22 replies to this topic

[Thag]

How difficult was it. Did you use fresh berries, dried, juice? How much hassle would this be for a knob at mead making? 

[pods8]

Elberberry melomel.  

[MyaCullen]

Fresh berries, picked after the leaves start to fall off the Elderberry Tree and you are fighting the birds for them, pick them by the whole bunch, bag and freeze solid, then (wearing gloves!!!!!!!) strip the still frozen berries off of the stems.  3-4 lbs per gallon.

 

Do NOT crush, freezing and de-stemming will work fine.

Edited by miccullen, 10 June 2014 - 12:27 PM.

[Thag]

Elberberry melomel.

 

I hear your fancy homebrewers speak. If ScottS says it was an Elderberry Mead and it was the best mead he ever made.........I want a story dammit. Come on Gramps tell us about the good old days of making Elderberry Mead.

 

Hmmmmmmm Frozen Elderberries.........Me wonders if you can buy them frozen?

[pods8]

  I'm cool using the mead umbrella, just busting balls.

 

Melomel is just fermented honey with fruit.

Edited by pods8, 10 June 2014 - 02:56 PM.

[Genesee Ted]

How difficult was it. Did you use fresh berries, dried, juice? How much hassle would this be for a knob at mead making?

If you have the fruit, I would make the base mead, using the SNA and proper O2, some people like to add half or less of the fruit to the primary, and then add the rest once primary is over. Lots of ways.

[MyaCullen]

If you have the fruit, I would make the base mead, using the SNA and proper O2, some people like to add half or less of the fruit to the primary, and then add the rest once primary is over. Lots of ways.

Doing exactly this with Huckleberry Melomel currently, just added the midpoint NA on Sunday exactly 1 week in. 

[ScottS]

Don't bother with anything but fresh berries. Use all the berries you can get your hands on. Up to about 2-3 lbs per gallon.I like using all of the fruit in secondary, because I don't really want the fruit character to blow off.Make a base mead with 71B-1122 yeast. It's by far best for melomels. Use enough honey to start that it will ferment dry and almost exhaust the yeast. Let it ferment dry, add the fruit. Get rid of all of the stems and crap, then lightly smash the berries, just enough to break the skins. Let that sit for about three months, then rack off the berries. Rack every couple months until the garbage is gone. Be VERY careful with the racking, oxidization = baaaaad. After about 12-15 months, start sweetening. If you haven't done this before, dissolve 1/2 a cup of honey in 1/2 a cup of water. Taste the mead, add some of your mixture if it needs some sweet, aim for slightly under-balanced. Wait two weeks and taste again. It will sweeten further and blend over those two weeks. You'll probably need to do this several times before it's right. Take it slow though, you can add more sugar, but you can't take it out.If you do it right, you'll have something with the depth and complexity of a really good red wine, but with the character and delicate sweetness that only a mead can deliver. Also be warned, sometimes elderberries will pwn your fermenter, coating it in an impossible to remove glue. It's totally worth the risk.

[neddles]

Don't bother with anything but fresh berries. Use all the berries you can get your hands on. Up to about 2-3 lbs per gallon.I like using all of the fruit in secondary, because I don't really want the fruit character to blow off.Make a base mead with 71B-1122 yeast. It's by far best for melomels. Use enough honey to start that it will ferment dry and almost exhaust the yeast. Let it ferment dry, add the fruit. Get rid of all of the stems and crap, then lightly smash the berries, just enough to break the skins. Let that sit for about three months, then rack off the berries. Rack every couple months until the garbage is gone. Be VERY careful with the racking, oxidization = baaaaad. After about 12-15 months, start sweetening. If you haven't done this before, dissolve 1/2 a cup of honey in 1/2 a cup of water. Taste the mead, add some of your mixture if it needs some sweet, aim for slightly under-balanced. Wait two weeks and taste again. It will sweeten further and blend over those two weeks. You'll probably need to do this several times before it's right. Take it slow though, you can add more sugar, but you can't take it out.If you do it right, you'll have something with the depth and complexity of a really good red wine, but with the character and delicate sweetness that only a mead can deliver. Also be warned, sometimes elderberries will pwn your fermenter, coating it in an impossible to remove glue. It's totally worth the risk.

I'm guessing you stabilize this before sweetening?

[Thag]

Thank you!

[ScottS]

I'm guessing you stabilize this before sweetening?

No, I never use stabilizers. Exhaust the yeast properly and you don't need them.

[neddles]

No, I never use stabilizers. Exhaust the yeast properly and you don't need them.

Yeah, I got burned on that lately. A bottle of 2+ yr. old cherry mel. decided to wake up this spring. Made with your exact procedure and yeast.

[pods8]

No, I never use stabilizers. Exhaust the yeast properly and you don't need them.

 

Yeah 71B is pretty predictable to exhaust.  However I was going to ask about campden not for the yeast but will the sulfur out gassing help against oxygenation potential?

[MyaCullen]

Don't bother with anything but fresh berries. Use all the berries you can get your hands on. Up to about 2-3 lbs per gallon.I like using all of the fruit in secondary, because I don't really want the fruit character to blow off.Make a base mead with 71B-1122 yeast. It's by far best for melomels. Use enough honey to start that it will ferment dry and almost exhaust the yeast. Let it ferment dry, add the fruit. Get rid of all of the stems and crap, then lightly smash the berries, just enough to break the skins. Let that sit for about three months, then rack off the berries. Rack every couple months until the garbage is gone. Be VERY careful with the racking, oxidization = baaaaad. After about 12-15 months, start sweetening. If you haven't done this before, dissolve 1/2 a cup of honey in 1/2 a cup of water. Taste the mead, add some of your mixture if it needs some sweet, aim for slightly under-balanced. Wait two weeks and taste again. It will sweeten further and blend over those two weeks. You'll probably need to do this several times before it's right. Take it slow though, you can add more sugar, but you can't take it out.If you do it right, you'll have something with the depth and complexity of a really good red wine, but with the character and delicate sweetness that only a mead can deliver. Also be warned, sometimes elderberries will pwn your fermenter, coating it in an impossible to remove glue. It's totally worth the risk.

if you follow my method of freezing the berry heads whole this is all done in one step

[MyaCullen]

No, I never use stabilizers. Exhaust the yeast properly and you don't need them.

been burnt by supposedly exhausted yeast a couple times 

Edited by miccullen, 13 June 2014 - 08:24 AM.

[ScottS]

I keg.

[MyaCullen]

I keg.

afraid to keg mead 

[neddles]

afraid to keg mead 

Why?

[neddles]

You've never had cyser on tap, huh?Goes down too easy. Too easy to pour a pint of 16% mead.

I see the light. Little slow here.

[MyaCullen]

Why?

 

 

You've never had cyser on tap, huh?Goes down too easy. Too easy to pour a pint of 16% mead.

whole lotta this

 

it's so easy to go through a bottle of cyser on a Wednesday that a keg would likely be a bad idea for me