Currant melomels.

[Ian]

I've been gifted 3lb of Blackcurrants, 3lb of Redcurrants and 2lb of Whitecurrants.

As I favour honey-based wines I was looking for recipe ideas. I tend to make a gallon at a time so thought 3lb of fruit per batch would be okay but leaves me with 2lb spare.

Any suggestions?

[fatbloke]

I've been gifted 3lb of Blackcurrants, 3lb of Redcurrants and 2lb of Whitecurrants.

As I favour honey-based wines I was looking for recipe ideas. I tend to make a gallon at a time so thought 3lb of fruit per batch would be okay but leaves me with 2lb spare.

Any suggestions?

Yeah, just make 3 x 1 gallons of basic traditional mead, ferment dry and then add the berries to extract the flavour. That can be back sweetened later.

Of course, you know how much fruit there is, so you could, add a certain amount of water (a pint or so) and then simmer the berries to extract the juice and keep it in bottles until you've decided what you want to do

Or you could just freeze the fruit until you've decided.... handy for juice extraction the old "freeze/thaw" technique....

don't forget, whatever you make, you'll need pectolase in it to prevent it hazing!

regards

jtfb

[Ian]

Thanks for the reply.

In the end I decided on a mixed currant melomel using 1lb each of the currants.

I used a litre of boiling water to extract the juice and a bland honey.

With the remaining currants I made a fruit heavy wine. Again using boiling water to extract the juice.

I then combined all the pulp and extracted what I could (again with boiling water) and made another meolomel.

I hadn't used my pectolase for a month or so and found that it was a solid block! So i have scraped enough tsps and added that.

I didn't want to apply too much heat to either the fruit itself or the resulting juice.

I've used a high-alcohol yeast (and nutrient) and the three batches are bubbling gently away.

[fatbloke]

Thanks for the reply.

In the end I decided on a mixed currant melomel using 1lb each of the currants.

I used a litre of boiling water to extract the juice and a bland honey.

With the remaining currants I made a fruit heavy wine. Again using boiling water to extract the juice.

I then combined all the pulp and extracted what I could (again with boiling water) and made another meolomel.

I hadn't used my pectolase for a month or so and found that it was a solid block! So i have scraped enough tsps and added that.

I didn't want to apply too much heat to either the fruit itself or the resulting juice.

I've used a high-alcohol yeast (and nutrient) and the three batches are bubbling gently away.

Sound's like it should do the job Ian.

My only thoughts are that for melomels, I've moved away from making it with the honey/friut/juice directly - I tend to make it more like a mead and then either add some juice when it's at about 1020(ish) or I ferment it out to dry and then add the juice - it doesn't seem to loose so much of the fruit flavour that way.

I also don't usually go for high alcohol yeasts like champagne yeasts either, as they do seem to be very harsh on the fruit flavours - yes, something like lalvins K1V can also produce quite high alcohol but they're also known for retaining fruit flavours.

I personally, would have separated the black currants, from the other two - which I feel can be mixed, but the black currants are better used either on their own or with something like apple for a complimentary taste - they produce so much colour/flavour that like raspberries, they can unintentionally over power the more subtle fruit flavours of red and white currants.....

If it's red fruit, I usually use either K1V or RC212 yeasts. If it's pink or white fruit then it's D47 or 71B or K1V (in that order - depending on what I've got handy......sometimes I'll use an equivalent....).

Good on yer though, I hope it all turns out well, and most importantly, tasty

regards

jtfb

[Ian]

Well, the melomels are almost at 1.000. I racked them off and had a quick taste and they seem promising.

The wine is lagging behind at 1.020 but again looking good.

If i get similar batches, I will look to do individual currant melomels and then do a further mixed batch.

[fatbloke]

Well, the melomels are almost at 1.000. I racked them off and had a quick taste and they seem promising.

The wine is lagging behind at 1.020 but again looking good.

If i get similar batches, I will look to do individual currant melomels and then do a further mixed batch.

Excellent, well done.

Though I'd still include the caveat from my earlier post. If you add the fruit/juice to secondary or after ferment is complete you're likely to get it drinkable earlier that you might otherwise do.

but what the hell, if your method is working to your satisfaction then why change it - maybe if you get your hands on a glut of a certain type of fruit, then have a go with the secondary/post-ferment technique then.....

Otherwise, as above, well done as it's not far off at 1.000

regards

jtfb

[Ian]

After racking a little while back (I've been a bit lazy!), I have bottled the melomels. A quick taste and they are very nice.

As I've said before, I'll do things differently next time but, still a nice drink

The wine has all but stopped at 1010.

A little sweet but I'm happy with it.

[fatbloke]

After racking a little while back (I've been a bit lazy!), I have bottled the melomels. A quick taste and they are very nice.

As I've said before, I'll do things differently next time but, still a nice drink

The wine has all but stopped at 1010.

A little sweet but I'm happy with it.

Cor

If you have the glassware available, I'd say that you'd be better placed ageing it in bulk. It's less prone to temperature swings which could cause a different taste to apparently identical bottles.

Plus I was a little surprised to see that they stopped at 1010...... did you take a starting gravity ???

regards

jtfb