"We have Heart of Darkness at home", or a melomel inspired by the fact I'll probably never taste Heart of Darkness

[nashiora]

I'm starting a mixed berry/fruit melomel and I wanted to documents its process, since I'm a little unsure how it's going to go. I'm trying out more technical processes for this batch (I've been very loose and guess-y for all my previous ones), though I'm still not following an existing recipe. Hopefully what I've created actually works : )

- 4 lbs Dark Sweet Cherries
- 2 1/4 lbs Red Raspberries
- 2 lbs Blackberries
- 2 2/3 lbs Wildflower Honey
- 1/3 lbs Buckwheat Honey
- 1/4 to 1/2 tsp Pectic Enzyme
- 1 Campden tablet
- 3.8 grams Go-Ferm (approx.)
- 1/4 tsp Bentonite
- 5 gram packet of Lalvin 71b yeast
- 3.1 grams Fermaid O (approx.), staggered
- However much additional spring water is needed

I turned all of the fruit (plus a small amount of spring water to ease the process) into juice/syrup on the stove over the course of a couple hours, yielding a bit over half a gallon. I stored this in a sanitized gallon jug overnight on a crushed campden tablet and approx. 1/4 tsp pectic enzyme, shaking well to hopefully add some oxygen to the must since I don't have good tools for oxygenating. The (approximate) SG of the fruit syrup alone was between 1.050 and 1.060 based on the numerous measurement attempts I made, none of them quite the same. Viscosity probably played a role in inaccurate measurements.

I added as close to 3 total pounds of honey as I could, as the 1/3 lb buckwheat was what remained of 1 lb container and I didn't have an accurate scale on hand; eyeballs are going to have to be sufficient. The SG of the honey + fruit juice mixture was more reliably measured at 1.150 multiple times. Combining the fruit juice and the honey nearly filled my 1 gallon primary fermenter, and the additional spring water used to prepare the remaining ingredients pushed it even closer. This batch is the first I've fashioned an overflow valve for because of that. I added the Bentonite and Go-Ferm to the must after a thorough mix of the initial fermentables, plus a touch more pectic enzyme to ensure I had enough to tackle the high volume of fruit matter, plus the rehydrated 71B before sealing with the makeshift overflow valve.

I'm following the instructions from the TONSA calculator for Go-Ferm and Fermaid O addition, using the high estimate of 1.060 for the fruit gravity and the probably-accurate 1.150 for the total gravity, as well as its staggered nutrient addition schedule.

 

[Yooper]

Can I ask why you cook the fruit? I've never done that with any of my meads or fruit wines, except for the banana one, so I am curious.

 

[DBhomebrew]

Go-Ferm to the must[...] plus the rehydrated 71B

Go-Ferm is typically added to the yeast as it's rehydrating, not direct to the must like Fermaid.

 

[nashiora]

Go-Ferm is typically added to the yeast as it's rehydrating, not direct to the must like Fermaid.

That does make more sense, thanks. Hopefully all still goes well.

 

[nashiora]

Can I ask why you cook the fruit? I've never done that with any of my meads or fruit wines, except for the banana one, so I am curious.

I put it on heat just to make it easier to extract the juice. Helps the solids break down, easier to gently mash without putting a lot of force in. I don't bring it to a point that it's bubbling if I can help it, though it did get a little bubbly when I wasn't paying attention and I had to clean that up.

 

[Yooper]

I put it on heat just to make it easier to extract the juice. Helps the solids break down, easier to gently mash without putting a lot of force in. I don't bring it to a point that it's bubbling if I can help it, though it did get a little bubbly when I wasn't paying attention and I had to clean that up.

Thanks- I've never done that with many wines or meads and just wanted to ask. I started making wine in 1985 or so so I wondered about it.

 

[nashiora]

Thanks- I've never done that with many wines or meads and just wanted to ask. I started making wine in 1985 or so so I wondered about it.

Most of the recipes, videos etc I saw were using raw fruits, either free in the fermenter or in brew bags, and a few others were using store bought juices. I saw someone say they wanted to try their recipes again with raw fruit, store bought juice and home made syrup to see which came out better. I didn't wait for the results, I just decided my first batch was going to be home made syrup instead because I was interested in the process and the hypothesized benefits sounded worth it.

It's a lot less fruit solids to deal with, so I imagine you lose much less volume compared to raw fruits. You made the syrup from fruits, so you know it doesn't have canned preservatives or any other additives. A jam or juice likely does, but maybe a concentrate doesn't? always takes work to check each label. Pectic enzyme still does its job, and you have 100% of the fruit you put in participating in flavoring and fermenting, rather than it slowly coming out of the raw fruit.

