Blueberry Melomel

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Ajhutch

Landlord.
Joined
Apr 12, 2016
Messages
2,329
Reaction score
1,256
Quick and easy Melomel on tonight.

1.2kg honey
1 kg frozen blueberries
1 tsp Yeast nutrient
1 tsp Pectolase
Wilko wine yeast
Topped up to 4.5l

OG about 1.110 from the honey . My plan is to stabilise at 1.015 which will be 12.5% alcohol and semi sweet.

It's starting to foam already in about two hours, probably get bubbles before I even head to bed tonight.


IMG_2364.jpg
 
1.015 is a good end point..off dry, semi sweet. Have got two 4.5ltr batches of mead on with 1.012-1.015 target end gravity....one target 14% abv (Lalvin 71B) and one target 17.5-18% abv (EC1118) if I can keep the fermentations going to their end point.....EC118 one started at 1.145 OG. :-o Hydrated the yeast with goferm am doing sequential nutrient additions with fermaidK.....has worked OK in previous years. Preparing a 21ltr batch to go on Thursday L71B target FG 1.012-1.015, 14-14.5%abv.
 
I'm planning two more nutrient additions, one tomorrow and one in a few days just to keep it going. This is a slightly experimental batch to test my method. I'm going to have a supply of cherries later in the year and I'm planning to make mead out using them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I tried a 19ltr batch of concorde pyment last year (honey plus concorde purple grape juice) and it tasted horrid at bottling...will leave a year before tasting again....so sticking to 100% honey meads this year inbetween beer brews. 21ltr batches of 14% mead are a bit expensive.....7.7kg orange blossom honey is about £56 even in bulk from Paynes beefarm...this year I'm trying their basic blossom honey at half the price.
 
Yeh it does get pricey. This is orange blossom honey at £9/kg from the supermarket. I think two batches will see me through for a while, I expect this will end up being a dessert wine type drink for us


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I have been bottling mead in 500ml beer bottles but will switch to 300 or 330ml ones this year since I struggle to drink a 500ml bottle at once....I think the first glass of powerful mead is brilliant, but then the second glass doesn't taste as good.
 
I tried a 19ltr batch of concorde pyment last year (honey plus concorde purple grape juice) and it tasted horrid at bottling...will leave a year before tasting again....so sticking to 100% honey meads this year inbetween beer brews. 21ltr batches of 14% mead are a bit expensive.....7.7kg orange blossom honey is about ��£56 even in bulk from Paynes beefarm...this year I'm trying their basic blossom honey at half the price.

Hi i just bought ten kilo of Bulgarian honey at �£6.40 kilo its not orange blossom but i am sure it will make decent mead. I have a gallon fermenting at the minute using Thai wild bee honey, ( from Eastern Thailand) i am fermenting it with Mandarin Orange Peel thats been dried too dark brown in the oven to concentrate the oils and flavour. I will be doing 2 more gallon this week recipe undecided. I might try the recipe of the St Aidans Monks on Holy Island, using spring water , we have a natural spring were i live but dont no how pure it is , so bottled spring water, grape juice and honey.
 
Don't mention it on the beer forum but I normally end up buying a case of stubby 250ml bottles of cheap lager around barbecue season. I'm wondering about saving them for mead this year. Or I could just bottle it like wine and use plastic topped corks.
 
Don't mention it on the beer forum but I normally end up buying a case of stubby 250ml bottles of cheap lager around barbecue season. I'm wondering about saving them for mead this year. Or I could just bottle it like wine and use plastic topped corks.
I was looking at 250ml bottles on mysupermarket.co.uk yesterday but am not sure my crown capper will like the shape of the bottle tops...will investigate real life in Sainsburys tomorrow.
 
I am thinking of an experimental mead with orange peel and cinammon stick later this year.

Mead should be great with honey and orange but it takes a year to become drinkable , so get on with it asap . have you tasted it with cinnamon ?
 
Quick and easy Melomel on tonight.

1.2kg honey
1 kg frozen blueberries
1 tsp Yeast nutrient
1 tsp Pectolase
Wilko wine yeast
Topped up to 4.5l

OG about 1.110 from the honey . My plan is to stabilise at 1.015 which will be 12.5% alcohol and semi sweet.

