Start of my Melomel

[DirkDiggler]

I purchased the Curt & Kathy's Melomel Mead Kit from Northern Brewer.
Comes with 96oz (x2) Marionberry fruit puree (added in secondary)
2 packs of Lalvin 71B-1122 yeast
4 packets of yeast nutrient
1 sachet of pectic enzyme (added in secondary)
12 gms of Nutriferm energy
15 lbs of Wildflower honey (smelled wonderful!)
Expected OG 1.110-1.115
I got an OG of 1.106
I pitched the yeast at 7:20pm and the next day I got aggressive bubble action. I added bentonite at the start -like all our wine kits to aid in clarifying.

Just before pitching yeast mixture.

My ghetto fermentation chamber with a frozen gallon jug. We had a warm week in October! I was able to maintain temps between 65-70. I experienced what off flavors from temps and stressed yeast taste like! And according to Ken's book, these flavors either take lots of time to go away or never go away! Yikes! The first 2 weeks are critical but the house temp dropped last night. We appear to be back to our "normal October temps". I have to add 3 sachets of the yeast nutrient blend at 24/48 and 72 hours. Today will be the 72nd hour! Things are going strong! I was thinking about adding oak (medium toast American) in the secondary for 1-2 weeks just before racking over to a 5 gallon carboy to clarify.

 

[vcasey]

I have never had Marionberry, but will say mels do very well with oak. I would use about 1/2 the amount recommended and add from there if you want more since its easy to add, but not so easy to take out. Yes this means oaking will take longer, but with meads the one thing you have is plenty of time.

 

[DirkDiggler]

Hello vcasey,
I was going to do 1 oz of medium toast oak for 4 days for my Artisanal Mead before racking into another carboy. In Ken's Meadmaker book he recommends oak for the dry mead. He mentions that the berry mead will benefit from oak but doesn't mention any specifics. What would you recommend? Should I do 1 oz for 4-7 days, like his dry show mead? Or perhaps a bit longer.

On the subject of wood chips, he recommends boiling and then soaking for a few hours. I wonder if I could just soak them in star san for a few hours if that would suffice?

Here is a picture of my secondary fermentation. I racked when the mel had an SG of 0.998 (after 2 weeks)! The dry mead SG was still 1.010 but I racked anyway. I plan on racking the dry mead 1 month on Dec 10th to get it off the lees. Ken also had an interesting idea of applying a blanket of CO2. I think I will try that out after racking and then quickly put the airlock on. That mel had some crazy activity going on and was pushing a column of fruit chunks out of the opening for the first 24 hours. After a 3 or so days, I replaced the blow off tube with an airlock.

 

[vcasey]

I would just drop the oak in the mead without boiling it in water and losing some of the oak flavor. How long to leave the oak in your mead or any wine or beer is really up to you. Every week or so take a taste, once its just over what you want it's perfect and don't be surprised if you need more then a week for the oak.

One note on meads and oak - they go well together! I have used a wide range of different toasted oak and have not been disappointed, including a couple of times that the oak was soaked in bourbon and another in rum. Just go light and add or not as your taste dictates.

BTW the blow off tube was a good call. I've not had to use one yet but came close with a chocolate cherry mel. Hubby was starting to set it up but I thought the 6 1/2 gallon carboy would be too small. Decided to put it in my 10 gal. fermenter instead and still had foam to the lid!

Oh yeah - they look good!

 

[DirkDiggler]

I do a blow off tube for all my beers during the primary no matter the OG. It was rather amusing to watch the berries pop off the orange bung and stretch out. Thanks for your tips on the oak. I think I want to go light on the dry mead just to add some complexity. For the mel, perhaps more oak/time. I love all ranges of oak in wines. Sometimes, I get tired of the butter bomb chardonnay however.

 

[Wade E]

Id go with French or Hungarian on the mead. I never boil or pre soak my oak.

 

[DirkDiggler]

I will do that! um what is the difference between the two?

 

[Wade E]

They both have subtle taste differences and the french is much smoother with more vanilla while the HungariaF adds a little more smokiness to it.

