Strawberry Melomel
- Thread starter James0816
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Two days seems really short. I'm doing a strawberry melomel next and planning on leaving the fruit in for two weeks or so. What did the berries look like when you racked off of them? What are your temps, what yeast, nutrients, etc? It shouldn't smell or taste bad unless something else in your process is off. Also would help to know how much berry per gallon and where you got them (farmers market, supermarket produce aisle, frozen food section, etc).
Seamonkey84
Well-Known Member
Some yeasts will have an off odor during fermentation, so it’s still too early to judge unless your use to that yeast. That color looks very light, more details would be helpful.
I used 1tsp D47 yeast. Room temp around 73.
3lbs honey / 3 lbs strawberry
Berries where cleaned and sliced in half and put in a cloth. Everthing added to ferment bucket. Once in bucket, i used a masher to mush them up a little.
Day1, stir and mush berries.
Day2, mush and remove remaining berries. Not much left actually
Racked out of bucket and into 1g carboy as u see in pick. Fermentation still going which is good
3lbs honey / 3 lbs strawberry
Berries where cleaned and sliced in half and put in a cloth. Everthing added to ferment bucket. Once in bucket, i used a masher to mush them up a little.
Day1, stir and mush berries.
Day2, mush and remove remaining berries. Not much left actually
Racked out of bucket and into 1g carboy as u see in pick. Fermentation still going which is good
Seamonkey84
Well-Known Member
you should be fine, but it’ll need some aging. D47 is said to produce off flavors/aromas above 72. though the strawberries helped, you didn’t add any nutrients. 3lbs is not a lot, especially with strawberries. I use 6lbs per gallon and I leave my fruit in for 10 days.
Though my batch was made with white sugar instead of honey, you can see my process https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/strawberry-wine-bomm-method.666211/
Though my batch was made with white sugar instead of honey, you can see my process https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/strawberry-wine-bomm-method.666211/
Guess I thought the color should have been more red/pinkish. Like the plum next to it in the 3g. I do plan on adding more berries during secondary.
Haha..posted wrong pic. You cant see the plum in this pick. Its a nice color, just needs to clear.
bernardsmith
Well-Known Member
Color tends to drop out of strawberry wine or mead if the wine is not sufficiently acidic (think strawberry blonde). You need to be sure that the pH is low enough to "fix" the color and I think tannins also help to keep that color in place. So high in acids (low pH) and high in tannin.
I just started doing acid adjustments in mead, and have been doing it pretty late in the process. Would it be better to add acid early when doing it to preserve color?
Seamonkey84
Well-Known Member
Color can come back with ph adjustments, but I recomend asjusting acid to taste after fermentation. Too low of a ph can stall fermentation too. In fact, my batch I didn’t add any acid, I use potassium bicarbonate to buffer the ph during fermentation and add some potassium for the yeast.
