# Blackberry Mead



## Barry

All I know is that it's tricky to brew a mead/beer using a sweet ingredient like honey and still retain the sweetness. The yeast likes to eat up all that sweetness and convert it to alcohol. I'm getting ready to brew a beer that uses 2 lbs. of honey in a 5 gal. batch. The ABV ends up at 9%. One quart of Muscat grape juice concentrate gets added to the fermentation. The yeast is WLP001.

Another honey beer(wine) recipe I have uses 8 lbs. of honey and 3.3 lbs. of light malt. Yeast used is Wyeast 3184 Sweet Mead. Again, ABV is 10%.


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## Hops Brewster

Montrachet would be my choice in yeast, followed by champagne yeast. Montrachet would not be quite as dry as champagne.
The simplest way to get a semi-sweet to sweet product is to back-sweeten it. Following the secondary fermentation, I like to add Campden tablets to retard yeast growth, then add the sweetener, whether honey, simple syrup or fruit juice.

just fyi, Mead with fruit is known as melomel. My favorites are made with old storage honey and sour cherry juice or black currant.


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## John Davis

I also would like suggestions for recipes or proportions of fruit. I have elderberrys which make great jelly and would like to try a batch of melomel. Thanks


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## BeeAttitudes

Found this recipe by meadist Bill Savage that sounds nice and I may use it as I'm leaning toward adding the fruit at the secondary fermentation and from what I've read, it sounds like the 71B yeast mellows quickly so may be ready to drink a bit earlier. 

Lavender Blackberry Mead
http://meadist.com/making-mead/mead...vender-blackberry-mead-recipe-by-bill-savage/


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## Tenbears

Adding the fruit in the secondary is a bad idea for a beginner it requires techniques and equipment for a semi distill and chill that most beginners do not have. Inproper handling can introduce wild yeasts that can lead to off flavors and funky tastes. The fruit needs to be broken down during the fermentation to access its sugars and flavors. And results in a great amount of lees in the mead. prolonged exposure to seeds, especially blackberry can result in a bitterness to the mead.
Fruit should be placed in a fruit bag and pectic enzyme added to the must to promote it's breakdown. It usually stays in the must for 5 to 7 days. 
squeeze the bag lightly and remove, then rack for the secondary. 
Also. THERE IS NO RUSHING MEADS OR MELOMELS! time and aging are what bring out the subtle flavors of the honey. A mead or Melomel that taste great at bottling can taste like crap in 6 months. only to become excellent after a year. I year should be considered the minimum for any mead or Melomel, or pyment.


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## BeeAttitudes

Interesting TenBears. I read Ken Schramm's book "The Complete Meadmaker" and he states he prefers to add fruit flavors during the second fermentation. Also, the recipe linked above shows adding the fruit in the second fermentation.

A couple of questions, can pectic enzyme be added at the second fermentation along with the fruit and still be effective?

My blackberries are frozen which I've read breaks the cell wall. If I puree and add hot or boiling water to the fruit beforehand to kill any bacteria/yeast and strain off the seeds before adding into the secondary fermentation do you think I'll be ok? 

I've also read where folks add fruit in the primary fermentation but add it after it after a few days fermentation after it initial aggressive fermentation has stopped. Thoughts?


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## SAS

BeeAttitudes said:


> A couple of questions, can pectic enzyme be added at the second fermentation along with the fruit and still be effective?
> 
> My blackberries are frozen which I've read breaks the cell wall. If I puree and add hot or boiling water to the fruit beforehand to kill any bacteria/yeast and strain off the seeds before adding into the secondary fermentation do you think I'll be ok?
> 
> I've also read where folks add fruit in the primary fermentation but add it after it after a few days fermentation after it initial aggressive fermentation has stopped.


Thanks for starting this thread!

I too plan on making my first batch of mead. I plan on making 2-five gallon batches, 1-traditional mead and 1-flavored.

My question is: has anyone made mead/melomel with choke cherries?


