Another melomel, this time with a bunch of strawberries, because strawberries are delicious. It was sweetened with orange blossom honey at bottling and then pasteurized to keep it from refermenting. We're calling it Liquid Summer.

Ingredients in this batch

  • 12.75 oz. acacia honey from Haefeli's Honey.
  • 15.2 oz. Kentucky wildflower honey from Lazy Dog Honey.
  • 3 lb., 0.1 oz. goldenrod honey from Gardner Bees.
  • 1 lb., 10.6 oz. sage honey from Bennett's Honey Farm.
  • 2 lb., 15.2 oz. sourwood honey from J&J Harris.
  • 4 lb., 14.9 oz. star thistle honey from Sleeping Bear Farms.
  • 1⅝ tsp. Fermaid O.
  • 1⅝ tsp. Fermaid K.
  • dechlorinated tap water to 4 gallons.
  • 1 packet (5 g) Lalvin K1V-1116 wine yeast, rehydrated in ½ c. tap water, heated to 95℉.
  • Addition of 13 June 2021:
    • 12 lb. Kirkland frozen organic strawberries.
  • Addition of 20 Aug 2022:
    • 8 lb. Kirkland frozen strawberries (2 bags).
  • Addition of 12 Oct 2022:
    • 6 lb. Wyman's of Maine frozen strawberries (2 bags).
  • Addition of 9 Nov 2022:
    • 3 lb. Kirkland frozen strawberries (1 bag).
  • Addition of 12 Nov 2022:
    • 3 lb. Kirkland frozen strawberries (1 bag).
  • Addition of 1 Jan 2023:
    • 2½ tsp. pectic enzyme.
  • Back-sweetening addition at bottling, 3 May 2023:
    • 2 lb. orange-blossom honey from Bennett's Honey Farm.

Procedure

Weighed honey into one-gallon carboys, then added water to one gallon, shaking to mix and aerate before pouring the must into the larger carboy, aerating again. Stirred vigorously to aerate more and ensure even mixing, pitched rehydrated wine yeast, and then covered the carboy neck with a clean old T-shirt and left it open for the first four days.

Brew date: 23 August 2021.
Original gravity: Not measured, but presumably close to 1.094.
Bottling date: 3 May 2023.
Final gravity: 0.996, before backsweetening. Probably ~1.012 or so after backsweetening.
Estimated ABV: Approx. 12.5%.

Yield:

  • 26 x 12 oz. beer bottles
  • 1 x 7 oz. soda bottle
  • 9 x 22 oz. beer bottle
  • 2 x 500mL beer bottles
  • 1 x 1L beer bottle
  • 1 pint glass, including hydrometer tube sample

Total: approx. 600 fl. oz., or about 4⅔ gallons.

Observations

  • 2021-06-13: Added twelve pounds of frozen strawberries.
  • 2022-08-20: Added eight pounds of frozen strawberries.
  • 2022-09-28: Racked to new bucket, off of strawberries.
  • 2022-10-12: Added six pounds of frozen strawberries.
  • 2022-11-09: Racked to new bucket. Added three pounds of frozen strawberries.
  • 2022-11-12: Added three pounds of frozen strawberries.
  • 2023-01-01: Racked off of fruit, into new sanitized bucket. Gravity: 0.994. Added pectic enzyme.
  • 2023-05-03: Back-sweetened and bottled, yielding about 4⅔ gal. of 12.5% mead in yellow-capped bottles.
  • 2023-05-04: Dishwasher pasteurized. Lost six 12-ounce and one 22-ounce bottle to breakage and loss of cap! Maybe the sanitize cycle is too much with additional drying time.