Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

MELOMELS (fruit)

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
This is a sticky topic.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • MELOMELS (fruit)

    Making Mead----- Fruit (Melomel)




    How to Make MELOMEL (Mead with Fruit)

    Some of the best Meads are made with the addition of fruit. I would say that probably every fruit that you can think of has been tried in a Melomel. The blending of fruit and honey in a fermentation process seem to go hand; the sweetness and tartness somehow harmonize together in a drink with outstanding aroma, body, many colors and enhanced flavor enjoyment. These are parts of the mead making process that I encourage all to try using their favorite fruit. In the end you will wonder why you didn’t make a double batch. Many of the fruits are included in the Melomel heading except fruits such as grapes, apples and mulberries etc. that have their own heading. Whatever fruit or berry that you use in your Melomel it must be prepared correctly and this depends largely of the particular fruit or berry that you are using. Citrus fruits are peeled, pitted and pithed, pears are cored, stemmed and sliced into manageable pieces, cherries are pitted and stemmed as are plumes, strawberries are stemmed cored and sliced into quarters raspberries are usually already cored when they are picked and are manageable whole; go by the fruit or berry that you are using and after preparation make sure they a washed and cleaned well. Some berries like currants and blueberries may be machine harvested and contain all kinds of debris like leaves, stems seeds etc. these machine harvested berries take a while to clean up but in the case of blueberries and currants they make a delicious Melomel. I prefer that after I have prepared any of the fruits for the Melomel that they are frozen. However if you prefer to use them fresh right after the preparation stage that will also be OK. I prefer to use a 2 pound or 4 pound zip lock bag and put the prepared fruit or berries in there. Freezing is a great process for all fruits and berries – flavor is kept and not lost and after thawing it is much easier for the juices and color to mingle with the rest of the juices if they have been previously frozen. See the tables within this tutorial to give you an idea of the amount of fruit and honey to use to make a Melomel.

    Start the Melomel batch by removing all the frozen fruit or berries from the zip lock bags and putting them into three nylon straining bags that can be purchased at the local hardware store (they are used for paint straining bags but also work well as straining bags and are as less expensive than purchasing a bag that is used only once from the retail brew store). Once all the fruit or berries (you can surely blend these in your favorite profile – a favorite citric fruit combined with a malic compatible) are in the straining bags, crush a Campden tablet and mix it in some warm water then sprinkle it over the berries or fruit. This is left to thaw overnight for approximately 12 hours.

    The honey has been previously purchased and you will use 3.5 pounds of honey for each gallon of mead that is made. There is not general poundage to use for all fruits or berries please check the tables for suggestions on how much fruit could be used for each specific kind for example black or red currants 10 pounds for dinner and 20 pounds for dessert where as rhubarbs possible poundage is 50 pounds for dinner or 75 pounds for dessert. You could also use less you taste preference rules. These currant and rhubarb poundage possibilities will give us a very fruity and aroma intense Melomel. The body and sweetness of the honey will combine with wonderful fruit aromas. In the morning after the fruit or berries have thawed use a stainless steel potato masher to crush the fruit or berries to release the juices and pulp inside. Use just enough crushing to break the skin and allow the juices to flow.

