Raspberry Melomel

Classification: mead, raspberry mead, melomel

Source: Martin J. Preslar (mpreslar@prairienet.org), r.c.b., 7/7/94

Ours turned out good, but a bit dry. If you want a sweeter melomel, try using a bit more honey when you rack to the secondary (maybe 4 or 5 #). Also, you may want a stronger fruit flavor than we got. With only 4# of fruit we got a very subtle fruit flavor, but it was appropriate with the dry character of the melomel.

Ingredients: (for 4 gallons)

1 Gallon of Honey (about 13#)
4# raspberries
2 Tsp gypsum
5 tsp yeast nutrient
1/2 tsp Irish Moss
1 package Pasteur Champagne Yeast

Procedure:

Dilute honey with 3 gallons of water and add gypsum, yeast nutrient, and irish moss and bring to a boil for 5 minutes. Skim the top of the honey to remove the scum that forms a few times. Lower temperature to about 190 deg F. add raspberries & steep for about 10 minutes. Cool and pitch the yeast. The primary fermentation will need to be in a bucket rather than a carboy due to the fruit.

Rack off the fruit to a secondary fermenter in a few days. (If you can think of a good method to keep raspberries out of the siphon hose, let me know!) Add some more honey when you rack, we added 1# at this time.

Wait until it clears and bottle.