a mesh bag for the fruit, tied off with string during the ferment. When wine and melomels are pressed with a fruit press they are totally exposed to the air and oxygen etc during the process. Mead is very forgiving.