Another melomel out of the mead solera! For now, we're calling this batch Crocodile after an offhand comment in the Self-Defense Against Fresh Fruit sketch.

Ingredients in this batch

  • Approx. 2 gal. solera mead, mostly fermented.
  • 9 lb. (pre-cleaning weight) fresh, ripe peaches, juiced and added on 19 July 2018.
  • 1 tsp. LD Carlson pectic enzyme, added on 7 October 2018.
  • 1.5 lb. gallberry honey from Bennett's Honey Farm, heated and dissolved in fermented mead, then added back to the carboy on 11 November 2018.
  • 1 lb. star thistle honey from Sleeping Bear Farms, heated and added on 5 April 2019.
  • 1 lb. Kirkland clover honey, added to the carboy on 5 May 2019.

Procedure

Sanitized. Xenia juiced the peaches, and I put them into the three-gallon wide-mouth carboy, then pumped mead from the solera over them with a racking cane. Accidentally got a bunch of peach pulp in the carboy in addition to the juice ... oh well, hopefully it will give flavor and nutrients to the mead. Popped in and filled an airlock.

Secondary fermentation began: 19 July 2018.
Bottling date: 20 June 2019
O.G. for calculations: 1.140.
Final gravity: 1.010.
Estimated ABV: Approx. 17%.

Yield:

  • 21 x 12 oz. bottles;
  • 3 x 187mL beer bottles;
  • 1 x 500mL beer bottle;
  • 1 x 22 fl. oz. beer bottle; and
  • 1 x 750mL swing-top liquor bottle.

Total: 335 fl. oz., or a little over 2.5 gallons.

Observations

  • 2018-07-21T15:51: Still no signs of renewed fermentation.
  • 2018-07-29T20:00: Mead has been generating carbon dioxide slowly over the last few days. Scooped out floating pulp from the top and topped off with perhaps another quart of solera mead.
  • 2018-10-07T18:00: Racked the mead off of the peach pulp and yeast and into a new sanitized carboy. Added pectic enzyme: late, and will be slow because it's already in alcohol, but it can't hurt.
  • 2018-11-11T16:35: Removed some fermented mead and added a pound and a half of gallberry honey, heated and mixed, and added the mead and honey back in.
  • 2018-11-14T10:08: Carbox production is beginning again, though slowly.
  • 2018-11-19T18:42: Carbon dioxide production has gradually accelerated over the last few days. Tasted. Wow, that gallberry honey is delicious, and has added a rich tart background as it ramps up the sweetness. Yes, getting more sugar in there helps to bring out the fruit flavors. This is going to be amazing.
  • 2019-04-05: Heated a pound of star thistle honey, then added it to a new carboy. Racked mead off of lees and fruit and onto the honey in the new carboy.
  • 2019-05-05: Mead has fermented dry again. Added another pound of clover honey to carboy.
  • 2019-06-20: Bottled, yielding a little over two and a half gallons of 17%-ish peach mead.
  • 2019-06-21: Pasturized by running through the dishwasher, just in case fermentation wasn't completely finished.