Batch 185: Luxurious Floof (Pomegranate Melomel)
Both of us really liked my original pomegranate melomel, batch 090, named after the best little cat in the world, so I wanted to start on another batch. This one uses a combination of light West Coast buckwheat and sage honey, and I'm doing a 3-gallon batch so it should last a bit longer than the previous one.
Ingredients in this batch
- 2 lbs Bennett's West Coast buckwheat honey
- 3 lbs 13.4 oz Bennett's sage honey
- 1 tsp Fermaid O
- 3/4 tsp Fermaid K
- 2/3 pack of Lalvin Bourgovin RC212
- 1 pack of Lalvin 1122, pitched on 12/18
- 32 oz RD Knudsen pomegranate juice, added on 2/12/20
- 64 oz Simple Truth pomegranate juice, added on 2/12/20
- 32 oz Sprouts pomegranate juice, added on 2/13/20
Process
I started this as 2 gallons of plain mead, then added a gallon of pomegranate juice once primary fermentation was complete. I accidentally added more sage honey than I meant to, resulting in SG of 1.114. Whether due to high gravity or other issues, the red wine yeast I pitched originally simply failed to get started, so I repitched with trusty 1122 three days later.
On 2/12/20, I racked the batch to a 3-gallon container and added the pomegranate juice. I measured the juice's SG at 1.062 for a calculated overall SG of 1.097. We saw a small amount of refermentation, so this will likely come out sweet.
At bottling on 4/5/20, I named this mead Luxurious Floof, for one of Persephone's many, many nicknames. (She remains the softest thing I've ever touched.) With a final gravity of 1.001, ABV should be around 12.6%. It's just a little sweet, fairly tart, fruity without being cloying, and a lovely, deep ruby color.