Tropical melomel recipe critique please!

[Bluespark]

I started a melomel today and want to confirm I'm on the right track. The plan is:

-3lb carmelized rewarawara honey(plus some more for back sweetening)
-1 tsp boiled bread yeast
-1 cup black tea
-1 bottle sunrype coco/pineapple juice(1litre)
-2 very rype bananas
-lalvin 1122

Ferment in bucket for 4 days. Add flesh from 4 gorgeous atulfo mangos, 2 more bananas and 1 cup chopped pineapple. Rack, strain, transfer to carboy, sweeten if necessary . Bottle in 3-6 months.

What do you think?

 

[waxer]

Im only a beginner but what is the reasoning for waiting 4 days before adding more fruit? I know that people wait for secondary to preserve flavour and aroma. But you are likely to be only maybe 1/3-1/2 of the way into fermentation at that point. Does it make a difference to the flavour?

Or is the theory much like staggering the nutrients

Have you made mead with rewarewa before?

 

[Bluespark]

I am making a one gallon experiment of this, but I have only a 5 gallon bucket, and no luck finding a smaller one that I am confident is food grade. I beleive this should be close to 1.010 by day 4( if its similar to the other batch I did with rewarawara ) and with the bucket so big I want to have the fruit done with by the time co2 production really decreases, so I can have it safely in a carboy. At the same time I want to keep as much fresh fruit flavor as possible.

I have made a rewarawara traditional that is currently bulk aging. It finished EXTREMELY fast. It was done and crystal clear by 10 days.

 

[waxer]

Ok yeah yours must be fast. I pm you that time to talk about it. It really is a fast honey. I'm impressed with the results an curious how this is going to turn out. Look forward to hearing about it.
Mine was done in 8 or 9 but not clear. I have a 5l of it I Oaked and was impressed by the fact after 4 days when I racked off the oak that it had already lost a lot of it's hotness. The honey flavour sure is strong.
Did you sweeten your traditional? I normally go for sweet drinks but even fermented dry it has a fairly sweet flavor I assume will only get better with age.

 

[Hrahn1995]

I like this my only suggestion is not to caramelize the honey, or if you do only very lightly. i dont think the caramel flavors will mix well for a tropical mead. maybe a banana foster kinda attempt i would caramelize the honey and oak it to simulate the rum (side note i may have to try that). also with my experience from melomels i think you are doing the right thing with delaying the addition of the banana , but you might not get enough flavor in just 4 days. so play around with that if you have the luxury, or even stagger your addition of banana, maybe after 4 you add 1 banana, and when transferring to the car boy add the other? up date us i like where this is going!

 

[Bluespark]

Thanks for the responses I bought it from a place that specializes in imported varietals. The had warmed a barrel of rewarawara to strain out particulate when the heater malfunctioned during warming and slightly caramelized the whole barrel. I got 3 kg for half price. The carmel flavor is very mild, but noticeable. I thought it might complement the bananas and the tartness of the mango.

 

[Bluespark]

Update: this smells amazing, all the tropical fruit smells are there, but man, it tastes AWFUL. This seems to be the case with a lot of acidic fruits. If it ends up tasting half as good as it smells, I'll be happy slowly learning to disregard the taste of young mead

 

[ox45]

Just a tip for smaller buckets. I go to my local supermarket (Wegmans in my case) and go to the bakery. Ask if they have any buckets from the frosting. They are food grade, and at least at Wegmans just over 3 gal. And best part is they are free!