Duffman53
Active Member
I enjoy reading the posts on here and I always value the advice. Normally my questions are "what if" scenarios but I am facing a situation and I'm unsure how to proceed.
I recently made a four gallon batch of blueberry melomel and a few things went wrong.
1. At the last minute I decided to change it from a one gallon batch to four gallon batch and didn't adjust my honey. I was following the blueberry melomel recipe from "Making Wild Wines and Meads". My end boiled ingedients were four pounds of honey (instead of eight), four cups of sugar and four quarts of blueberries plus the additional wine additives.
2. Once I had my must ready and topped off I got completely distracted and never took an original gravity reading.
3. My Wyeast sweet mead smack pack never activated. I added it anyway since I know the smack pack is just a way of starting the yeast and getting it ready for a rigorous fermentation period. My local LHBS gave me a free packet of Danstar Windsor and told me that it would be suitable for a mead/melomel and could hit up to 10% ABV. The Danstar worked and I saw my airlock bubbling away but I have no idea of knowing if the Wyeast ever contributed. I assume it did not.
So, my last reading showed the gravity at 1.002 so I know that what I have is finished producing alcohol. What it has left me with is a blueberry-based beverage that is not strong enough to be considered a wine and not sweet enough to be considered a mead. I've had a few samples and there is alcohol in there but I would guess it to be around only 3%ABV. There is a taste of blueberries but it is plain and not sweet at all. I need some advice since I'd like to salvage what I have instead of just pitching it out. I have three options that I can think of...
A. Boil more honey and sugar (I'd say the missing 4lbs. and a couple of cups of sugar) and add it to my batch and add more yeast when it is room temperature.
B. Start a one gallon batch of dessert mead which should have around 4 lbs of honey and when it is done top off the dessert mead with my first batch and fortify it with vodka.
C. Say to hell with it, add some boiled sugar and pomegrante juice until it is sweet, fortify it with vodka, bottle it and serve it as a wine cooler. BTW, if I take this approach and try to use priming sugar to carbonate it do I need to be concerned with exploding bottles? With the sweetening sugar and juice I'd be concerned about that.
If anyone has faced a similar situation I'd appreciate your advice. I'm leaning towards option C just because it seems quick, cheaper and less of a headache.
Thanks,
D
I recently made a four gallon batch of blueberry melomel and a few things went wrong.
1. At the last minute I decided to change it from a one gallon batch to four gallon batch and didn't adjust my honey. I was following the blueberry melomel recipe from "Making Wild Wines and Meads". My end boiled ingedients were four pounds of honey (instead of eight), four cups of sugar and four quarts of blueberries plus the additional wine additives.
2. Once I had my must ready and topped off I got completely distracted and never took an original gravity reading.
3. My Wyeast sweet mead smack pack never activated. I added it anyway since I know the smack pack is just a way of starting the yeast and getting it ready for a rigorous fermentation period. My local LHBS gave me a free packet of Danstar Windsor and told me that it would be suitable for a mead/melomel and could hit up to 10% ABV. The Danstar worked and I saw my airlock bubbling away but I have no idea of knowing if the Wyeast ever contributed. I assume it did not.
So, my last reading showed the gravity at 1.002 so I know that what I have is finished producing alcohol. What it has left me with is a blueberry-based beverage that is not strong enough to be considered a wine and not sweet enough to be considered a mead. I've had a few samples and there is alcohol in there but I would guess it to be around only 3%ABV. There is a taste of blueberries but it is plain and not sweet at all. I need some advice since I'd like to salvage what I have instead of just pitching it out. I have three options that I can think of...
A. Boil more honey and sugar (I'd say the missing 4lbs. and a couple of cups of sugar) and add it to my batch and add more yeast when it is room temperature.
B. Start a one gallon batch of dessert mead which should have around 4 lbs of honey and when it is done top off the dessert mead with my first batch and fortify it with vodka.
C. Say to hell with it, add some boiled sugar and pomegrante juice until it is sweet, fortify it with vodka, bottle it and serve it as a wine cooler. BTW, if I take this approach and try to use priming sugar to carbonate it do I need to be concerned with exploding bottles? With the sweetening sugar and juice I'd be concerned about that.
If anyone has faced a similar situation I'd appreciate your advice. I'm leaning towards option C just because it seems quick, cheaper and less of a headache.
Thanks,
D