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## BeeAttitudes

In case you are interested, here is a recipe for a Lavender Mead that sounds nice. And before the recipe, a word from the meadist:



> We made a lavender mead with fresh lavender. It looks like we put lavender into the primary and more in the secondary, sprigs with blossoms and used heat to sanitize. Our mead came out light, dry and sparkling with the merest hint of lavender hue. It got rave reviews from those who tried it. Our brew notes are here:


http://www.unicornunchained.com/mead/ls.html

*U2M - Lavender Summer Day*

Brewed: June 21, 2001 
Bottled: April 4, 2002 
Fresh lavender sprigs and blossoms. Very fragrant. 

*Ingredients:*

5 lbs. Rice's Lucky Clover Honey
6 lbs. Madhava Mountain Gold Clover Honey
Sixty-six sprigs of freshly picked Lavender
1 tsp. yeast nutrient
Eldorado Springs water
Lalvin 71B-1122 yeast
One hundred ninety-four sprigs of freshly picked Lavender
1 tsp. acid blend
3/4 cup corn sugar
Yeast was re-hydrated at brew time.

June 21, 2001 - Heated honey with water. Added yeast nutrient and lavender sprigs. Kept hot (about 170 F) for 15 minutes. Cooled and poured into bucket. Added water, pitched yeast, stirred. Made 3.5 gallons.

July 7, 2001 - Heated more honey with water. Added acid blend and more lavender sprigs. Kept hot (about 170 to 180 F) for about 20 minutes. Cooled and added new must to bucket. Now we have 6 gallons.

August 2, 2001 - Racked (SG 1.010)

April 4, 2002 - Boiled corn sugar with 1 c water. Racked mead into bucket and stirred in cooled corn sugar solution. Bottled.


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## suprchunk

BeeAttitudes said:


> Interesting TenBears. I read Ken Schramm's book "The Complete Meadmaker" and he states he prefers to add fruit flavors during the second fermentation.


I don't think I've seen many people add fruit anywhere except secondary, maybe tertiary. Though I did in the boil once. That was the last time I put fruit anywhere else in the process. 

You are on the right track for a melomel though. Freeze, arrest the yeast, then add fruit in secondary. Not sure what the distillation bit was about above you? You can't go wrong with Schramm's book. His meads are really tasty and highly sought. I think he knows what he is talking about when it comes to mead.


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## BeeAttitudes

Suprchunk, forgive my ignorance but what does "arrest the yeast" mean?


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## suprchunk

BeeAttitudes said:


> Suprchunk, forgive my ignorance but what does "arrest the yeast" mean?


I could have used a better word for "stop the yeast from fermenting". Campden tabs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campden_tablet) were mentioned already (potassium or sodium metabisulfite) which does just that, if you were wanting to backsweeten or keep the sugars from the fruit from fermenting out so you get more character from it.


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## DPBsbees

If you are going to back sweeten I would use more than sulfites. Add some potassium sorbate to help ensure you don't wind up with exploding bottles later.


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## BeeAttitudes

suprchunk said:


> I could have used a better word for "stop the yeast from fermenting". Campden tabs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campden_tablet) were mentioned already (potassium or sodium metabisulfite) which does just that, if you were wanting to backsweeten or keep the sugars from the fruit from fermenting out so you get more character from it.


Ok, thanks. I'm surprised that folks stop the fermenting before adding fruit to the secondary fermentation. I guess literally that is adding the fruit after the secondary fermentation. Hmmm......never considered that. I'll re-read Schramm and see what he says. My thought was to hopefully add the fruit and part of it would be fermented and part not fermented due to the yeast reaching it's alcohol threshold. Probably easier said than done.