 

[DirkDiggler]

Thanks Wade. After doing some online reading. It would seem that people prefer the oak cubes, using 1 to 2 oz for a 5 gallon batch. The total soak time is 1 to 2 months! It would appear that medium toast is a good start. However, regarding soaking, that would remove some of the flavor from the chips. It was recommend to rinse in a sanitizer solution to rinse off any residual dust before inserting into the carboy. The chips impart more of their tannins quickly and that is why it would make sense that Ken's book only suggests 4-7 days for the show mead. However, I have read that chips kind provide one-dimensional notes and not the complexity that cubes have. For the mel, this may be more of an issue? But, perhaps with the dry mead, not as much, as it will add just a layer of complexity and still let the nuance of the fragile honey come through? Just a guess. I am an extreme novice at mead making.

 

[Wade E]

Like I said earlier I dont bother as its just a little something that will settle out. The chips you would want to take out earlier like said but its true they are not as good. Spirals are really nice also and easily the easiest to use also as you can just tie some fishing line to it and yank it and it very easily.

 

[DirkDiggler]

Update on my Mead and Mel.
I racked my Mead on the 26th of December to a third vessel. It is really clearing nicely now. I added some CO2 to displace the air and promptly placed the airlock on.

I will take a gravity reading again when I rack into the 4th vessel and add oak. I was thinking 1 oz of medium toast French cubes for 4-7 days.

Now my Mel. I racked from a 6 gallon to a 5 gallon and put the rest of the "chunky wine" in a 750ml bottle with airlock.

Final ABV = 11.75%

I then added 1 oz of medium toast French Oak Cubes.

I didn't do a very clean rack this time around as there was so much fruit to contend with! I do plan on racking again to clarify further.

Now my question. I added 1 oz of cubes. Should I start tasting after 1, 2 weeks or 1 month? What is the optimal time to start testing? I really don't want to risk contamination by testing to many times.

 

[DirkDiggler]

Forgot to mention, tried my hydrometer sample in a wine glass. That mel is pretty tasty now! I know this is going to be a winner.

 

[Wade E]

Sounds really good.

 

[vcasey]

Those look very tasty!

For your oak, and please understand I like a lot of oak, start tasting at a month and taste every week. If you are concerned taste earlier. For both the oak will add a lot of complexity but I would be more concerned about the dry mead so you can achieve that balance between the honey and oak.

 

[DirkDiggler]

Thanks vcasey,
I was going to do only 1 oz of oak cubes for 4-7 days for the dry mead. In Ken's book, he mentions this for oak chips. Therefore, I think I may be even more conservative by using the oak cubes for the same amount of time. In this case, the oak will be added to the mead just to "boost mouth feel and add complexity". I certainly don't want to compete with the delicate honey flavor. I am not sure when I want to bottle this but I will rack again in a month or so. I have been kinda lazy with bottling beer (started kegging) and wine. It is amazing, but it hasn't been one full year yet, and I have learned so much.

 

[vcasey]

Not lazy, just really patient. I don't even think about bottling any of my meads and all it's variations until year 2. 1 gallon batches not included.

 

[DirkDiggler]

wow! You must run out of carboys lol.

 

[DirkDiggler]

Well, today will be 1 month that I added oak to my mel. I am going to give it a taste, but was wondering about how to go about it. Should I go in with a thief and try to gently get a small sample. Or should I gently stir the wine up a bit first? I am unsure if the oak will distribute itself evenly through the wine, or if it is concentrate near the top where the oak cubes are floating. If the oak is not distributed, then I would get a false sense of how much oak is really in the mel.

 

[fivebk]

I would rack it, stir it and sample it

BOB

 

[DirkDiggler]

Thanks Bob,

I did rack it as you recommended. So the mel has been on 1 oz of french oak medium toasted cubes for 1 month and 2 days. I decided to lightly stir with my sanitized bottling wand and used that as a mini thief. I think the mel is turning out really nice -and I do taste some slight oak on the finish -kind of toasty. The mel is going to age beautifully.