Blueberry Melomel

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Ajhutch

Ajhutch

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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


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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.
 
TartanSpecial said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
Ajhutch said:
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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
TartanSpecial said:
I am thinking of an experimental mead with orange peel and cinammon stick later this year.
Click to expand...

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 ?
 
Ajhutch said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
Tanzanite said:
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 ?
Click to expand...

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.
 
TartanSpecial said:
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.
Click to expand...

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:
 
Tau said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
TartanSpecial said:
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.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you'll be making a split batch, so with apple and cinnamon and some with orange and cinnamon!
 
Ajhutch said:
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...!
Click to expand...

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?
 

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