Lets make a Strawberry Melomel

If you live in North Dakota like I do, you probably are not thinking of strawberries or any Spring time berries. Especially when its -20 degrees outside. Usually I am wondering why I still live here! Joking aside, making mead takes time and you want to plan ahead three to four months. Primary fermentation takes about a month and aging is another 3 months to a year depending on the mead.

Aging allows for some of the harsh alcohol taste to mellow and for other flavors to develop.

So 3 months out puts us right around mid to late Spring. Perfect time to enjoy this delectable Melomel. Here is where I back peddle a little bit, I don’t mind the “harsh” alcohol taste of a young mead. If fact I rather enjoy a strong alcohol presence. To me it’s like drinking your coffee black. If you don’t like coffee why drink it? If you don’t like booze don’t drink it. Am I wrong?

Enough ranting, lets get started!

Recipe:

We are making a Strawberry Melomel. I am using Wild Flower Honey but feel free to experiment with others. An Orange Blossom honey would go really well with this recipe.

Lets get started!

Ingredients:

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• Wild Flower Honey - 3 lbs (14 hg)

• Dried Organic Strawberries - 6 oz (80 g)

• Frozen Strawberries - 1 pound (453 g)

  • This is added in secondary fermentation

• Orange Peel - 1 oz (30 g)

• Black Tea - 1 packet

• Spring Water - 1 gallon of your finest grocery store water.

• Yeast - I recommend Lalvin 71b but you can use whatever you have on hand.

• Optional: Erythritol - 1 cup (240 g)

Primary Fermentation

1. The first step is to always sanitize ALL EQUIPMENT before placing ingredients in them. So get cleaning!!

2. The next step is to start steeping your tea packet in one or two cups of hot spring water. Use water from your gallon jug and always avoid using tap water.

3. While the tea is hanging out, add your strawberries and orange peel into your carboy.

   • I find that the smaller you make the ingredients the easier it is to get out of the carboy. So keep that in mind when shoving ingredients in your carboy hole.

4. Take the 3 lbs of honey and put it in a large mixing bowl. Vigorously whisk in a quarter of your water to incorporate as much oxygen in your must as possible.

5. Add mixture from your bowl into the 1 gallon carboy. Give it a good shake and top off with water. The fill line should be right under the 1 gallon mark on the carboy depending on what carboy you have on hand.

   • If you don’t have any lines indicating the 1 gallon mark you can always put 1 gallon of water in the carboy and draw a line for future reference.

6. Give the carboy a good shake to incorporate the ingredients through out the must.

   • If you have a hydrometer take a reading. We are shooting for a specific gravity reading of between 1.100 and 1.110. Its okay to be a little off either way.

7. Add in your yeast and put your airlock on. Give the carboy another shake and you are set. Place the mead in a dark place away from sun light. Keep your temperature range between 65 and 75 as a rule of thumb.

Secondary Fermentation:

1. When the specific gravity is around 1.000 rack into a new bottle.

2. At this time add the frozen strawberries to your mead.

   • The yeast will eat the sugars from the strawberries and the alcohol content will increase a bit. So just keep this in mind.

3. After two weeks or so, check the specific gravity again. When its around 1.000 to 1.0004 rack your mead to another container - larger pitcher if you have one.

4. I added 1 cup of Erythritol to back sweeten. Back sweetening helps bring out the strawberry flavor of this Melomel. Yum!

   • Optional Step: I pasteurized my mead which kills off the yeast and helps dissolve the Erythritol. Avoids any possibility of creating a bottle bombs.

5. Degas the mead.

   • I use a vacuum sealer for this but a simple mixing spoon will work. Just be gentle with your mixture to avoid oxygenation at this point.

6. Bottle and enjoy!

Tips:

Things to consider when making this mead.

• Was your gravity reading to high?

  • Add some more water if your carboy has room.

  • If you can’t add more water consider using yeast nutrients if your must stalls.

    • Fermax is great at getting through a stalled mead.

• Was your gravity reading to low?

  • If you want to get your mead closer to a 1.100 reading, add more honey.

• Want to elevate this mead?

  1. When you rack your mead add in some two to four vanilla beans. The vanilla beans I leave in until I finished drinking all of the mead.

  2. Add in another fruit. Rhubarb goes well with Strawberry.

• Want a clear mead/melomel? Add sparkolloid before bottling. It usually clears things up in about a week or two.