Another blueberry solera melomel, since batch 108 was so incredibly delicious. Two gallons this time: we've got some two-gallon buckets sitting empty. Well, two gallons minus the volume of the berries.

I'm calling this brew Blueberry Solera Mead until a better name becomes apparent.

Ingredients in this batch

  • Approx. 2 gallons solera mead, mostly fermented.
  • 3 lb. frozen Wyman's of Maine wild blueberries.
  • 2 lb. Kirkland wildflower honey, added on 12 Feb. 2020.
  • 3 lb. frozen Wyman's of Maine wild blueberries, added on 29 March 2020.
  • around a quart of batch 166, to top off the bucket, on 29 March 2020.
  • one vanilla bean, sliced lengthwise and dropped into the bucket on 2 August 2020.

Procedure

Sanitized a two-gallon bucket. Pulled blueberries from freezer and dropped them into the bucket. Pumped mead over them. Popped on a top and filled an airlock.

Secondary fermentation began: 13 October 2019.
Bottling date: 16 August 2020. (Thanks for bottling, xenia!)
Final gravity: 0.997.
Estimated ABV: Approx. 13.5%.

Yield:

  • 1 x 750mL wine bottle
  • 1 x 750mL swing-top wine bottle
  • 1 x 500mL wine bottles
  • 2 x 22 oz beer bottles
  • 1 x 500mL beer bottle
  • 6 x 12 oz. beer bottle

Total: Approx. 200 fl. oz., or just over a gallon and a half.

  • 2020-02-12: Racked off of blueberries, discarding fruit, into a new sanitized two-gallon bucket. S.G.: 1.002. Added honey.
  • 2020-03-29: Added more blueberries, and topped off the bucket with another quart or so of solera mead.
    • .
  • 2020-08-02: Racked off of blueberries into new sanitized bucket. Added a vanilla bean.
  • 2020-08-16: Xenia bottled while I was out of town, yielding a little over a gallon and a half of 13.5% melomel..