Strawberry Melomel

[StockeyDAW]

I have just bottled a Strawberry Melomel. It has turned out outstanding. I used wildflower honey, away from the norm I always use tartaric acid and liquid sweet Wyeast Yeast. When bottling it filled the room and house with a great strawberry aroma. The flavour is terrific and the body wonderful. Sorry I am of the old style and I will remain to use the acid - It works for me. As usual in the wine making process their are more than one way to make an outstanding batch. Hope you all enjoy the pics. DAW

[Duffbeer]

Nice work Daw, looking good

[StockeyDAW]

Thank You Duffbeer it was great fun making. DAW

[Hippie]

Looks great and yummy! I am inclined to agree with your tartaric acid additions. Malic is too harsh, citric can lead to volatile and even acetic acids. What else is there?

We appreciate the value your experience adds to this forum!

[StockeyDAW]

Thank you for your encouragement. This old fellow needs your expertise to to add to the trials and errors. A one way street never seems to work. Positive ideas from all is greatly appreciated. DAW

[Dead Squirrel Running]

I hope that this is perceived more as a question than questioning, as I for about twenty years quit making fruit wines altogether - I raise wine grapes, so consider me a novice, still I had quite a quantity of fresh Blackberries and Strawberries in 2005 and used recipes from Jack Keller, but oh, I qualify that as I proceed in winemaking on readings, not recipes and then use additives. About this time I also picked up a great lemon wine from Cheryl located in Hurricane country and that definitely was all a recipe

With Jack’s recipe, it called for the addition of acid blend, which as I was adding rhubarb, I didn't add, as the TA climbed from the mid 4’s to near 7 afterward, which is what I wanted and a reason not to follow pat recipes. Still who would know better than the winemaker the engredience needed or the the eventual outcome but yourself and, aka taste, great pixs and clarity and more - great labels, graphics, ….. but in my ignorance I wonder why tartaric or malatic would be the acids considered and not acid blend.

The lemon wine? I thought it was much like a good Mead wine, which I believe shouldn‘t be sulphited, but heated short of boiling. The best response came from some snotty nosed commercial winemakers in Walla Walla, see avatar, pix of vineyard, who raved about the Lemon Wine. Unfortunately it’s a lot of work to make 10 US gals of Lemon Wine and too easy to drink.

Of course this is all a moot point because I have know idea what the word Melomel means, nor does my Thesaurus, ha ha.

[StockeyDAW]

http://www.meadmadecomplicated.org/mead_tasting/mead_types.html

Here is the explanation for Melomel. I will answer other questions in small portions as this does not seem to like a long winded reply. Some of the questions Hippie would be able to answer with much more detail. DAW

[StockeyDAW]

I hope that this is perceived more as a question than questioning, as I for about twenty years quit making fruit wines altogether - I raise wine grapes, so consider me a novice, still I had quite a quantity of fresh Blackberries and Strawberries in 2005 and used recipes from Jack Keller, but oh, I qualify that as I proceed in winemaking on readings, not recipes and then use additives. About this time I also picked up a great lemon wine from Cheryl located in Hurricane country and that definitely was all a recipe

With Jack’s recipe, it called for the addition of acid blend, which as I was adding rhubarb, I didn't add, as the TA climbed from the mid 4’s to near 7 afterward, which is what I wanted and a reason not to follow pat recipes. Still who would know better than the winemaker the engredience needed or the the eventual outcome but yourself and, aka taste, great pixs and clarity and more - great labels, graphics, ….. but in my ignorance I wonder why tartaric or malatic would be the acids considered and not acid blend.

The lemon wine? I thought it was much like a good Mead wine, which I believe shouldn‘t be sulphited, but heated short of boiling. The best response came from some snotty nosed commercial winemakers in Walla Walla, see avatar, pix of vineyard, who raved about the Lemon Wine. Unfortunately it’s a lot of work to make 10 US gals of Lemon Wine and too easy to drink.

Of course this is all a moot point because I have know idea what the word Melomel means, nor does my Thesaurus, ha ha.

Sorry Jimmy I tried to give you along explanation and it crashed again? I will try later. DAW

[lockwood1956]

Here is another explanation you may find useful

http://www.solorb.com/mead/mead.html

At what stage did you add the fruit to the melomel Daw?

primary or secondary vessel?

[StockeyDAW]

Strawberries added during the primary stage then removed 5 days after start of fermentation. Other things also added during that stage -- 12.5 kg's strawberries, 17 lbs wildflower honey, 10 tsp of tartaric, 2.5 of pectic enzyme, 1/4 tsp tannin, 3.75 tsp of nutrient, 5 campden tabs crushed, wyeast 4184 sweet mead liquid yeast, 1 vanilla bean. Other details if requested. DAW

[StockeyDAW]

I hope that this is perceived more as a question than questioning, as I for about twenty years quit making fruit wines altogether - I raise wine grapes, so consider me a novice, still I had quite a quantity of fresh Blackberries and Strawberries in 2005 and used recipes from Jack Keller, but oh, I qualify that as I proceed in winemaking on readings, not recipes and then use additives. About this time I also picked up a great lemon wine from Cheryl located in Hurricane country and that definitely was all a recipe

With Jack’s recipe, it called for the addition of acid blend, which as I was adding rhubarb, I didn't add, as the TA climbed from the mid 4’s to near 7 afterward, which is what I wanted and a reason not to follow pat recipes. Still who would know better than the winemaker the engredience needed or the the eventual outcome but yourself and, aka taste, great pixs and clarity and more - great labels, graphics, ….. but in my ignorance I wonder why tartaric or malatic would be the acids considered and not acid blend.

