First Try at Blueberry

[Dend78]

Okay for the update to the above update I checked SG last night 1.014 so I racked it and shes sitting pretty under airlock. I gave it a taste and its not to bad at all, the young alcohol is very forward but you get that berry hint in there its just masked hardcore. I very excited to see how this turns out

 

[dangerdave]

Sorry about the 'r', Dend. I have big hands, and sometimes the keys get poked accidentally. You can call me Drave if you like.

Now, I must admit, I have never used Mead Yeast. How is it different from wine yeast? I made my Red Dragon Melomel using EC-1118 and it came out wonderful. How do you think it might have been different using mead yeast?

 

[Dend78]

I have no ideas about the yeast being different aside from this was a smack pack liquid yeast, which is just awesome to start with, but after that nothing special seemed to happen. I chose to go mead yeast route cause well they must know something if they have a special strain they sell with the mead kits from the local fermentation shop. only thing i would do different would be use the sweet mead instead of the dry the sweet leaves about 3% sugar and is good to about 11% ABV. I didnt do a lot of homework on this yeast just went with it, making mead use mead yeast haha.

come to think of it I have used 5 different yeast's since starting this out last July. Bread yeast maybe red star cant remember, EC-1118, the mead yeast, another Red Star for my pear wine and WL-720 or 700 whichever is the flor yeast. I have noticed nothing different with any of them, they all seem to ferment fast aside from the flor yeast didnt take but that batch was stalled out with EC-1118 so i dont know what happened there. All in all ive noticed nothing different aside from the package, i will start testing it all out some day to see what differences i find with similar batches.

 

[Dend78]

took a peak at it last night, its looking like fermentation has stopped I watched for a while and saw nothing in the airlock but im going to give it another week before racking off the lees then stabilizing and adding in another 6lbs of blueberries and pectic enzyme.

here is a question about adding in the fruit do you put it in a strainer bag or let it float free? Im just thinking of how much fun its going to be to get the berries down inside the carboy in a bag, gonna be like a ship in a bottle haha. Im also thinking of how the third racking will be a mess with free floating fruit though as well.

 

[fatbloke]

If the fermenter is a bucket a straining bag just makes removal easier. If its a carboy, just freeze the fruit and thaw it before adding, then just add the fruit and any juice that comes out.

I use a standard funnel with most of the spout cut off - which I used for my sloe gin, the sloes being a similar size to blue berries.

Then I'd just leave it be, under airlock until the fruit has dropped......

 

[Dend78]

that's what I thought but wanted to make sure thanks for the update. I took my big carboy of this out and i have almost 1" sediment dropping out and I watched for a long time last night with no action in the airlock. I think while im messing with my wines tonight I may just go ahead and stabilize it. Then when I get my primary empty I will transfer to that and clean out my carboy and transfer back then add fruit. color is perfect deep purple color and smells awesome still im really ready to see how this turns out.

as for back sweetening a mead I may have asked but im gonna ask again, would one use honey or sugar?

 

[Pumpkinman]

Dend78, I use Honey, if you've made a fruit wine using sugar, you will be very surprised to taste the difference between a traditional fruit wine and a Melomel, the honey really changes things up for the better in my opinion.
On a separate note, I watched a video interviewing a mead/Melomel maker that has won numerous medals, he was using fruit and Vinters Harvest Fruit Base (not the puree) to enhance the flavor of the Melomel, other than that, his recipe and the recipe that I've been following, are very similar.

 

[Dend78]

i may give that Vintners Harvest stuff a shot on my next batch, actually i was just looking at it on my local ferm shops site. I may have to try an apricot melomel next depending on how this turns out.

thanks for the heads up on the honey to back sweeten with, i figured it would be a good idea to go with but mead, and honey in general are new steps for me.

 

[Dend78]

okay checked it out this evening

0.095 SG
taste is super bitter right now, it completely changed from the time i put it in the carboy, i added k-meta and sorbate tonight. I will probably rack it in a week and add in the fruit

 

[Dend78]

did a second racking today, tossed in blueberries and pectic enzyme

 

[fatbloke]

Sounds like its getting on well.

Oh and I routinely back sweeten with honey too, but I usually do that once its finished and before clearing as honey, can on occasion, cause a protein haze in a finished and cleared batch. Its a protein thing, but I sweeten then as I'm lazy and then I only clear it the once......

 

[Dend78]

I was thinking about giving the pectic a bit of time to work in the fruit like possibly tomorrow start backsweetening, i dont know what to expect sugar wise out of the fruit.

 

[GreginND]

Don't be in a hurry to backsweeten. You need to let it clear for some time to get rid of as much yeast as possible. Otherwise the sorbate cannot prevent refermentation.

I usually age for at least 3 months if not longer (up to a year) before I sweeten. I like to add sorbate and sweeten about 1 month before I plan to bottle so I can make sure the wine is stable.

 

[Dend78]

noted, im not in a big hurry for this so that may be a good idea

 

[Dend78]

hmm fruit and wine are pushing out the top i have a mini volcano going here note to self when adding fruit in secondary leave a lil extra head space

 

[Dend78]

well i think my blueberries are fermenting , dry mead yeast good to 18%abv sweet mead yeast good for 11%abv note to self go for sweet mead yeast or wait longer before adding in fruit, strange thing how does my airlock keep filling up with wine? ive drank quite a bit off the top with a straw 4 times now

 

[Deezil]

strange thing how does my airlock keep filling up with wine? ive drank quite a bit off the top with a straw 4 times now

I think i've been having this same issue in my Apple- Pear wine lately, except in my case i think its MLF making CO2... although the same concept, i believe its CO2 causing the volume to expand because its within the solution & not being expelled... if that makes sense

I think i'll see the level of my wine drop, when i hook up the vacuum pump and degas it

 

[Dend78]

i need to look into getting one of those one of these days, it is strange though, like empty neck and down into the carboy a bit back in a few days and boom full airlock. snatched quite the buzz off the top the other morning, no food, no water just a good drink of blueberry mead wow

1/23/2013

Gonna have to break out the straw again tonight! holy, ive seriously drank a glass out of this stuff already and going in for more, not including what hit the floor, its alive! Alive! ALIVE!!!!!!

 

[saramc]

Gonna have to break out the straw again tonight! holy, ive seriously drank a glass out of this stuff already and going in for more, not including what hit the floor, its alive! Alive! ALIVE!!!!!!

Have you considered setting up a blow off tube until things calm down?

 

[Dend78]

ive thought about that but i really dont mind checking it daily and using the straw, it was just a bit unexpected to have it fire up again, so after it dies down completely im gonna rack it off the fruit, sulfite and sorbate it again then let it sit for a month then try with the blueberries again.