Raspberry Heather Melomel- Recipe critique before I mess it up

[archthered]

OK so I am trying my first mead in 7 or 8 years and I’m using a new recipe I created. I am looking for general comments on the recipe as well as advice on a couple of things.

Here it is:
Batch size- 5 Gallons
12 lbs. of Clover honey
5 lbs. of Wildflower honey
12lbs of fresh Red Raspberries frozen and then thawed
1 cup Heather tips
Wyeast4184

I am primarily making this for my wife who likes sweet wines and meads so this mead is supposed to be on the sweet side. I know I could use more honey but feel that since the yeast has an alcohol tolerance around 11% there should be plenty of residual sugar. I am looking for a sweet flavor with a distinct smell and taste of the berries with a floral undertone from the heather.

I plan to heat the water, about 3 gallons, and add all of the honey, add about 8 lbs. of crushed raspberries, and then add 1/2 cup of the Heather tips and let it heat, but not boil, for close to 10 minutes. I’ll cool it and put the must in my primary fermenter with enough additional water to bring it up to 5 gallons and pitch my yeast. I’m going to use one kind of yeast nutrient at the beginning and a different yeast nutrient about 1/3 of the way through. The rest of the raspberries and heather will be added during secondary fermentation. I figured I’d add 2 lbs. of raspberries and all of the remaining heather when I start secondary fermentation, adding the remaining 2 lbs. of berries about a week before bottling. The goal of this staggered addition of the raspberries is to ensure the berry flavor stands out over the heather.

In addition to general comments I was wondering if I ought to add more honey or if this quantity will work as well as I think it will?

I haven’t used heather before and I was wondering if the quantity here sounds appropriate?

Additionally my secondary fermentation process is unlike anything I’ve seen before so I question if I’ve generated the process more out of paranoia than out of sense? Then again I’ve not seen anyone adding heather to mead.

Thanks for any help and comments

 

[Arpolis]

I think the recipe in general sounds good. I just started a floral raspberry mead myself just the other day. Mine is Hibiscus raspberry. My only thing is I think you should change out the yeast. Sweet mead yeast has a bad rep for being a pita to start and it stalls easily. I good yeast for this with a lower ABV tolerance would probably be Red Star Cote de blanc. It would probably go and the final gravity would probably be in the 1.01 - 1.02 range. If you want it sweeter then add an additional lb of honey with your last berry addition. Also I would probably add pectic enzyme in the primary to help break down pectin from the raspberries and allow it to clear.

 

[fatbloke]

I think the recipe in general sounds good. I just started a floral raspberry mead myself just the other day. Mine is Hibiscus raspberry. My only thing is I think you should change out the yeast. Sweet mead yeast has a bad rep for being a pita to start and it stalls easily. I good yeast for this with a lower ABV tolerance would probably be Red Star Cote de blanc. It would probably go and the final gravity would probably be in the 1.01 - 1.02 range. If you want it sweeter then add an additional lb of honey with your last berry addition. Also I would probably add pectic enzyme in the primary to help break down pectin from the raspberries and allow it to clear.

Just what I was thinking, except I don't like the redstar wine yeasts, they don't publish enough data to be able to make a valid judgement IMO. Which is mainly, why I stick to the Lalvin stuff.

It's fair to point out, that a lot of the characteristics they mention allude to grape musts, yet to my mind, there's enough detail to be able to work out roughly what you can expect.

My choice would be 71B.

 

[Arpolis]

I really like 71b but in my experience 71b can ferment to the 15-16% ABV level if taken care of. The OP could stabilize and back sweeten but he alluded to just wanting to hit an ABV cap and let leftover sugars keep this sweet. That is why I suggested Cote De blanc. It should poop out before 71b will poop out. But otherwise I do thing Lalvin is the way to go. My raspberry melomel is using Lalvin RC-212. I chose that over 71b because I am wanting a really nice deep red melomel and 212 is good for color retention.

 

[fatbloke]

I really like 71b but in my experience 71b can ferment to the 15-16% ABV level if taken care of. The OP could stabilize and back sweeten but he alluded to just wanting to hit an ABV cap and let leftover sugars keep this sweet. That is why I suggested Cote De blanc. It should poop out before 71b will poop out. But otherwise I do thing Lalvin is the way to go. My raspberry melomel is using Lalvin RC-212. I chose that over 71b because I am wanting a really nice deep red melomel and 212 is good for color retention.

Well if the ferment is just "managed" normally, 71B would indeed just do the 14% thing, plus it's good with fruit and also "early drinkers".

Equally, RC-212, while being noted for the colour and flavour thing with "reds", is also known to be pretty good with traditionals, but people shy away from because it's known to be "needy" when it comes to nutrients.

If you think about it, the 2 yeasts that the late Brother Adam used/mentioned in his writings, Maury yeast (available as Lalvin D21) and the Montpellier strain (available as K1V-1116), are both very "southern" strains and would most likely be linked to red wines from their respective area, but are noted as being very good for traditionals (white).

So just because a yeast has good characteristics for a certain type of brew, doesn't mean that they can't do something else well too does it........

 

[Arpolis]

So just because a yeast has good characteristics for a certain type of brew, doesn't mean that they can't do something else well too does it........

I completely agree.

 

[archthered]

Thanks for the advice. I will definitely use the pectic enzyme, do I need to add more in the secondary or just when I'm heating the must? I am considering changing the yeast but I've heard of people getting some good results with the 4184 so I'm not yet sure I'm going to give up on it.

 

[Arpolis]

I only add pectic enzyme up front. Never needed to add much afterwards but it may not hurt to add a little any time you add additional fruit.

 

[fatbloke]

If you can use it up front then do.

If you have to leave it till after the ferment, you generally need double the amount in the presence of alcohol.

Besides, it's known to assist in the levels of extraction of flavour and colour extraction too, hence up front being preferred. ....

 

[archthered]

I'm starting this tomorrow so I'm posting so it is higher in the list (this is a d!(% move I know) I just want to see if there are final thoughts before I start and it's been over a week sine I posted

 

[fatbloke]

Oh, and I was also thinking that the heather tips would be used as a bittering agent.

So whether they're used in the ferment or added afterwards it would likely need balancing with some sweetness.......

 

[archthered]

So I've started it. I have an OG of 1.150 which seems ridiculously high. The calculator said it should be 1.127, is the extra possibly due to having pulp and seeds in the thief when I did the gravity?

 

[fatbloke]

So I've started it. I have an OG of 1.150 which seems ridiculously high. The calculator said it should be 1.127, is the extra possibly due to having pulp and seeds in the thief when I did the gravity?

Yes, plus if you've aerated the must, some bubbles often attach and give artificially high readings......equally, the calculators often set an exact 80% sugar for the honey which can fluctuate naturally with higher sugar and give a higher reading.

Hence samples should be strained to remove seeds and then left to settle any pulp (if it doesn't float) and the hydrometer should be spun in the test jar and allowed to settle on its own to remove any bubbles...

 

[archthered]

Thanks!

New problem. The raspberry pieces are floating, I expected this and have read you need to push them down a couple times a day. I am having a hard time finding something that can actually get in the carboy well enough to push anything other than the stuff in the center. An ideas?

 

[fatbloke]

Thanks!

New problem. The raspberry pieces are floating, I expected this and have read you need to push them down a couple times a day. I am having a hard time finding something that can actually get in the carboy well enough to push anything other than the stuff in the center. An ideas?

Yes. They don't need punching down per se. Just use the handle of a plastic stirrer and give it a good stir to slosh it around and keep the fruit wet/moist.....