Blackcurrent melomel

[iluv2brew]

I had bought a 5 lbs bag of blackcurrents from a farm that vacuum packs and flash freezes the berries then ships them out.
Today I decided it was time to make something with the berries.
3 1/2 gal of water
5 lbs berrries
11 lbs of honey ( a mix of what I had in the pantry. buckwheat, clover and orange blossom)
yeast energizer to pack directions
yeast nutrients to pack directions
Wyeast sweet mead yeast.

I have 2 questions.
first off the berries once thawed contained a whole lot of tiny stems and bracts. I know that Elderberriy stems, bracts and tigs can be poisonous, so I removed what I could of these tiny pieces. It took a little over an hour. whew! Do any of you guys know if black current stems are poisonous, or do they tend to bitter the over all flavor the way pith from citrus fruit does?

My second question is that my OG is 1.094. Is that too low? When I followed a simliar recipe posted by Curt Stock his OG was much higher. He was using a different yeast than me though. I'm not looking for mead that is high abv, but I want to be sure that the berries and honey flavor come through and not seem too watery. I guess I would like about a 12% or so.
Thanks for reading.

 

[scottv]

From the reading I have done the sweat mead yeast is kind of a oxymoron. It seems the lavlin strains are some of the best. Other then that I'm not sure.

 

[iluv2brew]

This is my first time using a Wyeast mead yeast. In the past I have used Lavlin. Lavlin is a heck of a lot cheaper to purchase too!

 

[scottv]

Yes sir. And the basic idea I got from it was there is no such thing as mead yeast. Lol

 

[scottv]

Have to admit I have no clue what a blackcurrent is. I'm sticking with traditionals till I've learned a good deal more. And I started with a peach melomel.

 

[iluv2brew]

yum I like a good peach melomel. I have made several black current melomels, usually with cherries added. In the past I have always used the canned fruit, this is my first time doing it with farm fresh berries. I was such a good deal for the fruit that I'd probably buy from them again, but at least now I know that there is work to be done on the fruit first.

 

[scottv]

I hear you there. Just well to be honest golddiggie has been teasing me my must looks like what happens with a late night bender. Lol. But I am being patient and see what it does.

 

[ColbyJack]

Next time, why not crush the fruit, and harvest the juice only??? Then add said juice to your primary? I would think cheese cloth and a simple press would do well. Or a commercial juicer.

 

[WVMJ]

Didnt you taste some of your berries? They have a very strong flavor, high in acid, I would add more berries to boost the taste. I think your addition of buckwheat will go well with these berries. You can always get some black currant juice at a hippie store to top off with. Looza sells a black currant juice without preservatives that tastes very good, a bottle or 2 of that would reallly make your mead a lot better fruit taste wise.

The little stems on elderberries are not going to hurt you, might add some green goo to your mead but that then sticks to everything plastic and comes off easily with vegetable oil.

WVMJ

I had bought a 5 lbs bag of blackcurrents from a farm that vacuum packs and flash freezes the berries then ships them out.
Today I decided it was time to make something with the berries.
3 1/2 gal of water
5 lbs berrries
11 lbs of honey ( a mix of what I had in the pantry. buckwheat, clover and orange blossom)
yeast energizer to pack directions
yeast nutrients to pack directions
Wyeast sweet mead yeast.

I have 2 questions.
first off the berries once thawed contained a whole lot of tiny stems and bracts. I know that Elderberriy stems, bracts and tigs can be poisonous, so I removed what I could of these tiny pieces. It took a little over an hour. whew! Do any of you guys know if black current stems are poisonous, or do they tend to bitter the over all flavor the way pith from citrus fruit does?

My second question is that my OG is 1.094. Is that too low? When I followed a simliar recipe posted by Curt Stock his OG was much higher. He was using a different yeast than me though. I'm not looking for mead that is high abv, but I want to be sure that the berries and honey flavor come through and not seem too watery. I guess I would like about a 12% or so.
Thanks for reading.

 

[iluv2brew]

I've revamped my recipe a bit and and added more honey to make it 17 pounds total. I have on hand both pure Blackcurrent and cherry juice that I thought I'd add to the secondary. I have a gallon of each juice, but not quite sure yet how much of each I'll add.

 

[movin0n]

I am ordering from the same supplier I think...www.currantc.com? Anyway I have made over 50 batches of mead, mostly in a 20 gallon fermenter. I make straight honey, starting with an og of about 1.112 which usually nets me about 12% alcohol. When primary fermentation is done, I rack the mead into buckets, 5 gallons each, then add fruit: blueberry, elderberry, any of the dryer, less sweet fruit, leave it two weeks and rack into a 5 gallon carboy for finishing. I find adding the fruit at secondary preserves more of the flavor. Haven't done currant from fruit yet...when I tried it several years ago you couldn't buy fresh or frozen currants because of the ban. Looking forward to trying but I know they are very tart so if anyone has finished a mead from frozen berries I would love to know their #/gal numbers, if they back sweetened, how it came out...

 

[movin0n]

I should have said I am using black currants...not red...

 

[iluv2brew]

that's the same place I bought from. They just had a sale last weekend. Buy 5 pounds and one additional pound free. I had to order me some more.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

You may find your must/melomel too tart at some point; black currants are very high in ascorbic acid (vitamin C), something like 250% of the USRDA. The good news is twofold: 1, all that ascorbic acid will help to protect your must from oxidation. 2, It WILL age out.

I made a cherry/apple/black currant wine a couple years back that was very tart. I thought I might need to do some acid reduction on it, but after a year, it was perfect. Black currants also tend to dominate the flavour profile.
Just my 2 cents worth. Regards, GF.

 

[Zaffo]

I did a 5 gal batch of black currant/blueberry wine using canned black currant juice and frozen blueberries. The FG was 0.996, and it's delicious.

I blended 1gal of this with 1gal of a plain wildflower mead with a FG of 0.998. I think this is even better! They're only 3 months old.

 

[iluv2brew]

that sounds really good Zaffo!