    It is time now to prepare the honey. Use ten liters of good water in a stainless steel pot and heat the water to 155 degrees F. Then slowly stir in all 17 – 18 pounds of the honey making sure that it does not stick to the bottom of the pot. Gradually let the temperature increase to 175 degrees and try to keep it in that range for approximately 30 minutes. Do not boil and at the same time skim the foam that develops on top of the heated honey and water. This foam will decrease by the time 30 minutes is over and it will be time to turn off the heat. Be very careful with this hot liquid if it is spilled onto skin it burns quickly – hard to wash the sticky stuff off. Ladle the honey water mixture from the stainless steel pot into the primary fermenter pouring the hot liquid over the fruit or berries and stirring to mix the juices and color through the honey water mixture. After mixing around half the mixture from the stainless pot you will now be able to carry the primary fermenter and remaining mixture to the fermentation room area. Mix in the remainder of the honey water then let rest in the hot liquid until the temperature gets below 100 degrees F. It is now time to pour in and stir the remainder of the water (15 liters – couple of liters extra for top ups and/or back sweetening) into the primary fermenter. Now the additives are stirred in: bentonite slurry, Pectic enzyme, 2 campden tablets crushed and the tartaric acid (see the recipe section for Meads for the amounts of the additives to use). Stir this entire in well and allow to rest overnight, 12 hours. In the morning the mixture is stirred and the yeast nutrient and yeast energizer are added and stirred in and allowed to rest for another 12 hours.
    The mixture should now be at room temperature – 65-70 degrees F. This is the time in the process to test the pH. The pH should be between 3.0 and 3.55. If the must is below 3.0 it will be tart; musts above 3.55 will be readily infected by bacteria, easily oxidized and hard to maintain sulphite protection. If we start the pH below 3.55 the pH is likely to decrease during fermentation and that is great, if however we start the pH above 3.55 the pH is likely to increase and that is not what we want. In both cases the titratable acid (TA) will likely decrease during fermentation. So here’s the word start the red meads at approximately 3.2-3.4 pH and the light colored meads at 3.1-3.3 ideal or for sure within the 3.0- 3.55 – do not go below or above these pH numbers. In my opinion if the fermentation is started at too high or too low a pH the must will be headed for problems – stuck fermentation or bacterial attack. Others however use higher pH numbers and different process to start with; they have assured us that their process works well. The above works for me and is based on recently recommended process for making mead, age old wine fermentation process and my limited experience and success; each to their own. If you have to lower the pH add more tartaric acid, if you have to increase pH add potassium carbonate solution (see table guidelines for amounts of these to add).
    When we have reached the correct pH level we can rehydrate the two 5 gram packages of yeast and pitch it into the mixture. We can also make a starter solution with orange juice if that is a preference. Do not stir at this time. There it is the fermentation should be noticeable within 24 hours. As mentioned a room temperature of 65-70 degrees F does very well. If the fermentation temperature goes above 75 degrees then we must try and find a cooler location or cool the must to the 70 degree F area; ice bath, cold towels cooler room. Fermentation will be very strong for the first 4 days. After the 4 days and when the fermentation starts to slow slightly it is time to introduce the booster nutrients and energizer at one half or less of the original addition. The mead is also stirred twice daily and the straining bags with the fruit squished against the side of the primary fermenter with a long handle spoon.
    Depending on the oak that we use: the sawdust kind can be put in the primary in a nylon bag or paper coffee filters during the first 4 days of fermentation and then removed squeezed and discarded. The medium toasted oak chips can be used in the secondary part of the alcohol fermentation procedure (approximately 14 days); the medium toasted oak cubes can be used after the clearing/fining process for two or three months during the bulk ageing stage. Your taste rules here. Also there is always the oak barrel.

    The primary fermentation process will take (if all goes well) from 7 to 10 days the Specific gravity (SG) should now be at 1.020-1.030 and it is time to rack the must into a glass carboy and attach an air lock. This secondary part of the alcohol fermentation should take from 14 to 21 days. The SG at this point will be 1.000 or less and there will be some clearing noticeable and a great reduction in the fermentation process. It is now time to rack the young Mead to the cleaned and sterilized primary fermenter. When the young mead has been racked add 2 crushed campden tablets and stir gently. Degassing time now and since I have the young mead back in the primary fermenter I use my high speed electric drill and mixer attachment it will only take approximately to give it a good mix to get rid of the excess C02. Be careful not to long, we do not want any oxidation to take place. After the degas stage the fining agent will be introduced and mixed in gently. See the degas description in another section of this tutorial. It is indicated there a couple of different fining agents, one for the red colored meads and another for the clear colored meads. When this has been mixed in well (red colored mead) the young mead can be racked back into a clean sterilized glass carboy and an air lock attached. If it is a clear mead that you are doing use the bentonite and Sparkeloid method; the bentonite will have to be mixed in a slurry and poured and mixed in the carboy and the Sparkeloid heated on the stove according to instructions on the package and poured through a funnel while still hot into the glass carboy and young mead and stirred in gently. If you have a vacuum pump and system the degas process will be done in the glass carboy secondary fermenter. The carboy can now be put into the cool ageing room (area) and allowed to clear for approximately 3 weeks to one month. When it is all cleared the young clear mead is racked to another clean and sterilized carboy an air lock attached and back into the cool storage area for 2 months to 6 months. If the mead is not completely clear you may have to rack one or two more times. You want the mead to be completely clear before bottling. When it is clear bottle and age for another 6 months. I have a few bottles during this bottle ageing period and it is darn good but it gets better the longer you can wait.

    This is the basic procedure that can be used to make all meads. See the tables section for the amounts of fruits and spices in other meads. CHEERS - Melomel is delicious. Probably the best of all Meads but that is certainly debatable.
    Attached Files
    Last edited by StockeyDAW; 02-02-2008, 03:58 AM.
Working...
X