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## BeeAttitudes

John Davis said:


> I also would like suggestions for recipes or proportions of fruit. I have elderberrys which make great jelly and would like to try a batch of melomel. Thanks


John, in Ken Schramm's book " The Compleat Meadmaker", he gives recommendations for amounts of fruit to add to the secondary fermentation. For example:

Rasberries (additions to 5 gal of Mead)

Mild Fruit Character: 2-4 lbs (in secondary)
Medium Fruit Character: 5-7 lbs (in secondary)
Strong Fruit Character: 8 lbs or more (in secondary)

Blueberry recommendations are a little over twice those amount. He doesn't list Elderberries in the table.


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## BeeAttitudes

So using the excellent information Brew Cat provided in the Intro Sticky (thanks again Brew Cat!) as well as the Mead Calculator from Mead.com for information of sugar content of blueberries, here is the recipe I'm using:

Batch Size: 2.5 gal (found a 2.5 gal carboy with spring water at a local grocery ($15 for carboy) and I'm using a 3 gal food grade bucket/lid from a local bakery ($1, had frosting in it) for the primary fermentation.

Per "The Compeat Meadmaker by Ken Schramm:5-7 lb of rasberries provide a Medium fruit character in 5 gal of mead added to the second fermentation. He doesn't show blackberries in his table; however, I'll use the rasberries as a guideline and go with 3 lb of blackberries in a batch half that size (2 1.2 gal). From the Mead Calculator at Mead.com: 3 lb blackberries adds about 5 points of specific gravity which would equate to roughly 0.6% ABV if it were all converted (sugar to alcohol).

I have no illusions that in can control the final alcohol/sugar content within 5 points so I think I'll ignore it. So it may add an additional 1/2% sugar content in the final product but I can live with that.

I want to be in the 14% ABV range so I've chosen to use Lavlin 71B-112 yeast. This is one description of this yeast:

_A rapid starting and constant fermenting semi-dry white wine yeast that will enhance fruit flavors and add fruity esters, ideal for fermenting with neutral grapes or concentrates. Limits phenol extraction and may neutralize up to 40% of malic acid producing a smooth and rounded "nouveau" wines that will mature quickly. A low foaming strain._

So I think it's a good fit as Mead is considered a white wine and if I add some under-rip berries from the freezer, maybe this yeast will reduce the sour notes by consuming some of the malic acid. Bonus that it matures quickly!

I want this to be semi-sweet so I'll target 2% residual sugars (be a bit more with the sugars from the blackberries but 3 lb isn't a lot). Using Brew Cat's recipe methodology, 14% (sugar for alcohol) + 2% (sugar for residual sweetness) = 16% initial sugar. From the chart Brew Cat provided, 16% equates to an initial specific gravity of 1.107 so that is what I'll target by adding honey till I get this reading.

To get an idea how much honey this will be, 107 points/gal X 2.5 gal = 267.5 total "gravity points. 267.5 gravity points divided by 36 gravity points/lb honey = 7.43 lb honey. So I'll have 7.5 lb honey on-hand but decide when to stop adding honey when I get to a specific gravity reading of 1.107.

*Recipe*

- 7.5 lb (roughly) Arkansas Wildflower Honey 
- Spring water (add to make 2.5 gal)
- 1 packet (5g) Lavilin 71B-1122 yeast
- 1 tsp yeast nutrient
- 1/2 tsp yeast energizer
- Initial Specific gravity Target: 1.107

To secondary ferment add:
- 3 lb Arkansas blackberries (previously frozen: thawed, crushed, seeds removed)
- Lavender tea made from 1/2 ounce dried lavender seeped in hot water

That's all I have now. About to put it all together right now.


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## BeeAttitudes

I finished everything on Sat......but not without some rookie mistakes.

To re-hydrate the yeast I used the bottled water that was in the carboy I purchased. Afterwards I tasted the water and it was very soft.......soft enough it made me wonder if it was filtered. The I remembered I probably should have used tap water.....or at least some type of hard water as soft water can hurt your yeast.

