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what to do with 2 quarts of leftover must?

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groknaut

NewBee
Registered Member
Nov 6, 2011
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Berkeley, CA
hi. i have 2 quarts of leftover must after making two 1 gallon batches of melomel tonite. what, if anything, can i do with it? here are the details:

tonite i made two 1 gallon batches of melomel. following the recipe with regards to the quantity of water to, plus the fact that i need to leave headroom in the carboy to alloy for the foaming of the fruit, have leftover must. i put the must into a sterilized 2 quart mason jar and left as little head room between the surface of the liquid and the cover as possible.

the must contains no yeast. it does contain: water, orange blossom honey, yeast nutrient, juice of 2 lemons; full batch was steeped with 3 bags of earl grey tea and 2 split vanilla beans.

i followed a recipe for a 1 gallon melomel. i doubled it because i wanted to make 2 gallons: into one 1 gallon carboy i put in raspberries, the other i put blackberries. i've read enough of the internet on making mead to've learned to leave headroom due to the foaming that can occur. i wonder why in the recipes i've seen in various places on the internet don't call attention to the fact that you may end up with leftover must.

... or, is it just me? is this a common occurence in recipes, and thru experience you learn how to alter the amount of water and honey so that you don't have leftover must?

thanks!
kallen
 
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Freeze it and keep for when you rack it off of the fruit to make up the volume difference there.
 
I sometimes ferment extra must in whatever container it fits in, with plastic wrap over the top and an elastic band to keep the fruit flies out... that way when I add it to make up headspace, it's already fermented and it's already at the same alcohol level as the rest of the batch.

But usually I don't have this problem, I like to do my primary fermentation in a bucket so there's room for a little extra.

Be careful freezing liquids in glass, if things expand in unexpected directions it could crack the jar even if you do leave lots of headspace, I try to freeze things in plastic containers whenever I need to...
 
Ditto on CG's advice -- you can use a 1.5 liter wine bottle to ferment the left over must in, either your LHBS (home brew shop) or online sources can sell you an airlock stopper that will fit a wine bottle. At 1.5 liters for the winebottle, this will give you a bit over 1.6 US quarts. You'll still have some leftover must, but the 1.5 liters of fermented honey must can be used later on at racking the melomels. Just rack the blackberry and raspberry to separate carboys (unless you want to blend the two), then top off with the fermented honey must from the 1.5 liter wine bottle.

--
 
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thanks for the feedback so far! question ...

my 2 qts of leftover must does not have any yeast in it. i pitched EC-1118 directly into each of the 1 gal carboys after i filled the carboys with the must from my large pot.

at the moment, the leftover must is sitting in my fridge with the lid slightly loose to allow for any chemistry that might be going on.

are you guys saying that the leftover must without yeast can still ferment if i leave it out at room temp? and is that what i "should" do? i say "should" because i realize there are many ways to do this.

i do like the idea of my topping-off-must to already be at a similar alcohol level. but if it's not, i guess the leftover yeast will have to go to work on that.
 
You'd need to innoculate your excess with a little of the active stuff to get some yeasties going.

You can either leave it unfermented in the fridge and hope the yeasties can finish the job when you add it to your must, or you can add a little of your must to the excess stuff and ferment it alongside the main batches so it's already done by the time you add it.

:) There is no one way :)
 
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