I haven't run the comparison experiments myself, but I've been very happy with the few melomels I've done with the home made syrup.

 

[Yooper]

I'm glad you're happy with your choices!

 

[Yooper]

Just something I thought of- if it comes out great, would you consider sending a bottle to Ken? I bet he'd be interested. He doesn't cook his fruit (and he grows his own fruit) so it would be a different melomel for sure, but still.................
I haven't had HOD in a long time, but Ken shared some at a HomebrewCon about 15 years ago and of course it was fabulous.

 

[DBhomebrew]

I put it on heat just to make it easier to extract the juice.

You might want to experiment with a freeze/thaw cycle.

 

[Yooper]

You might want to experiment with a freeze/thaw cycle.

That’s my method- freezing the fruit makes it very easy to use, and I generally ferment on the fruit the first few days or so, up to a week. I think that’s most common, although I had a friend who used a steam juice extractor on their wines, and while the taste of their cherry wine was different than mine (I made both batches for us), it was not bad, just different. It didn’t have too much of a ‘cooked fruit’ character and it cleared nicely.

 

[MightyMosin]

The (approximate) SG of the fruit syrup alone was between 1.050 and 1.060 based on the numerous measurement attempts I made, none of them quite the same. Viscosity probably played a role in inaccurate measurements.

Heating the fruit juice, in my limited experience, seems that it can activate the pectin and create a viscosity that makes the hydrometer inaccurate.

In my particular case, I was able to verify with a refractometer that the hydrometer was being affected by the more viscous must to a large degree.

Combining the fruit juice and the honey nearly filled my 1 gallon primary fermenter, and the additional spring water used to prepare the remaining ingredients pushed it even closer.

Get yourself a 2 or 3 gallon food grade bucket to ferment in, especially when you want to add a bunch of fruit. You can add a lot and not run the risk of overflowing the container. You don't need to worry about too much headspace while its creating all that CO2 fermenting and you can always rack it to the smaller container while it still has some fermenting to finish up if you are worried about 02..

 

[nashiora]

Heating the fruit juice, in my limited experience, seems that it can activate the pectin and create a viscosity that makes the hydrometer inaccurate.

Yeah, this was my first time wanted to get a gravity reading for just the fruit itself and this was roughly my assumption, but of course I wasn't sure. I won't have to do this every time, so long as my recipe works. Good to know, though.

 

[Raptor99]

Yeah, this was my first time wanted to get a gravity reading for just the fruit itself and this was roughly my assumption, but of course I wasn't sure. I won't have to do this every time, so long as my recipe works. Good to know, though.

For the initial gravity reading, this is my procedure:
1. Thaw the fruit
2. Mash with a potato masher
3. Add to primary fermenter along with Kmeta, pectic enzyme, water (if desired), and about half of the sugar that I estimate that I will need
4. Wait 24 hours for the pectic enzyme to do its work, then stir well and check the SG and pH.
5. Then adjust the SG and pH as necessary

 

[MightyMosin]

Curious how this is coming along.

 

[nashiora]

I've got it on oak cubes right now, but I haven't tasted it much. Last I did it wasn't bad, a little bitter to me but fairly drinkable for its age. I back sweetened with 1 lb wildflower honey after a very quick fermentation a couple of weeks ago. I should be able to take it off of the oak cubes soon and taste again then. It's a very pretty color : )

 

[nashiora]

I'll try to provide a proper update on this soon, but I'll start by saying I've finally got this bottled over the Thanksgiving holiday and so far, even though young, it tastes very promising. I'm going to try a second batch of this with slightly different fruit preparation methods this weekend or week and share those eventual findings in this thread as well.

 

[MxWhiskey]

I'm sorry, what is Heart of Darkness?

 

[nashiora]

I'm sorry, what is Heart of Darkness?

https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=heart+of+darkness+mead

Schramm's Heart of Darkness is a mead I've wanted to taste but have not gotten my hands on before. It's a cherry, raspberry and black currant mead. You can read about its actual details on their page.

 

[nashiora]

I've started a second batch of this, with the only "major" change being how I prepped the fruit juice/syrup. I didn't put these on much heat at all this time, just smashing them when thawed (with very minimal heat to help the thawing process). I'm not as happy with the resulting syrup or the color while it's fermenting, but it might turn out okay. The yield of syrup was lower, too, so I had to increase the amount of water during primary.

I'll try to compare as objectively as I can when they're both plenty drinkable, but I might be sticking to my lightly heated syrups for future brews, especially as I ruined 4 lbs of blueberries when not heating them haha.

 

[MightyMosin]

You can find a small stainless press that will increase your yield.

