Juneberry Melomel

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Tau

Landlord.
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1700g of Clear honey
120g Juneberries
125g sugar
1 lemon & 1 tsp of citric acid
Harris Yeast (18%)
2 heaped tsp of nutrient ( will add more after a week and two weeks)
2 tea bags for tannin
Added half a tsp of pectolase to on the safe side with the Juneberries.

Couldn't take sg, but worked out that 1380g of sugar in honey (81%), so added another 125g to bring to a sg of 1130. Thought that the sugar will ferment first so I wouldn't need to back sweeten, if it gets to 0.996 or below.

Removed gunk wax etc from simmering honey. Blended and boiled juneberries and simmered a little and strained into dj, poured dissolved honey into dj, added juice of lemon and citric while cooling. Cooled in water bath and added extra sugar, nutrient and yeast.

Juneberries taste like cooked apple pie (pastry included). (120g was all I got of shrub in garden, strong flavour enough for mead not enough for wine, expect 3-4 years before I get enough for wine.)
 
Racked this for first time since starting, tastes wonderful which is rapidly replaced by burning ethanol :whistle:

OG, calc' - was 1130 plus whatever was in the berries reached 0.996 so around the 17.6% abv mark. Will have to get some honey tomorrow to sweeten and mask the ethanol levels.

Added camden and K.Sorbate to stopped any further fermentation.
 
Well added 340g of honey, stuck jar in microwave for 3mins to sterilise and tipped in hot, hopefully will mask hot alcohol flavour.
 
Just opened a bottle and have a cork problem some black mold on the inside, although it hadn't spread throughout the cork it tainted the mead slightly, drunk half a glass before deciding though :smile:. The high alc' at 17.5% probably prevented spread but had to bin, hoping I'll get a bottle out of the batch haven't checked them all yet. But will make another batch soon as the juneberries are almost ripe.
 
Have to be honest I've never even heard of Juneberries! Apple pie including the pastry is a very tempting description of the flavour though. Good luck with this years batch!
 

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