Watermelon mead

[bubbachunk]

I am starting this project today and wanted to hear any suggestions for helping the watermelon come through. I have 5 small watermelons that I am juicing and hoping to get 7.5 L or so plus a gallon of honey and top off with water. I will be taking the gravity of the melon juice once it is all squeezed.

Pics will follow.

 

[Matrix4b]

suggestion, filter the results through a screen. Don't leave it in the fridge to seperate out, it does so overnight. When it seperates you se disctinct layers of juice and solids. If you mix it up again and us it then you will get off flavors. My best suggestion is to juice, strain and use right away. I have been told to also use as ripe a mellon as possible. Not sure. I did one watermellon and got an awful off flavor that hasn't aged out in over a year.

 

[bronzdragon]

Unfortunately watermelon is a very light flavor and you'll have a hard time getting the flavor over the honey. My guess would be to make a very light mead and use a lot of watermelon juice instead of water.

cheers

~r~

 

[jcobbs]

If you have access to a copy of "The Joy of Home Winemaking" by Terry Garey, she might have some suggestions. I'm fairly certain I've seen a watermelon recipe in there. Or Jack Keller's website might have some ideas. Both of them have made wine out of just about anything.

 

[james93711]

i made a watermellon mead about 3 days ago and i put one whole watermellon in it, didnt juice it. i knew i should have made an apple spice mead but i did that insted.. should i crack the jug an siphon it into another? is the batch gonna be bad? damn what a waste. any advice would be helpful thanks guys

 

[bronzdragon]

So, did you just cut up the watermelon and throw the chunks in or did you mash it up?

~r~

 

[james93711]

yea i just cut them up and threw them in there. it was a sugar baby so its about half the size of a normal watermelon or smaller.. its smells kinda funky but thats normal i think.

its a 5gal batch i used ec-1118 yeast and starter, its getting its bubble on, only took about 12 hours to start, hardly any foam at all.

ive just read that watermelon is a bad fruit to use, should i rack it to another jug or just let it ride? its my first batch so i should rack it when it bubbles once every 60 seconds? how long should it be in the secondary?

 

[neohistory]

I'm very curious about this thread as my future brother in-law is allergic to oranges (which I'm using for a first mead.) His favorite thing is cantaloupe and I'm not entirely sure that would really work, but it sounds like it would be a similar problem to using watermelon. Interested in how this turns out.

 

[Insomniac]

Other melons aren't neary as difficult to make mead from as watermelon... I think it's that powdery texture in the water melon that makes it nasty. I've just got my mixed melon mead to bottle (no water melons but pretty much everything else), I would agree, try and get rid of the pulp, get extra melons and go with the juice, its still a nightmare to get it to all settle out but the pulp is like glue and will cause a mead volcano if your not careful.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

I'm in a seriously punchy mood, and just pictured a small hawaiin village happily anticipating their mead volcano erupting...

and the people rejoiced...

I apologize for that.

 

[bubbachunk]

I should update this but I have yet to try this in about 18 months now as it was awful awful awful and not the typical young mead bad. This stuff was like instant ipecac when I last tasted it.

Now that I look at my notes I see that it is now just hitting 2 years old in a couple of weeks, there may still be hope! If not the keg will just sit there for another year.