The other mistake I made was starting to start re-hydrating the yeast before I checked the temp of my must. It was still high at 92F so I placed the plastic bucket in the sink full of cold water. It was very slow to cool. Finally the yeast had been re-hydrating for over 30 min and I had the must down to 88F so I pitched it. On the package it says the yeast can work to temps up to 89F so I made a tough call.

Finally, I added the yeast nutrient before the yeast and I've since learned I probably should have waited a day to add the nutrient.

So with all that said, I'm 27 hours post yeast pitch and very little to no activity. It may kick off or it may not but i think using the soft water for re-hydration coupled with the high temp may have done the yeast in. 71B is supposed to be a rapid starting yeast, so.......

If it hasn't started up by tomorrow should I re-hydrate (properly) and add another package of the same yeast?


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## Hops Brewster

Normal yeast activity should be apparent within 24 hours or less, though sometimes it's not so apparent, and can sometimes take a little longer. You did oxygenate the must, si? If you are using an open container, you should gently stir daily for the first few days. 

I suspect that temp was still a bit high. There is a little fudge room in kitchen thermometers. It won't harm anything to pitch another sachet of yeast. An although rehydrating dry yeast will give it it's best chance to thrive, it is not absolutely necessary. I have pitched many a sachet of yeast directly into the must or wort and ended up with a great batch of beverage.


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## BeeAttitudes

Thanks HB. And I did stir the must vigorously right before pitching the yeast. I stirred today and some foam rose up to the top. I should get parts in tomorrow to connect to a disposable oxygen bottle so I'll oxygenate tomorrow and add new yeast if needed.


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## BeeAttitudes

Unfortunately, my local home brewing store is closed on Mondays so I wasn't able to pick up another packet of yeast and re-pitch today. I checked and stirred the brew just now. I can't see any activity but it does smell like yeast. I checked the Ph with a test strip and it appears to be around 3.2 so I will probably buy ingredients to raise the Ph when I pick up the yeast tomorrow.


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## BeeAttitudes

I'm totally confused.

No bubbling activity since pitching the yeast last Sat. (Oct. 31) so I re-pitched the same yeast yesterday (3 days after first yeast addition). No bubbling activity last night and didn't see any this morning before heading out to work.

After work today (4 days since first yeast addition and 1 day after 2nd yeast addition) still no bubbling so I opened the fermenting bucket and stirred. No CO2 bubbles were released to the surface. So I decided to check the SG.......wow, it is at 1.040! My OG was 1.107 so it's down 67 points in 4 days.......is that even possible? There has to be alcohol if this much sugar has been converted so I tasted it and sure enough you can taste alcohol. Used the test strips to check Ph and best I can tell Ph is 3.6 (slight color differences between 3.2 and 3.6 so difficult to know for sure).


I'm confused......


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## BeeAttitudes

SG down near 1.020 this afternoon.......go figure.


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## BeeAttitudes

Sunday morning (Day 8) the SG is down to 1.002 so I'm thinking it is time to add the blackberries.

Yesterday I used my wife's Kitchen Aid mixer with attachment to puree/juice/de-seed 4 lb of blackberries. I added 1/2 tsp of pectic enzyme to this juice and let it sit overnight.

I was torn whether I should add the fruit juice to the primary and later rack to the secondary or if I should go ahead and rack to a secondary before adding the fruit. Since the primary is a 3 gal bucket and still had plenty of room and since it's only been 7 1/2 days since I pitched the yeast, I decided to add the fruit to the primary (plastic bucket). So after taking a specific gravity reading I stirred it well and poured the blackberry juice (also has some solids but no seeds) into the the must, stirred again, and placed the lid back on (there is distilled water in the air lock).

I'm about to go out of town for 1 1/2 weeks so it will sit in this state till I return.


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## Hops Brewster

That variety of yeast is a 'low foaming' variety. But I'm thinking you had a very quick fermentation. It happened to me once and confused me for a while until I looked closer. The batch of beer fermented over night and the only clue to what happened was the layer of trub (lees) on the bottom and a thin collar of scum on the inside fermenter wall. 

