Cherry melomel cascade

[ReDim]

Hi All,
This is my first mead wanted to hear opinions of more experienced people:
5 gal batch (5 gal fermenter).

15 lbs of clover flower honey from cosco.
about 3 lbs of sweet cherry
White Labs - Champagne Yeast WLP715
.5 oz of cascade boil 45 min
.5 oz cascade boil 5 min
SNA
OG: 1.135 (measured and estimated), estimated IBU is 13.12

Boil .5 oz of hops in a brew bag for 45 min. Add cherry (cut in half, none pitted), hops, nutrients, irish moss, a clarifies pill, to brew-bag. Boil/sSteamed for another 5 min (the brew bag was not fully submerged) . At 115 added honey, at 79-80 pitched yeast.

First 5-7 days brewing in the kettle, mixing with drill once/twice a day with SNA, then will transfer to primary discard the brew bag with cherries and stuff.

SNA schedule, once a day 3/4 tspn Dap and K-ferm each.

The wort tasted sweet with bitter aftertaste, did not notice cherry flavor at all(which is ok, as planned)

2 major areas of concern, HOPS Balance and preparation time. I am afraid that this mead will have to much or to little hops bitterness and also I am concerned about preparation and aging time. How long do I have to wait till it's ready?

 

[Arpolis]

I find a little hops goes a long way with mead. You should get plenty of hops bitter here. You will probably find that once this clears there may be a bit too much bitter cause this will probably run dry. You will most likely need to stabilize and back sweeten to balance out the bitter.

I would say this mead could be drinkable at about the 6 month mark but will still be really hot in taste. Usually about 1 month per ABV% is a safe minimum age range before it starts getting really good.

 

[ReDim]

Thank you,

Current gravity is around 1.100 @ 70 ish. It tastes like Sweet Champagne with Bitter aftertaste, does not relay have even a hint of honey in it.

Hypothetically speaking it's not bad, just not better then beer...

 

[Arpolis]

Since you used clover honey from Costco which is most likely a highly heated and processed honey then don't expect a tone of character from that honey. It is probably better than if you just used sugar but real good honey character comes from real raw honey strait from the apiary. I am not saying you are going to get a poor quality mead or anything but when using Costco honey you want your other ingredients to be the star of the show. So what you put in is what you get out. Once the gravity drops down to 1.01 or farther and transfer to secondary think about adding some more cherries to deepen the flavor here.

 

[ReDim]

I thought that pasteurized honey is heated to 120 degrees for like 20 minutes, which keeps all the stuff in honey and only gets rid of particles that could contaminate the brew. Maybe I am wrong.

Online calculator sets my final Gravity to 1.014 without even estimating for the cherries. Still need more flavor ?

 

[Arpolis]

I have made a lot of mead from Costco honey vs raw wildflower and the difference is a good bit. Now I still like my Costco honey creations like my braggots, bochet, JAOM, Lemon mead ... So again not saying anything bad but don't judge the honey character of all meads based off this batch.

Estimating final gravity is difficult with mead. If you use nutrients and degas/ aerate in the beginning steps yeast can often go past their tolerances. I used an ale yeast on a pumpkin melomel a long while back and the yeast should have only gone to an ABV of 9%, 10% tops. In 3 days gravity dropped low enough it was at 9.5% ABV. I tried to cold crash and stabilize but it slowly fermented all the way to just over 12% and bone dry at .992. Your yeast will probably get you several points lower than 1.014. Just wait and see.

 

[ReDim]

Thank you for the info.

Seems to be lot's of information, that I have and little experience. I have already ordered ingredients for the other 4 meads I have planned. Which is a mistake, I shoudl really take the one in fermentor to completion and analyze for improvements.

hmm.. Using Raw honey... hmm.. What do you think about using 2lbs of Honey Malt for flavor? (Just 15 lbs of pastured Honey and 2lbs of Honey malt ?)

What about the yeast I am using Shampaine yeast, does it matter or shoudl I switch to Mead yeast ?

