Five different melomels - *Picture*

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Thundernick

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I've been posting on here asking questions for a while now, so I figured I'd post a picture of what I've made so far!

Flavors from left to right are:

Pineapple, blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, kiwi

Recipe:

15 pounds of honey in 5 gallons
some yeast extract (forget how much)
various nutrient (a sprinkle, to be exact)
yeast (some kind that the homebrew store dude gave me)

I let it primary ferment for a month.
Then moved it to secondary for a month
I'm going to let it sit just like it is in the picture for a month (well, in a closet)
Then I'm going to rack it and let it sit for another month
Lastly, going to add clearing agents, because I'm not very patient.

Hows it look?! I'm so excited to taste it.

I'll add a better picture in a few weeks when it has had time to settle in.

melomel.jpg
 
Awesome! How much of each fruit did you use? Also how did you prepare your fruit?
Kiwi sounds really interesting.
 
I used a little less than 2 little cartons of blueberries/raspberries, 3/4 of a large carton of strawberries, 3/4 of a pineapple, and 4 kiwis.

In case you didn't notice, I just guestimated on pretty much every ingredient. When it looked like it was enough, I stopped adding things.

As far as preparation for the fruit, I just washed them, and then froze them. I was told on here that it breaks down at the cellular level and causes the fruit to be "juicier" so more flavor goes into the mead. I was told to not mash the fruit because it makes it a pain to get rid of all the little seeds without a filter, especially the strawberries.

There was a 1/4 gallon of mead leftover, because the fruit took up space in the 1 gallon jugs. I just put the extra in a container, and once I rack it to get rid of the fruit, I'll re-add the leftover mead.
 
Yeah my girlfriend likes sweet mead/wine, so that's how I'm making it. By adding 15lbs of honey to 5 gallons, my goal was to max out the alcohol from the honey. Then by adding the fruit, I'm hoping that it will do the back-sweetening for me, so I don't need to add more honey.

EDIT: I just got home from work. Look at those beautiful colors! I punched down the cap (fruit at the top) so the same fruit isn't stuck at the top, making those one likely to get moldy. Notice how some of the fruit, especially the strawberries, are losing their color and turning white. It's interesting.

pic2.jpg
 
Looks great!! I've done a sweet blueberry which I really liked...and a strawberry that so far tastes like the seeds..not so good! I'll be curious how ur kiwi turns out..keep us posted!
 
15 lbs. of honey per 5 gallons should be very sweet, regardless of yeast. I use red wine yeast (Pasteur Red) and champagne yeast (EC-1118) and only 12-13 lbs. per 5 gallons in my meads to get max ABV and get a drier mead. I love the small batches and experimentation. Please do post your results. However, I must say that as a scientist, I would prefer much more exact notes. If you make something truly delicious - and you have the potential here, wouldn't you like to be able to replicate it more exactly?
 
Shakybones said:
15 lbs. of honey per 5 gallons should be very sweet, regardless of yeast. I use red wine yeast (Pasteur Red) and champagne yeast (EC-1118) and only 12-13 lbs. per 5 gallons in my meads to get max ABV and get a drier mead.
Click to expand...

Funny, the differences in personal preference. I consider three pounds per gallon the starting point for my meads and work up from there. I already have at least three and a half pounds in the one gallon test batch of my orange caramel. And I plan to add more if the EC-1118 runs it as dry as expected. My blackberry bochet is sitting at 1.064 this morning and I could happily drink it as is.
 
I don't remember what yeast was used, but I know it wasn't sweet mead yeast. The store ran out and I was impatient, so I said just give me something that will come out good. I said if I need to, I can back-sweeten it.

I'm more in my "experiment phase" of making mead. I made some beer (1-1 gallon brew and 2-5 gallon brews), but I think I'm done with that hobby after my 2nd 5 gallon batch went bad/sour. It seems like mead/wine is a lot safer from bacteria, so I might just stick with mead/wine. Plus my girlfriend drinks wine and mead, not beer.

I have the general idea down on how it was made. My goal is to pick my favorite out of the 5, and then make a 5 gallon batch of it. I'll take specific measurements from that 5 gallon batch to replicate it.

Update: The colors are getting darker/stronger and the fruit is getting lighter. I've read mixed information regarding how long to keep the fruit in. Some say a week, and some say a month. What would you guys recommend?
 
15 lb for 5 gallons is my starting point as well, and I don't like a sweet mead(with the exception of some, which I would never want sweeter than 1.020) my traditional batch with ec1118 started with 15lb, but I step fed and maxed out the yeast for an FG of 1.020, I then devided and flavoured the 5 gallons. In total I used a smidge over 20 lb.

I have never left fruit, except for a JAOM, in longer than 7 days. I seem to get good flavor in that amount of time, and the fruit is a pile of mush
 
If you had all the fruit in a fine mesh bag or something longer would probably be fine, but I would probably take out at a week if you're happy with the color/flavor the fruit imparted by then.

As with everything, it's all experimenting, and you can always change it up next time.
 
I got impatient last night and decided to test one of them. It is actually really sweet this time, so it's not going to require any back sweetening.

I took a look at them last night, and the pineapple one is getting VERY clear.. any idea why the pineapple one is clearing so fast? There's a bunch of sediment in the bottom of the jug. I can see all the way through it now.
 
I'll find out next week when I bottle them. I won't be able to resist-- I'll need to taste!
 
That's a shame the kiwi didn't turn out. My best mead was a kiwi but I used 30 kiwi in a gallon.
 
That's probably my problem. I think I only used like 4, so it's more of a mead than a melomel. Plus they weren't 100% ripe when I put them on.

The blueberry on the other hand has a very strong blueberry flavor. I also found the right balance of sweetness and bite from the alcohol. I think that's the hard part, but I got practice with 5 of them last night.

I think that's the last time I separate out the 5 gallon carboy into 5-1 gallon jugs. It took ~3 hours to bottle it! For each one, I had to rinse out the bottling bucket and bottling wand, heat up some water with sugar/honey to back sweeten, mix it and taste, then bottle and cork. It was just a long process, and I think I'd rather just do the 5 gallons at a time. I already have my next 5 gallons fermenting. :)
 
ErinRae said:
What's in your next 5 gallons?!
Click to expand...

To be honest I'm not really sure. I'm just going to make 5 gallons of the same kind though. It's too much work splitting it out and the bottling each kind for only 1 gallon.

How do you think a mixed berry one would turn out? Part raspberry, blueberry, and strawberry?

EDIT: Actually I think a cherry one would be really good. I think I'm going to go with 5 gallons of cherry melomel.
 

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