I suspect you will have some fermentation of your fruit. With that extra yeast in there, unless you used Campden tablets to retard yeast growth, you've just given the lil yeasties more food. I suspect, though, that you will end up with a very fruity off-dry(slightly sweet) melomel. (My favorite ferment level, BTW) There is a limit to how much alcohol the yeast can tolerate. The alcohol itself will eventually retard yeast growth. I'm just not certain the ABV your yeast will tolerate.


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## BeeAttitudes

Today is Monday, day 16, SG is 0.998 so I racked to secondary.

I tasted it as well. Alcohol taste was not as strong as before I added the blackberry. Maybe it diluted everything a little. Not too bad. You can taste the blackberry a bit. I ordered the lavender and have it on-hand but I haven't yet added it but plan to.


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## BeeAttitudes

Here is a picture of the carboy:


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## Tenbears

BeeAttitudes said:


> Interesting TenBears. I read Ken Schramm's book "The Complete Meadmaker" and he states he prefers to add fruit flavors during the second fermentation. Also, the recipe linked above shows adding the fruit in the second fermentation.
> 
> A couple of questions, can pectic enzyme be added at the second fermentation along with the fruit and still be effective?
> 
> My blackberries are frozen which I've read breaks the cell wall. If I puree and add hot or boiling water to the fruit beforehand to kill any bacteria/yeast and strain off the seeds before adding into the secondary fermentation do you think I'll be ok?
> 
> I've also read where folks add fruit in the primary fermentation but add it after it after a few days fermentation after it initial aggressive fermentation has stopped. Thoughts?


 I kind of lost track of this thread Every year in from October to mid January Is my busy season and I general don't have much time for the net. 

There is a big difference between adding fruit flavors and adding fruit, flavors or F-packs. are generally refined fruits when adding whole fruits to the secondary one exposes pulps and seeds to the alcohol for longer periods of time. Which can produce off flavors, also processing berries which contain lots of seeds through a processer where the seeds will become fractured can leave the Melomel bitter. Boiling the fruit can give the Melomel a cooked fruit flavor. 
Pectic enzyme can be added in the secondary. in fact on occasion during bulk aging. For example if a Melomel has a pectic haze and just does not want to clear. Enzyme can be added to break the pectin and facilitate clearing.


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## BeeAttitudes

*Day 32*

Tonight I added items to the secondary. Here is what I added:

- 1 oz of dried organic lavender
- 1 spiral of medium char American oak (hopefully add vanilla flavors and body)
- 2 whole vanilla beans (mostly for adding body)

These items were placed in a muslin bag before adding to the secondary so they can later be removed for tasting to determine when to remove them permanently. I'm guessing the lavender will be removed in 1-2 weeks and the oak and vanilla beans in 4-5 weeks but I will determine when to remove based on tasting.
-


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## BeeAttitudes

*Day 33*

Removed the 1oz of Lavender. Too difficult to get everything in/out for daily tastings. Received advice to taste daily as too much Lavender can be bad.......so I just removed it after 24 hours.


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## BeeAttitudes

*Day 39*

My wife and I had a taste. I didn't think it was that bad but she didn't like it at all. It is bone dry and she wants it sweeter.


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## BeeAttitudes

*Day 40*

Gotta make momma happy......after getting some advice on how much to add, I added an additional 1lb of honey to the 2.5 lb batch. Guessing it will raise the SG to about 1.015. Be interesting to see if it re-starts fermentation and if it does, how much it drops. Oak and vanilla are still in the carboy.


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## BeeAttitudes

*Day 46*

Removed the oak and vanilla bean tonight. So these were in the secondary for 2 weeks total. I'm afraid to go much longer with the spiral oak as it seems to work faster than the cubes with so much end grain exposed. 