I work out that from the honey alone you'd get an og of 1080 at 81% fermentable sugar in the honey. How did you prepare the blueberries, whole chopped or mashed? As they would add a lot more sugar if not whole.

Sounds a nice melomel though.
 
Mead should be great with honey and orange but it takes a year to become drinkable , so get on with it asap . have you tasted it with cinnamon ?

I haven't but but I use a lot of spices in cooking and have seen a few old mead recipes and think the combination of honey, orange and cinnamon might fit nicely.
 
I haven't but but I use a lot of spices in cooking and have seen a few old mead recipes and think the combination of honey, orange and cinnamon might fit nicely.

Be careful when using spices , if you cook then you will know in all cooking were chilli and spices are used sugar is used along with lemon or lime to temper dishes, Cinnamon is a fantastic flavor one of my favourite when cooking curry , but it can be bitter if not tempered so if i was using it with orange in mead i would bake the orange peel like i said previous and use enough honey to produce a sweet mead, i think it would bitter a dry one. Cinnamon goes with apple pie so maybe honey cinnamon and apple juice might make a nice combination mead, what do you think :thumb:
 
I work out that from the honey alone you'd get an og of 1080 at 81% fermentable sugar in the honey. How did you prepare the blueberries, whole chopped or mashed? As they would add a lot more sugar if not whole.

Sounds a nice melomel though.

I came up with a calculated number a little higher than that (1.093) via brewers friend but then 1.110 was actually a measured gravity. I said honey only as it was right after I made the must so I assumed the blueberries wouldn't have given up much sugar but I may be wrong there. I mashed the blueberries somewhat but not completely to a pulp, but I'd expect a decent proportion of their sugar to be accessed. Based on Randy Mosher's table in Mastering Homebrew I reckoned on about 6-8 gravity points from the blueberries in this batch. I'm massively at the learning stage here, maybe I've made something that is going to end up a fair bit stronger than I expected...!
 
you are right on cinnamon bitterness so would have to tread carefully...less is more. Cinnamon does go with apples..cinnamon and apple jelly is pretty good.

Sounds like you'll be making a split batch, so with apple and cinnamon and some with orange and cinnamon!
 
I came up with a calculated number a little higher than that (1.093) via brewers friend but then 1.110 was actually a measured gravity. I said honey only as it was right after I made the must so I assumed the blueberries wouldn't have given up much sugar but I may be wrong there. I mashed the blueberries somewhat but not completely to a pulp, but I'd expect a decent proportion of their sugar to be accessed. Based on Randy Mosher's table in Mastering Homebrew I reckoned on about 6-8 gravity points from the blueberries in this batch. I'm massively at the learning stage here, maybe I've made something that is going to end up a fair bit stronger than I expected...!

I used the brewers friend, for 4.54 ltrs, not the us gal. So 30 points were blueberry sugar maybe more if the honey is as low as 77% sugar. Might end up a little stronger but not much, average sugar content for blueberries is 10% but that would change to the ripeness and type. So at least 100g of sugar 18 points which falls a little short of what you measured. Anyway should be a good tasting melomel.
 
Got 3 batches of mead on the go at once while I drink down the stocks of beer. One 20ltr batch Paynes Blossom Honey 7.7kg OG 1.12 , target FG 1.012-1.015, Lalvin 71B 1122, the other two are 4.5ltrs each.... One Mexican honey OG 1.12 target FG 1.102-1.015, 14-14.5% abv Lalvin 761B-1122, ..the other is a stronger orange blossom one OG 1.145 target FG 1.1015, 17.5-18% abv Wilko Gervin wine yeast which I understand is EC-1118. In all cases yeast rehydrated with GoFerm, and staggered nutrient additions with a mix of fermaidk and Wilko yeast nutrient so hopefully I can get them to go to completion based on the yeast strain alcohol tolerance. Will think about adding orange to my next batch.

Resize of Rotation of P1040009.jpg
 
So I sampled this melomel a few times as the gravity came down. Even at 1.010 I found it too sweet so I decided to rack it off the blueberries and let it ferment right out. It seems to have stopped now right around 1.000. It's still got a hint of blueberry aroma and taste but is dry and probably more to my taste. I may end up backsweetening different bottles to different levels as an experiment. Would people recommend a stabiliser or any other chemical at this stage and/or that I degas the mead, or should I just leave it now and let it clear through time and patience?
 
Back
Top