The lemon wine? I thought it was much like a good Mead wine, which I believe shouldn‘t be sulphited, but heated short of boiling. The best response came from some snotty nosed commercial winemakers in Walla Walla, see avatar, pix of vineyard, who raved about the Lemon Wine. Unfortunately it’s a lot of work to make 10 US gals of Lemon Wine and too easy to drink.

Of course this is all a moot point because I have know idea what the word Melomel means, nor does my Thesaurus, ha ha.

You are raising wine grapes and making wine from them? You will have no problem making fruit wine. You mentioned the strawberries and blackberries that you have available- my suggestion would be to eat your fill at dessert then at the same time pick the ripe fruit that you do not eat and put it in the freezer for the fall fermentation season. The freezing helps break down the fruit skins and pulp and makes it easier for the yeast to extract all those natural flavours and sugars that the fruits are will to give. DAW more to come I dont' want it to crash again...

[StockeyDAW]

I hope that this is perceived more as a question than questioning, as I for about twenty years quit making fruit wines altogether - I raise wine grapes, so consider me a novice, still I had quite a quantity of fresh Blackberries and Strawberries in 2005 and used recipes from Jack Keller, but oh, I qualify that as I proceed in winemaking on readings, not recipes and then use additives. About this time I also picked up a great lemon wine from Cheryl located in Hurricane country and that definitely was all a recipe

With Jack’s recipe, it called for the addition of acid blend, which as I was adding rhubarb, I didn't add, as the TA climbed from the mid 4’s to near 7 afterward, which is what I wanted and a reason not to follow pat recipes. Still who would know better than the winemaker the engredience needed or the the eventual outcome but yourself and, aka taste, great pixs and clarity and more - great labels, graphics, ….. but in my ignorance I wonder why tartaric or malic would be the acids considered and not acid blend.

The lemon wine? I thought it was much like a good Mead wine, which I believe shouldn‘t be sulphited, but heated short of boiling. The best response came from some snotty nosed commercial winemakers in Walla Walla, see avatar, pix of vineyard, who raved about the Lemon Wine. Unfortunately it’s a lot of work to make 10 US gals of Lemon Wine and too easy to drink.

Of course this is all a moot point because I have know idea what the word Melomel means, nor does my Thesaurus, ha ha.

Question regarding - Why tartaric acid and not acid blend? Few fruits other than grapes contain significant amounts of tartaric acid. When fermenting grapes the amount of tartaric acid slowly decreases in wine. Tartaric acid is resistant to decomposition and is not very often attacked by microbes and it is why wine makers add to grapes deficient in acidity rather than malic or citric. Malic acid added could encourage ML fermentation - not always wanted and citric acid could convert to acetic acid - not desirable. Also when purchasing acid blend at the store there may be a problem with the percentages of each acid- how much citric? how much malic? how much tartaric? Some acid blends that I have seen contain up to 50% citric--not what you want. I have therefore changed all my fermentation processes to include totally tartaric; I do not use the acid blend any more. If you have to use acid blend my suggestion would be something like 3.2.1 concentrations for tartaric, malic and then citric. My opinion - works for me- result of my experience and reading. I believe hippie could give a much better detailed explanation. DAW

[Dead Squirrel Running]

http://www.meadmadecomplicated.org/m...ead_types.html

Here is the explanation for Melomel. I will answer other questions in small portions as this does not seem to like a long winded reply. Some of the questions Hippie would be able to answer with much more detail. DAW

Thanks, yes I picked that up. Let's not pick on Hippie right now. Holy cats, this might turn into a book, ha ha.

[Dead Squirrel Running]

Strawberries added during the primary stage then removed 5 days after start of fermentation. Other things also added during that stage -- 12.5 kg's strawberries, 17 lbs wildflower honey, 10 tsp of tartaric, 2.5 of pectic enzyme, 1/4 tsp tannin, 3.75 tsp of nutrient, 5 campden tabs crushed, wyeast 4184 sweet mead liquid yeast, 1 vanilla bean. Other details if requested. DAW

Hmmm I like that vanilla.

[Dead Squirrel Running]

You are raising wine grapes and making wine from them? You will have no problem making fruit wine. You mentioned the strawberries and blackberries that you have available- my suggestion would be to eat your fill at dessert then at the same time pick the ripe fruit that you do not eat and put it in the freezer for the fall fermentation season. The freezing helps break down the fruit skins and pulp and makes it easier for the yeast to extract all those natural flavours and sugars that the fruits are will to give. DAW more to come I dont' want it to crash again...

Not really my history. I made fruit wines for a number of years, mostly red current and excellent. Yes the Blackberries were frozen about 27 lbs and the the Strawberries 10lb for wine and 10lb for freezer jam, I'll take the freezer jam, but friends did drink all of the Blackberry and Strawberry wine, thank you, good they say, but not for me.