 

[Arpolis]

Never used honey malt so can't say for sure on what you may get from that. In my braggot style meads I use light or pilsner lite DME usually.

The Champagne yeast you are using gives very nutrial profiles and if using raw honey champagne yeasts are a little hard on the volatile aeromatics in honey and can blow them out the airlock. Most yeasts marketed as "mead yeast" are not that great IMO. They are usually finicky to start and poop out and stall causing way too sweet a mead. My go to yeasts are lalvin 71b-1112 for most any mead style and especially anything high in malic acid like Cysers or Pyments. (Grape or apple meads). I also really like 71b for lemon wine/meads. Lalvin k1v-1116 is used for anything with a floral taste or if I use spices and such. Lalvin RC-212 is good for heavier red meads. Finally for really light ABV meads or braggots I have started using Wyeast London ESB 1968 and I think that does really well with honey.

 

[ReDim]

Thank you very much . You have saved me lot's of time and money in experimenting

I have stayed away from brands that don't clearly list stuff like Alcohol tolerance, Flocculation and Attenuation for some reason assuming that those are cheaper, inferior type of stuff. But Lalvin k1v-1116 Seems definitely perfect for my next planned brew with Tart cherry juice.

 

[ReDim]

Aug 05 13 3rd day of fermentation. gravity @ 1.06 Mid point of fermentation passed.

Smells like vinegar, taste better with the second sip, sweet, but pretty good. Aftertaste is awesome.

hm.. Maybe I should just cold crush it now (joking)

 

[ReDim]

Hi All,
This is my first mead wanted to hear opinions of more experienced people:
5 gal batch (5 gal fermenter).

15 lbs of clover flower honey from cosco.
about 3 lbs of sweet cherry
White Labs - Champagne Yeast WLP715
.5 oz of cascade boil 45 min
.5 oz cascade boil 5 min
SNA
OG: 1.135 (measured and estimated), estimated IBU is 13.12

Boil .5 oz of hops in a brew bag for 45 min. Add cherry (cut in half, none pitted), hops, nutrients, irish moss, a clarifies pill, to brew-bag. Boil/sSteamed for another 5 min (the brew bag was not fully submerged) . At 115 added honey, at 79-80 pitched yeast.

First 5-7 days brewing in the kettle, mixing with drill once/twice a day with SNA, then will transfer to primary discard the brew bag with cherries and stuff.

SNA schedule, once a day 3/4 tspn Dap and K-ferm each.

The wort tasted sweet with bitter aftertaste, did not notice cherry flavor at all(which is ok, as planned)

2 major areas of concern, HOPS Balance and preparation time. I am afraid that this mead will have to much or to little hops bitterness and also I am concerned about preparation and aging time. How long do I have to wait till it's ready?

I was just looking for this. I made 2 5gal batches in 2012. One used Cherry the other used tart cherry consecrate. have to figure out which one i tasted yesterday... After upgrading to the evil with 10 I lost my recipe files !

Have to check my other 5g batch..

 

[ReDim]

Hmm, I thought I used allot more then just 3 lbs of cherries there. This mead has aged since 2012 (it's Dec 24 2015 now) I drink it out of a shot glass, Smells like vodka. After tasting my first 2 mead brews made in 2012, i am going to be brewing allot of mead now.

maybe i will go for lower initial gravity so that it takes less time to age.... 5 gallon fermentation vessel, that uses 19% yeast tolerance and 15lbs of honey... (in case you were wondering why i drink it with a shot glass )

 

[fuelish]

I've used honey malt in a blackberry melomel (blackberries from my back fence and my in-laws' "back forty") ....iirc (my notebook has gone MIA in the house somewhere), I used perhaps 8 oz for 5 gallons and it left enough residual sweetness that it was not "sweet," per se, but took the edge off of the blackberry tartness....was a great mead, my daughter's favorite so far.....although I can't speak for using 2 lbs, might be a bit much