Salvage Job - With Pics!

[jalopy19]

I made two one-gallon batches of hydromel. One blackberry, one blueberry. Safale US-05. They fermented to completion and I primed them to carbonate. ABV about 7% in both. I let them sit for about a month in capped 187mL Champagne splits. They have been met with fairly poor or "meh" reviews by everyone who has tried them.

The plan: I decided to mix the remaining bottles together in a one gallon jug. I put some honey with some of the blueberry in a glass, and it really improved the flavor to have some remaining sugar. I also added 8 oz frozen raspberries.
I have shaken the jug (with an airlock on) for the last 24 hours or so to degas. Next I'm going to stabilize with campden/sorbate. Then back sweeten with honey. Probably to about 1.020, but I'll go by taste as well.

Anyone see any flaws in my plan here? The alternative was letting them sit forever or dumping them, so I figured I didn't have much to loose.

 

[bernardsmith]

No expert , but a mead with 7% ABV suggests a very small amount of honey and if you had also added berries with their own sugars then I can see why those drinking the wine would not be very enthusiastic - all the flavor from the honey comes from ... the honey and any flavor coming from the fruit .. comes from the fruit and so if there is not very much of either in the must then there is not very much flavor in the mead. Not sure that blending will help but the addition of more honey (flavor) to backsweeten will certainly help. I cannot see how a mead with less than about 2 - 2.5 lbs of honey per gallon will have enough flavor (and that is an ABV of about 12% when dry).. and IMO. you need about 4 lbs of berries in that gallon to even suggest the presence of fruit...

 

[jalopy19]

I have been thinking I need to do more fruit in the future. I have been doing one gallon batches (I have larger carboys, but I just am in an "experimental" phase), so 4 lbs of fruit takes up quite a bit of space in them. The blueberry came out a little when I added the honey to sweeten. Didn't get much blackberry though.

 

[fuelish]

No expert , but a mead with 7% ABV suggests a very small amount of honey and if you had also added berries with their own sugars then I can see why those drinking the wine would not be very enthusiastic

I've made a few 8%-ish sparkling meads for summertime consumption ....peach pyment, black'n'blueberry, cherry, ginger....with these, I was looking for a light spritzy mead perfect for a warm summer day that won't knock you on your butt after a few glasses, and the Mrs loves them....I ain't gonna break out the oaked ginger habanero @ 18% when it's 90 degrees outside....horses for courses, or something like that ... no different in that there are folks who like light beer on a hot summer day - perfect for cutting grass, but not a real drinking beer....same with lighter meads here

 

[normonster]

Holy s##t! I accidentally found this thread on the "unread" list, as I'm a beer guy, but wow. Sounds like a crazy predicament and a creative and I hope, effective solution. good times! Might have to widen my brewing scope of interest some day. 😜

 

[bernardsmith]

I have been thinking I need to do more fruit in the future. I have been doing one gallon batches (I have larger carboys, but I just am in an "experimental" phase), so 4 lbs of fruit takes up quite a bit of space in them. The blueberry came out a little when I added the honey to sweeten. Didn't get much blackberry though.

But the best way to make wine is to use a bucket (even for one gallon) as your primary. Freeze the fruit, allow it to thaw - that cracks open the cells that hold the juice - and add pectic enzyme a few hours before you pitch the yeast. (I add the enzyme with K-meta and so add it about 24 hours before I pitch yeast). The fruit I then collect in a paint straining bag and mash. Depending on the amount of fruit you obtain the juice to ferment. I don't add water unless the fruit itself does not express juice (banana or rhubarb for example), IMO, for what it's worth, water is for sanitizing and making beer. Water is not an added ingredient of wine.

 

[bernardsmith]

I've made a few 8%-ish sparkling meads for summertime consumption ....peach pyment, black'n'blueberry, cherry, ginger....with these, I was looking for a light spritzy mead perfect for a warm summer day that won't knock you on your butt after a few glasses, and the Mrs loves them....I ain't gonna break out the oaked ginger habanero @ 18% when it's 90 degrees outside....horses for courses, or something like that ... no different in that there are folks who like light beer on a hot summer day - perfect for cutting grass, but not a real drinking beer....same with lighter meads here

What you say, fuelish, makes a great deal of sense but for me the problem - and tension is - that the more flavor in a mead, the greater the ABV and the less flavor , the lower the ABV. With other wines you can have more flavor without any increase in ABV (take strawberry wine, for example - you can make a strawberry wine with 5 lbs of fruit/gallon or a strawberry wine with 10 lbs of fruit and the first may have an ABV of 12 percent and taste like water and the second may have an ABV of 6 percent and taste like summer. You cannot do that (I think) with mead because all the flavor comes from the honey and all the alcohol comes from that same honey... With session beer the alcohol content is low but the flavor can still be high. I don't know how you do that with honey mead.

 

[fuelish]

You cannot do that (I think) with mead because all the flavor comes from the honey and all the alcohol comes from that same honey... With session beer the alcohol content is low but the flavor can still be high. I don't know how you do that with honey mead.

I agree there is next to no, if any honey flavor, but with the "lawnmower meads" I've made so far (not just honey but fruits or ginger added as well, no plain hydromels), there is plenty of flavor...the sparkling peach pyment is very peachy (wife's fave)...the black- and blue-berry (sparkling as well) is very berry...the cherry (yet to bottle) is very cherry...the sparkling ginger has a LOT of ginger bite (man, I love the flavor of fresh ginger root).....Yeah, I'd imagine a plain mead made with just honey/water/nutrients/yeast would likely be pretty bland - perhaps worse than Coors Light, dare I say??? LOL I mean, they're not really "lawnmower" strength (weak), but in the scheme of meads, they're light - 7 - 8% abv...wife loves 'em, which leaves more of the high octane reserves for me

 

[jalopy19]

Update. Bottled with gravity at 1.020. Tastes amazing now.