I tasted it and it sure is sweet now. Not sure fermentation restarted after adding the honey last week so I may regret having added as much honey as I did. I robbed the carboy using a bottle filler so it was pulling right off the bottom of the carboy. It crossed my mind that possibly some of the honey I added hadn't dissolved and had sunk to the bottom where I was pulling. So I stirred the carboy and we will see if this makes a difference in a week or so.....or see if stirring might re-start fermentation.


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## BeeAttitudes

*Day 59*

Fermentation did indeed restart, yeah! It brought the sweetness down considerably. It appears to be finished now and the small amount of residual sweetness left is nice. It tastes good right now. My wife thinks the lavender aroma is a bit I like it (maybe use less lavender next time).

The fermentation in the secondary created lees so I decided to rack into another glass carboy to age a bit before bottling. I used a couple wraps of cheese cloth on the intake to be safe. It looks good in the new secondary.....clear and a nice red color. In a small, drinking glass it isn't as red......more of a dark amber. I think I need to increase the acidity a bit. Maybe the 71B yeast took out too much of the malic acid, not sure, but I think a bit of acidity would brighten it.


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## BeeAttitudes

*Day 60*

Unfortunately, this is the final update.

Last night I placed the original lid on the carboy that it had when I bought it new full of water. Today, I went home for lunch and it looked soo good I picked up the carboy to hold it to sunlight coming in the window to see how clear it was. The lid popped off and it slipped out of my hands shattering on the tile floor in my kitchen.

What a bummer!


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## SAS

I'm new at making mead/wine. I currently have a 5-gallon batch of chokecherry mead fermenting, that I started 6-days ago. One of the receipts/books I have says to pull the strainer bag containing the fruit/chokecherries out after 5-days. The other book, says to wait 2-weeks before removing the fruit. 

I don't know what to do?? Should I pull the fruit out this weekend, or next?

For reference, if needed. I used 11 1/2 lbs. of fresh frozen chokecherries from around my house. I also used 14 1/2 lbs. of honey.


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## Tenbears

For a 5gallon batch I would use a minimum of 15 pounds of fruit and in many instances 25 pounds. Chokecherries are what I refer to as moderate flavor imparting fruits so somewhere around 20 pounds would be my preference. That is not to say you will not have a nice melomel with 11.5 It will simply not be as robust in the fruit flavor. 

Chokecherries have a rather resilient seed hull that can withstand prolonged exposure to alcohol and pectic enzyme so there is little danger of the seeds imparting off flavors quickly. Taking into account minimal fruit, and resilient seeds I would leave the fruit in the ferment as long as possible. rather than counting the days I would watch the Specific Gravity, and when it reaches 1.020 I would remove the fruit and rack into a secondary the next day to finish the fermentation. Depending on temperature and the yeast used 2 weeks could be Post ferment. and to minimize oxidation I like to get the first racking while the mead is still producing CO2


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## SAS

Tenbears said:


> For a 5gallon batch I would use a minimum of 15 pounds of fruit and in many instances 25 pounds. Chokecherries are what I refer to as moderate flavor imparting fruits so somewhere around 20 pounds would be my preference. That is not to say you will not have a nice melomel with 11.5 It will simply not be as robust in the fruit flavor.
> 
> Chokecherries have a rather resilient seed hull that can withstand prolonged exposure to alcohol and pectic enzyme so there is little danger of the seeds imparting off flavors quickly. Taking into account minimal fruit, and resilient seeds I would leave the fruit in the ferment as long as possible. rather than counting the days I would watch the Specific Gravity, and when it reaches 1.020 I would remove the fruit and rack into a secondary the next day to finish the fermentation. Depending on temperature and the yeast used 2 weeks could be Post ferment. and to minimize oxidation I like to get the first racking while the mead is still producing CO2


Thank you Tenbears!

After I posted this thread, I decided to call the local wine and beer making supply shop (if you want to say ~50 miles away is local). They also said to wait until the SG is 1.020 or lower.

As far as only using 11.5 Lbs. of chokecherries, that's all I had. I do have a 1-liter container of red grape concentrate that I picked up at the supply store. Should I, or could I add it to this batch? Or is it to late?

