Strawberry Melomel

[Dead Squirrel Running]

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

Interesting Well yes I'm familiar with the acids in grapes. I usally do not run mlf but did side by side test this year which I'll report on in my next racking visa wine grapes. No - really, I believe you, If you're ending with some residual sugar, tartaric might work well. Looking back on the last three fruit wines, I see I never added any acid to the Strawberries visa Rhubarb nor the Lemon Wine. The Blackberries I did add acid blend and I guess it must have been OK because they were sure slurping it up. I just would rather drink wine from wine grapes and that's why I started raising vines twenty some years ago.

[Hippie]

I don't make mead or melomel or any type of honey wine. I made 1 batch of mead several years ago and it was nasty enough to keep me from trying again in all these years.

DAW, you can be the mead guy on this forum!

[StockeyDAW]

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?

Good one! Nice Redstone Meadery adds - this has not started yet in Canada... Has it become popular in England again? Cheers DAW:

[StockeyDAW]

I don't make mead or melomel or any type of honey wine. I made 1 batch of mead several years ago and it was nasty enough to keep me from trying again in all these years.

DAW, you can be the mead guy on this forum!

Glad to add my two cents - help always welcome. DAW

[curlyk]

Hi,

New to this forum, interested to read about your strawberry melomel - I've just started meads and melomels myself, and have a rather good (I hope it will turn out to be) blackberry melomel in storage, a couple of mixed fruit melomels and a peach and ginger melomel (from the Compleat Meadmaker) on the go. Plus a couple of straight meads.

I was just wondering if you can describe the taste of your strawberry melomel? I'm having trouble balancing the relative flavours of the fruit and the honey ... does yours taste predominantly of one or the other? Or is it mostly strawberry? With a hint of honey, strong honey, or no discernible honey flavour?

Would be interested to hear,

Cheers,

Keith :-)

[StockeyDAW]

Hi,

New to this forum, interested to read about your strawberry melomel - I've just started meads and melomels myself, and have a rather good (I hope it will turn out to be) blackberry melomel in storage, a couple of mixed fruit melomels and a peach and ginger melomel (from the Compleat Meadmaker) on the go. Plus a couple of straight meads.

I was just wondering if you can describe the taste of your strawberry melomel? I'm having trouble balancing the relative flavours of the fruit and the honey ... does yours taste predominantly of one or the other? Or is it mostly strawberry? With a hint of honey, strong honey, or no discernible honey flavour?

Would be interested to hear,

Cheers,

Keith :-)

Hey Keith - Thank you for the interest. Unfortunately I have only around 6 bottles of last years batch left. 3 bottles soon to be hidden in a nice 60 F wine cooler for I hope a couple of years. When I made last years batch of Strawberry the aromas of strawberries filled the house. Now more than a year later when we pour a nice glass (in a large wine glass ) the aromas of strawberry fill the glass; the tartness and strawberry slip over the taste buds down the tub to gently warm the tummy? Seriously it is a great relaxer loved by the whole family. For the honey part --- it is there (wildflower honey last year) but no where overpowering but some residual vague sweetness. I have another one made this year now clearing after fining. Did you happen to see the recipe in the Mead recipe section? I changed the recipie slightly this year from last year - learn something new every time "I hope". This year it is with alphapha/fireweed honey and different strawberries of couarse - the color this year is going to be different a very much golden red - have not tasted it yet; that will have to wait till around March 08 some time. Cheers - good luck with all your mead!

[lockwood1956]

Hi Keith
Welcome aboard
regards
Bob

[curlyk]

Hi Lockwood,

Cheers, I'm the same CurlyK that appears on homewinemaking.co.uk ...

Thanks for the details StockeyDAW. I guess what I was getting at, is there a big difference between strawberry mead (for example) and strawberry wine? I have a load of strawberry wine busy maturing, and would like to try strawberry mead - but not if it comes out the same. So I'll be trying for a bit of the honey character to come out, which yours seems to have.

I was reading elsewhere (it may have been this forum, or a link from this forum) saying that melomels should/could show characteristics of both the fruit and the honey, but not necessarily in equal measures. What it all comes down to, of course, is personal preference - do you want a strawberry wine with a hint of honey, or a mead with a hint of strawberry etc etc. Yes I did see your recipe, that is why I was picking your brains, to find out what the balance is in your mead given the quantity of fruit you used ...

Experimentation is the key of course, but it takes so long to wait for the results! Plus I'm of limited capacity at the moment - so many wines to make, so few DJs and so little space!

Still, must soldier on I suppose

Cheers,

Keith :-)

[StockeyDAW]

Keith there are ways that we can use to bring forward the flavours that we want. Type of yeast used, how the fruit is used during the fermentation (primary and or secondary), addition of things such as glycerin or mils of natural flavor extracts (very little) and some trial and error. That is the advantage of the forum we are able to talk back and forth to develop solutions. This mead making is not like a kit takes some ageing but around here with mead being a favourite that is difficult to do. Cheers DAW

[Aristaeus]

Strawberry Fields in Liverpool

Strawberry Syrup for Strawberry Melomel. I will double post this one to make sure everyone making strawberry mead or wine get to see it...I am particular proud of this innovation, because it can be used to bolster the "body" of those weaker fruits and vegetables. Strawberry needs more acid, unless you have those Fragaria L. http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=FRAGA
but do not worry about it until after fermentation.

