# Raspberry Melomel



## Mud (Jul 28, 2010)

Was planning to do a 3 gallon batch of raspberry melomel with a buddy who wants to get started making wine. I thawed the berries and he was supposed to come by with honey on Thursday. Plans changed at the last minute, so I had to start it without him, and short on honey. <facepalm>

Here's what's going on so far:
2 lbs goldenrod honey
8 lbs raspberries
k-meta
nutrient
energizer
ICV-D47 yeast

I started this Monday because the berries had been in the fridge thawed for nearly a week by then. Was nervous about time so I skipped the pectic enzyme. Will make a late addition once it's dry. 

The starting gravity was 1.053 @ 2 gallons liquid volume. It's meant to be 3 gallons at ~12 percent when finished. How do I get from here to there? Seems like adding another gallon of must with a starting gravity of 1.15 would do it. Got that by adding the missing .032 sg from each of the 2 gallons already working to the 1.085 sg from the additional gallon. Opinions? 

-overworked, brain-tired Mud


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## Wade E (Jul 28, 2010)

Seems right mathmatically *But* thats a little higher of a starting sg then I would like to see. I would make 1/2 of what is needed just to make sure the #;s work and then dilute that down a little and add what you would have added to keep that sg up for the pther 1/2 and add that honey to the batch thats already worked its way down some so you dont stress out the yeast in the new batch unless you are going to just add the whole thing to whats already fermenting.


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## Mud (Jul 28, 2010)

Thanks Wade. Yeah, I was planning to combine the whole thing. Forgot to mention that.

This is a little embarrassing. Usually I plan a lot better, but wanted to get the berries fermenting to prevent spoilage. Took lot of time to pick 8 lbs of wild raspberries.


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## Wade E (Jul 28, 2010)

hehehe, How do you think I felt last year when I picked 69 lbs!


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## Mud (Jul 29, 2010)

69 lbs. Wow. Either your plant bare a whole lot better than mine or you spent something like 40 hrs picking. <grins>

Used the honey calculator over at GotMead. That thing is great. If you've never used it just go check it out. It can be used to figure honey additions to straight water or to a must in progress. Very handy. 

Says I needed 4.5 lbs, so I added 5 lbs to a 1/2 gallon of water and got a little over target sg. Not worried about precision as long as it's close. 

Since I happen to have 7 lbs of honey left and the blackberries are going ape this year might do the same recipe with those.


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## Wade E (Jul 29, 2010)

All wild and I would say more then 40 hrs picking and all the blood from the scratches made the wine a beautiful color!


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## mmadmikes1 (Jul 29, 2010)

Wade E said:


> All wild and I would say more then 40 hrs picking and all the blood from the scratches made the wine a beautiful color!



kinda the story of my black berry season last year. Note to selfo berry picking in shorts and flip flops


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## fatbloke (Aug 4, 2010)

Ha! well it's just reminded me, seeing Muds thread title......

2 weekends ago, finally strip the last of the fruit off the raspberry canes. About 3lb - not in prime condition so straight into the steam extractor.

In the meantime, 1.3kg of Blended Polish honey (provenance unknown) into a bucket with 1litre red grape juice - sulphite and pectolase.

2 days later, when the pecto had had a chance to mix in, added the now chilled raspberry juice and topped up to 5 litres.

A damn good stir, 3 vitamin B tablets and then just sprinkled the yeast - didn't bother rehydrating as I wasn't in a rush to get it going too quickly.

Starting gravity was 1090, within 2 days, it was at 1045, so a good stir, another 600 grammes of the same honey, 1/2 tsp of both fermaidk and energiser. Completely forgot to take another gravity.......

On the friday, measured up and it was giving me 1035, so I've left it alone to hopefully finish.

I used 71B for the yeast as rasps are a malic fruit and 71B will metabolise some of it, hopefully not leaving it too sharp (rasps can be quite over powering).

I only have one more jar of the Polish honey (1.3kg size and I want to use that in a Blackcurrant melomel).

Got a long run tomorrow up to Manchester, so I won't make it back tomorrow night. I'll try to see if I can remember to take a gravity then.....

I won't really have any idea of what the strength will work out having not taken a reading after the second honey addition. if it gets to about 1010 I'll be happy with that.

The intention is to chuck another 1lb of raspberry fruit in when it's finished to make sure it's nice and fruity tasting.......

regards

fatbloke


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## Mud (Oct 16, 2010)

Bottling today as I need the carboy. The lees are well compacted form the super-kleer. It tastes good. The honey and raspberries balance pretty well with the berries in front right now. Can't wait to see what some aging does. 

Will be trying this same recipe, minus delays and screw ups, with blackberries soon. Really should have done a side by side, but that would have meant more buckets and all, and gear creep is slowly ruining my life. (small house, too many hobbies)

The wine is a beautiful red. Will post some pics if I remember.


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## Wade E (Oct 16, 2010)

Sounds good, I took best meqd with mine this year and have the blueberry bulk aging for some time now and really need to get that in bottles soon along with many other wines so I can start some new projects, I hav carboys but not much room in my area and dont want that countertop as full as I once did as it made it hard to get at any wines in the back to add or test anything mainly because I have the wine glass racks above on the ceiling. It wasnt a great move putting them there but I really had so many glasses and no wear to put them.


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## Brian (Oct 19, 2010)

Wade E said:


> Sounds good, I took best meqd with mine this year



Wade how about sharing your recipe for your Raspberry? Or can you direct me to a good one? Thanks


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## Takeadoe (Feb 10, 2011)

Hi Mud. I'm trying to get up enough nerve to try a blackberry melomel. I've found a few recipes; most complicated. Any guidance you can offer would be appreciated. I've got 18 lbs of frozen domesticated blackberries to work with.

Mike


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