Hmm. Putting massive quantities of fruit in a mead. Now there's a novel idea. I think I'll give it a whirl.
Brewing TV does Mead
- Thread starter manwithbeers
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I always strive for balance in my mels, if I can't taste the fruit, why did I bother, and if I can't taste the honey, I should have just used sugar and made fruit wine, I've wasted the honey. Only once have I experienced too much fruit in a wine, from a winery who uses pure fruit juice, no water, and I only found one fruit (blueberries, odd because I LOVE blueberries) where this was too much...
Dale,
I am even a newer newbie than you....
Sometimes being new isn't so bad as the view from outside looking in is interesting.
I do not wish to trash the mazer cup or any judge for it. Yet
the bigger issue to all this is the health benefits that honey brings to the
table. Now, lets throw in some of those super fruits and holy cow we have
us a health drink..
http://www.superfruits.org/components/
Cheers,
TB
Dale,
I am even a newer newbie than you....
Sometimes being new isn't so bad as the view from outside looking in is interesting.
I do not wish to trash the mazer cup or any judge for it. Yet
the bigger issue to all this is the health benefits that honey brings to the
table. Now, lets throw in some of those super fruits and holy cow we have
us a health drink..
http://www.superfruits.org/components/
Cheers,
TB
I hope no one thought I was trashing the Mazer Cup. The guidelines call for the honey in the aroma and flavor, and I like the fruit bombs, with the honey in the background, barely noticable, but if it wasn't there, you would miss it. Hence, I take my lumps at competitions, and my very favorite melomels do not place.
By the way, I have been making meads since 1978, I'm far too tarnished to be a newbie anymore.
Wow, I haven't even been breathing that long! I definitely still consider myself a novice. One day I'll change my profile to say that I'm intermediate or some such...
I think the forum automatically generates titles based on post count, people start as eggs then go from there. You can change it in your profile somewhere.
I read somewhere once that they'd like everyone to write in that spot how long they've been making mead, so that newbies have an idea of how experienced the people responding to their posts are. I haven't even been making it for long enough to do that, so I just put "novice".
HA, Ha, Ha, Ha.... ROTFL!!!
BTW, Ken, I have one bottle left of my F. de la N., which was inspired by your Heart of Darkness. Since I had no access to good cherries, I used elderberries as the backbone in this one. (Funny how the good stuff seems to "evaporate" from the cellar racks.) Since you didn't get to try it at this past year's Mazer Cup, I plan on opening it at next year's. Just so ya know....
And DaleP, yes that label is something Oskaar came up with as an indicator of a member's post count, but I have no idea how the labels change, nor how many posts it takes to go from a given category to the next.
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wayneb, as a forum mod, you're above the law... I think you go from egg to larva at 100 or 150 and I think I became a "drone" at 500, there you go, something to aspire to!
My first Mel's where I held back on the fruit, have ended up just tasting like traditionals with something maybe lurking around in the background, but not really.
So yea, I'd rather go fruit bomb than have lots of bad traditional laying around
*has only done 9 batches at this point
So yea, I'd rather go fruit bomb than have lots of bad traditional laying around
*has only done 9 batches at this point
Sorry I didn't step in on this earlier.
Well made big fruit mels can definitely be ready in a very short time. I have a tart cherry cyser that is smooth and elegant in six weeks, along with several others.
It's about micro-management of the ferment and; I mean that in a microscopic sense. That is, focusing in on things like suspension of the yeast in the nutrient gradient, MOx, surface area, heat zones, CO2 zones, etc. Staying on top of all those things will help to ensure a very strong ferment with minimal production of any harsh/off/reductive aromas and flavors. Management to that level will also help transition more smoothly into aging and maturing.
Keeping the ferment from swinging to extremes (i.e. waiting too long with nutrient additions, over or under-dosing with O2, inconsistent temperature swings, inconsistent cap management, etc) will all add elements that need time to age out. The less of those elements that are formed the less time it takes to age, and mature. This is especially true of tannic red wine as well.
So for big fruit mels, to me, the key is being a micro-manager. I check temp in different areas of my fermenters, draw pH samples from different levels, and pay special attention to pH above and within the lees. Over the past five years I have gone from aggressive whipping of my melomels with the lees stirrer to a more gentle traditional "punch-down" method that I find helps with sugar, acid, color, aroma and flavor extraction. This is also why I have moved back to buckets, SS and larger open fermentation vessels for mels, because it is easier to manage the primary in those critical first 3-5 days.
Oskaar
Well made big fruit mels can definitely be ready in a very short time. I have a tart cherry cyser that is smooth and elegant in six weeks, along with several others.
It's about micro-management of the ferment and; I mean that in a microscopic sense. That is, focusing in on things like suspension of the yeast in the nutrient gradient, MOx, surface area, heat zones, CO2 zones, etc. Staying on top of all those things will help to ensure a very strong ferment with minimal production of any harsh/off/reductive aromas and flavors. Management to that level will also help transition more smoothly into aging and maturing.
Keeping the ferment from swinging to extremes (i.e. waiting too long with nutrient additions, over or under-dosing with O2, inconsistent temperature swings, inconsistent cap management, etc) will all add elements that need time to age out. The less of those elements that are formed the less time it takes to age, and mature. This is especially true of tannic red wine as well.
So for big fruit mels, to me, the key is being a micro-manager. I check temp in different areas of my fermenters, draw pH samples from different levels, and pay special attention to pH above and within the lees. Over the past five years I have gone from aggressive whipping of my melomels with the lees stirrer to a more gentle traditional "punch-down" method that I find helps with sugar, acid, color, aroma and flavor extraction. This is also why I have moved back to buckets, SS and larger open fermentation vessels for mels, because it is easier to manage the primary in those critical first 3-5 days.
Oskaar
Well last night I racked my own Cassis Melomel off the fruit. All I can say is wow, it was absolutely delicious! I don't know that it is completely done yet. It was still bubbling a few times a minute but I don't expect the 71B will get the gravity much lower.
I used 2 lbs of berries per gallon and the flavor is pretty tart but that balances the residual sweetness very well. SG 1.030. (OG estimated to be 1.130) It was 1.124 with just the honey and I estimate the fruit added 0.007 SG. I started this mead 18 days ago.
Cassis Mead will become a 5 gallon batch next season I'm sure. I have more berries available right now but they are reserved for a Cassis Lambic.
I used 2 lbs of berries per gallon and the flavor is pretty tart but that balances the residual sweetness very well. SG 1.030. (OG estimated to be 1.130) It was 1.124 with just the honey and I estimate the fruit added 0.007 SG. I started this mead 18 days ago.
Cassis Mead will become a 5 gallon batch next season I'm sure. I have more berries available right now but they are reserved for a Cassis Lambic.
Unless you squeeze the fruit first so that the juice factors into your initial volume, fruit will actually lower your SG. If you mix up some honey must to say 1.100 then add fruit, it will drop. This is because yes you're adding sugars, but you're adding even more water. Something like honey or maple syrup brings the SG up because it has so little water.