Mash, steep, then freeze those little beggers with some lemon juice to top in plastic containers. Save the syrup and the must, as both can be used in sac mead for flavoring. Light, medium and strong favoring, or ferment the must with honey for a good melomel.

Thaw them upside-down into a extra large funnel...you may have to build a support...which fills a 5 gallon carboy. This cryogenic step does not add oxidation enough to make a noticeable difference...unless Governor, you plan on watching your mead all day and all night...or displaying it for the Queen MOM. There I must admit it is not near good enough. It is something to do these Winter months, while making a sac mead. When this is done, and sac mead has finished 3 months cold storage (32 F to 40 F on oak) add sorbate in proper proportions, along with strawberry/lemon syrup at 4 to 1 with honey. You may add additions of Tartaric Acid to taste. Test a small batch first, then apply Pearson Square formula - http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/livestk/01618.html - for rations.

My forte is sifting around the backwoods looking for juice to ferment or back sweeten a mead. This is an area know for it's many historic river crossings. As the wagon trains came west from the eastern seaboard, this is where many a weary immigrant lighten their load; some of those potted plants were planted...lost to high water mishaps and/or dumped willingly...many threw them out at the sight of their first Indian or "Savage". My Native American Roots got a rollicking good laugh from scaring the pee-waddle (Slang for discarded Stuff and human excrement) out of the white man's wagons...as the white man sped off into the SunSet...literally!

They took those plants back to their T-Pee's where they were planted; later immigrants taught them to graph and propagate. Some seeds were planted wild only to dwarf. Native American quickly learned the value of these new species; and traded for them, planting them on allotted lands. What is fermented is not necessarily what you taste after fermentation.

This is the source of my quest in mead making...hope you will join me or at least enjoy reading about my quest. We could write a book or something, or a TV Series, call it "Last of the Summer Meade", oops...that one is taken? Or is it?

Keith & Loretta

[StockeyDAW]

Strawberry Syrup for Strawberry Melomel. I will double post this one to make sure everyone making strawberry mead or wine get to see it...I am particular proud of this innovation, because it can be used to bolster the "body" of those weaker fruits and vegetables. Strawberry needs more acid, unless you have those Fragaria L. http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=FRAGA
but do not worry about it until after fermentation.

Mash, steep, then freeze those little beggers with some lemon juice to top in plastic containers. Save the syrup and the must, as both can be used in sac mead for flavoring. Light, medium and strong favoring, or ferment the must with honey for a good melomel.

Thaw them upside-down into a extra large funnel...you may have to build a support...which fills a 5 gallon carboy. This cryogenic step does not add oxidation enough to make a noticeable difference...unless Governor, you plan on watching your mead all day and all night...or displaying it for the Queen MOM. There I must admit it is not near good enough. It is something to do these Winter months, while making a sac mead. When this is done, and sac mead has finished 3 months cold storage (32 F to 40 F on oak) add sorbate in proper proportions, along with strawberry/lemon syrup at 4 to 1 with honey. You may add additions of Tartaric Acid to taste. Test a small batch first, then apply Pearson Square formula - http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/livestk/01618.html - for rations.

My forte is sifting around the backwoods looking for juice to ferment or back sweeten a mead. This is an area know for it's many historic river crossings. As the wagon trains came west from the eastern seaboard, this is where many a weary immigrant lighten their load; some of those potted plants were planted...lost to high water mishaps and/or dumped willingly...many threw them out at the sight of their first Indian or "Savage". My Native American Roots got a rollicking good laugh from scaring the pee-waddle (Slang for discarded Stuff and human excrement) out of the white man's wagons...as the white man sped off into the SunSet...literally!

They took those plants back to their T-Pee's where they were planted; later immigrants taught them to graph and propagate. Some seeds were planted wild only to dwarf. Native American quickly learned the value of these new species; and traded for them, planting them on allotted lands. What is fermented is not necessarily what you taste after fermentation.

This is the source of my quest in mead making...hope you will join me or at least enjoy reading about my quest. We could write a book or something, or a TV Series, call it "Last of the Summer Meade", oops...that one is taken? Or is it?

Keith & Loretta

Well written with a slant toward the old english prose. I enjoyed reading it. DAW

[Aristaeus]

Strawberry melomel is ready for it's debut...it is not sweet but leaves that inpression eg 1.01 corrected to 60 F. It is the clearest we have every made, without sacraficing flavor. The strawberrys were Stillwell, OKieHoma grown. I would love to carbonate (dispatch method) some strawberry for sparkling strawberry melomel.

[StockeyDAW]

Beauitiful color in that batch. That will be a great hit with the ladies. Cheers DAW

[StockeyDAW]

Strawberry melomel is ready for it's debut...it is not sweet but leaves that inpression eg 1.01 corrected to 60 F. It is the clearest we have every made, without sacraficing flavor. The strawberrys were Stillwell, OKieHoma grown. I would love to carbonate (dispatch method) some strawberry for sparkling strawberry melomel.

Great -- come on with the method for carbonation I am just completing the fortification one in the Other Mead section of the tutorial. This would really fit in there under the sparkling section? I could copy and post in there if you go along with that. Cheers DAW

[Aristaeus]

Sure Stockey...just use a cornelius keg and some nitrogen or CO2 to carbonate. This is the dispatch method, or Modified Charmat process. The investment for keg, regulator ($90 US) and nitrogen (rented bottle additional). This beats messing with disgorging, not to mention the additional waiting time. Nitrogen does taste fresher, but CO2 is cheaper.