The yeast I used is White Lab's WLP720 Sweet Mead/Wine Yeast.


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## Tenbears

I would not add the grape concentrate. Grapes are big flavor imparters and will totally overpower the chokecherries. I would go with it as it is. It should be fine and the honey may lead the fruit rather than being secondary to it. The WLP720 should finish to dryness, without knowing and calculating SG from average honey sugars. I would say it should be around 15% which the WPL720 will tolerate.


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## SAS

Tenbears said:


> I would not add the grape concentrate. Grapes are big flavor imparters and will totally overpower the chokecherries. I would go with it as it is. It should be fine and the honey may lead the fruit rather than being secondary to it. The WLP720 should finish to dryness, without knowing and calculating SG from average honey sugars. I would say it should be around 15% which the WPL720 will tolerate.


Great! Thank you Tenbears.


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## knucklehead

Go to Homebrewtalk.com and check out the mead making subforums. You'll find plenty of help there.


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## knucklehead

BeeAttitudes said:


> Here is a picture of the carboy:


How long has that been fermenting??


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## Tenbears

when that picture was posted, About 15 days.


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## knucklehead

Tenbears said:


> when that picture was posted, About 15 days.


Awesome, Does Mead not create krausen? On all the beers I brew and ferment, I get a thick layer of foamy krausen during the fermentation and it leaves my carboys all scummy from it. To have one that clean it would have to be in secondary fermentation. 

I've never made mead before, I know about it from homebrewing beer, but when I get some excess honey I might have to make a batch!


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## Ben Brewcat

knucklehead said:


> Does Mead not create krausen?


Not the way a proteinaceous bev like beer does. It'll raise a good head at high primary but the bubbles aren't very persistent.


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## AndrewSchwab

give it a stir you will get yourself some foam.


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## bjverano

Knucklehead
Nice carboy. Is it a 2 gallon? I've got 2+ gallons of raspberry fermenting that j started on 11/10/15. I'll do the 4th racking this weekend. I've got it in a 3 gal carboy since it's in excess of 2 gallons. When I racked it last time I gassed it with Aragon to cover the head space. It tastes good already but I'm going to let it ferment at least a year then will probl need to back sweeten it. I started 2 more gallons on Jan 7 but used sugar so it's wine not mead- didn't want to use up any more honey. So far the mead tasted better than the wine from the get go. I'm starting a gallon of port blackberry wine this weekend. I've got a freezer full of berries. 
Has anyone ever made blackberry port? 
Bonnie


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## bjverano

Here's a pic of my mead that's going to be racked soon. This is the one I argon gassed and also filled the airlock with vodka per recommendation of our local new shop and something I read somewhere when researching.






. 
Bonnie


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## knucklehead

That wasn't my carboy, I just quoted the OPs pic. Here are all my carboys, on a small cedar carboy stand I made, sadly they are currently empty! 

I need to get back to brewing!


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## nursebee

THere was an early on comment about it being difficult to make a product like mead sweet due to yeast consuming all the sugar. It is actually quite easy.

For a low alcohol product (cheap beer) one can ferment to completion, add a chemical like K Sorb to keep further fermentation, then add more sugar.
Or, stop the fermentation while still sweet, add K sorb.

Otherwise, choose a yeast with a known ETOH tolerance, add more honey than the yeast can handle.

In other words, choose a yeast that will ferment up to 13% ETOH and add honey/sugarsource for a 14% batch.


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## Gumpy

I've found out the hard way you should never bottle anything with honey in it without first stabilizing it (both Potassium Sorbate and Potassium Metabisulfite). Wines, meads and melomels containing significant honey content have a tendency to go through a post bottling fermentation and can occur up to a year after bottling. Even if they were fermented to full dryness (wine, melomel, mead) or to the alcohol tolerance of the yeast (ports). It's never a good thing when you step on a cork on the floor of the wine cellar.


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