Strawberry Melomel

Classification: mead, melomel, strawberry mead

Source: Robert Crawford (betel@camelot.bradley.edu), MLD #100, 3/19/93

It's only been two months, but it's already very nice. In fact, it's half gone :-)

I'm planning another batch, this one with three pounds of honey and two pounds of strawberries. Needless to say, this one will have more strawberry flavor and more alcohol...

Ingredients: (for 1 gallon)

2.5 lbs Clover Honey
1 lb frozen strawberries
acid blend (dosage as per the package's instructions)
grape tannin
1 Campden tablet
pectic enzyme
Montrachet yeast

Procedure:

I boiled and skimmed the honey with nine pints of water, put the strawberries in a must bag, then poured the hot honey water over the strawberries, Campden, tannin, and acid blend. A day later I added the pectic enzyme, and a day later the yeast.

After a week in the primary, I removed the horribly changed strawberries and siphoned into a secondary. Three weeks later the fermentation had stopped, and it had cleared. (Honestly -- I've never had the year-long ferments that others have mentioned.) I stabilized it with potassium sorbate, sweetened it with table sugar, and bottled it.