I found a small one similar to this one, but mine was made in Italy and the one below is probably China. It is slow going, but you can get good yield and you then also have skins left over to bag up and put in the fermenter for some of their tannic influence.

https://www.vevor.com/commercial-ju...MItsPPktKsigMVXhNECB1P9Ss4EAQYAyABEgJ3FPD_BwE

 

[Raptor99]

I'll try to compare as objectively as I can when they're both plenty drinkable, but I might be sticking to my lightly heated syrups for future brews, especially as I ruined 4 lbs of blueberries when not heating them haha.

It's not finished yet. Leave the blueberries in the must for 4-5 days, then squeeze out the mesh bag thoroughly by hand, or get a small press as @MightyMosin suggested. My blueberry wine made this way has a deep, rich color and an great blueberry flavor.

 

[nashiora]

It's not finished yet. Leave the blueberries in the must for 4-5 days, then squeeze out the mesh bag thoroughly by hand, or get a small press as @MightyMosin suggested. My blueberry wine made this way has a deep, rich color and an great blueberry flavor.

The blueberry juice I ended up with instantly turned brown and smelled of dirt, and did not taste like something I wanted to try to ferment. That could be a bad batch of blueberries or a mistake during the juicing, but I gave it a few days in a refrigerator to see if the color and smell would settle out. It it only got worse. I'll re-try the blueberries after the holidays are over in case someone gets me a fruit press.

 

[Raptor99]

The blueberry juice I ended up with instantly turned brown and smelled of dirt, and did not taste like something I wanted to try to ferment.

I normally do not juice or press the blueberries at all. I thaw them, mash them, add Kmeta and pectic enzyme, and then after 12 hours or so, put them in a mesh bag in my fermenting bucket. After 3-4 days of fermenting, I squeeze out the bag by hand to get out as much juice as possible. Doing it this way, I have never had them turn brown or smell bad.

The advantage of leaving the frozen/thawed/mashed blueberries in the bucket while it is fermenting is that the pectic enzyme and yeast help to break down the cell walls and extract more flavor. You also get color and flavor from the skins. It's easy to squeeze out the mesh bag for a small, 1-gallon batch. For a larger batch you could use the fruit press to remove more of the juice, only after the berries have been in the fermentation bucket for 3-4 days. Or hang it from a ceiling hook to drain out the juice.

I'm sure that there are others who juice the berries up front and only use the juice. I have not tried that, so someone else will need to comment on that method.

 

[nashiora]

I normally do not juice or press the blueberries at all. I thaw them, mash them, add Kmeta and pectic enzyme, and then after 12 hours or so, put them in a mesh bag in my fermenting bucket. After 3-4 days of fermenting, I squeeze out the bag by hand to get out as much juice as possible.

I've been juicing ahead of time and removing the solids to preserve some yield in 1 gallon batches, since I'm worried about losing some volume to the solids I'll be removing. I'm down to try with my next batch if I get my hands on a mesh bag. What volume/weight of blueberries are you using per gallon?

 

[Raptor99]

I've been juicing ahead of time and removing the solids to preserve some yield in 1 gallon batches, since I'm worried about losing some volume to the solids I'll be removing.

You will always lose some volume when racking, even if you use juice. There will be some sediment from the yeast.

For a 1-gallon batch, I would start with 1.5 gallons total of must in the primary fermentation bucket. That way you should have at least 1 gallon in the carboy for bulk aging.

For blueberries, I would use at least 5 lbs. of fruit per gallon of must in the bucket. But it would probably be better if you could use 6-7 lbs. For a 1.5 gallon initial batch @ 6 lbs. per gallon, that would be 9 lbs. of blueberries plus enough water to make the total volume 1.5 gallons in the bucket.

This size bag works well for a small batch: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013S2GVM2/

 

[MightyMosin]

I've been juicing ahead of time and removing the solids to preserve some yield in 1 gallon batches, since I'm worried about losing some volume to the solids I'll be removing.

What are you fermenting in?

For a 1 gallon batch I would use a 2 or 3 gallon bucket so that you can have plenty of solids and still have your 1 gallon volume of juice/must/mead when completed.

 

[nashiora]

I'll have to get my hands on bigger vessels later, but for now the loss of volume is important to me because I *only* have access to a 1 gallon glass jar for the whole process per batch.

 

[Raptor99]

I'll have to get my hands on bigger vessels later, but for now the loss of volume is important to me because I *only* have access to a 1 gallon glass jar for the whole process per batch.

Home Depot and Lowes sell white food grade 2 gallon buckets. They are not at all expensive. Make sure that they are marked "Food Grade" on the outside.

 

[Dan O]

Home Depot and Lowes sell white food grade 2 gallon buckets. They are not at all expensive. Make sure that they are marked "Food Grade" on the outside.

Look for this label.