Blueberry Melomel question???

[fivebk]

I have been thinking about making a Blueberry melomel. I have access to frozen blueberries,fresh store bought, or can order some like vinters harvest or oregan fruit. My question is this. Which one of these would give me the best fruit quality and what type of honey would you recomend with the blueberries??? Also how many LBS. fruit per gallon???

BOB

 

[vcasey]

Fresh blueberries would be the best choice, frozen is also a good choice especially since all the sorting and such is done for you. I have not tried the canned ones, maybe some one else can chime in on that one.
As far as honey choices go you have many. I just made a blueberry mel with orange blossom honey and tasting it at bottling time showed lots of promise. I would recommend trying to find local fresh honey for your meads and it really does not matter what you use and you can even use a blend of honeys. A great source of information can be found at http://www.honeylocator.com/. You can research under your state for local honey as well as read about the different types of honey. By the way we have one member who managed to score local blueberry honey for his blueberry mel. He called it Blue on Blue. Keep in mind I have made some very good meads using honey that I bought from Sam's.
As far as how many pounds of fruit per gallon to use, that really is a personal choice as well but 3 lbs is a pretty good starting point. Something you can do to beef up the blueberry flavor is add some additional fruit to the secondary, a pound per gallon and let it sit on them for a month or so. You can even put all the fruit in the secondary and let them ferment that way. The nice part about adding the fruit in the seconday is you tend to get more of the fruit flavor since most of the more violent fermenting is finished and you don't drive off the fruit flavors. I've made mels both ways and it does make a difference.
Something else to keep in mind is how sweet or dry you want your mel. You can drink sweeter meads earlier, the dry meads seem improve and taste better and sweeter over time. I heard it described like this: Dry meads really start getting good at the 3 year mark, at 4 years that are fantastic, and at 5 years they are absolutly awesome.
What yeast yeast to use is another consideration. If you choose to let the mead sit on the fruit in the secondary you'll want to be careful as some yeasts will cause off flavors. A good safe yeast to use is D47 and you'll want to use 2 packs as well as make a starter. Honey and blueberries can be stubborn to start all on their own, adding them together can make you wonder if it will ever start!
Have fun, meads can be challenging but well worth the effort.
VPC

 

[vcasey]

Check out this thread for mead sites and information.
http://www.finevinewines.com//Wiz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=7675
VPC

 

[dragonmaster42]

I used a combination of fresh berries and a can of vintner's harvest blueberries in the one I have. I basically followed Waldo's recipe here:


http://www.finevinewines.com//Wiz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1622&KW=Blueberry+Mead


The only problem I had was it was difficulty getting the yeastto start in the primary (it took several days before I saw activity) - following suggestions from forum members, Iadded moreyeast nutrient and it got going. It was suggested to add it over several days. When it did start fermenting, it wentwell for a couple weeks. Here's that link, too:


http://www.finevinewines.com//Wiz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6835&KW=blueberry


I would suggests usinga yeast starter a few hours before adding it to get the yeast growing well before adding it to the honey/berries (water, a bit of sugar/yeast nutrient and yeast). The honey was a blend of ones fromSams and the local grocery store. It's been in the secondary for several months now and I probably won't bottle until this fall.

 

[Wade E]

I used the Wyman's frozen berries and it came out very good. Heres the recipe I used which is a slightly modified version of Waldo's. So far its a big hit everywhere!

Blueberry Melomel
15 lbs – Honey (Blueberry Spun is best but any kind will work)
15 lbs – Previously Frozen and Thawed Blueberries
2 Quarts – Wyman’s Wild Blueberry Juice
6 tsp – Yeast Nutrient
3 tsp – Yeast Energizer
6 tsp – Acid Blend
4 1/2 Gallons – Water
1/8 tsp – K-Meta
1/4 tsp – Liquid Pectic Enzyme
2 Sachets – Red Star Pasteur Red Yeast
Pour 1 gallon of warm water in 7.9 gallon primary bucket or bigger. Add K-Meta, Yeast Nutrient, Yeast Energizer, and Acid Blend and stir well. Put all fruit in fermenting bag and squeeze over primary to extract most of juices and then put bag in primary. Dissolve all honey in with 3 gallons of boiling water and pour over fruit in primary bucket. Add Wyman’s Blueberry juice now and then add remainder of water and check SG, it should be around 1.100 give or take a little, if less then add a little more dissolved sugar in small amount of water as sugars from fruit can vary a little. Let sit for 12 hours with lid loose or with a cloth covering bucket with elastic band or string tied around so as that not to sag in must. After those 12 hours add your Pectic Enzyme and wait another 12 hours while also adjusting your must temp to around 75 degrees. After those twelve hours, pitch your yeast either by sprinkling yeast, dehydrating yeast per instructions on back of yeast Sachet, or by making a yeast starter a few hours prior to the 12 hour mark. At this point either leave primary lid off with the cloth again, place lid on loose or snap the lid shut with airlock. Punch down cap twice daily to get all fruit under the liquid level. When SG reaches 1.015, rack to 6 gallon carboy and let finish fermenting with bung and airlock attached. When wine is done fermenting, (check a few days in a row to make sure SG does not change and SG should be around .998 or less) you can stabilize by adding another ¼ tsp of k-meta and 3 tsps of Potassium Sorbate and degas your wine thoroughly. You can now sweeten your wine if you like by using simple syrup which consists of 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of boiling water or by using a juice or frozen concentrate. I typically take 2 quarts of an alike juice and simmer on stove at medium heat with lid off until its 1/3 its original size and let it cool to room temp and then add slowly to taste. Be careful not to over sweeten. At this point you can use a fining agent or let it clear naturally. Once clear, rack into clean vessel and bulk age more adding another ¼ tsp of k-meta at 3 month intervals or add ¼ tsp k-meta and bottle age for at least 3 months and enjoy. Longer aging will give you a better wine so save a few bottles till at least 1 year mark so you can truly see what this wine can aspire to.

 

[fivebk]

thanks everyone for all the info

BOB