Making melomels seemed so easy after reading compleat meadmaker. Now, after browsing this forum is seems much more complicated. And reading homewinemaking sites sure doesn’t help.
What I had thought I would do was start a traditional mead. Then I would either just add the thawed fruit to the must when adding the yeast or after 6-8 hours when adding the first nutrient addition. Then letting it ferment as I would a traditional mead – expect for punching the fruitcap down a 3-4 times a day. Then after 5-7 day I would get the fruit out of the fermenter letting it finish before racking to secondary. And then treat it as a traditional from there on.
Now I see pectinase to the left of me, campden tablets to the right and what not. I once thought that not heating the fruit would take care of the pectin problem. And pitching a fair amount of yeast in a must that would reach 12 abv and ferment out dry would reduce issues with wild yeast and bacteria on the fruit.
Please somebody give me a couple of hints on what is a reasonable process for melomels. It’s not that I mind it being complicated. But I have a strong tendency to overthink things and with all these different process aspects chances are that I won’t get anything done anytime soon unless somebody tells: “just do like this!”.
What I had thought I would do was start a traditional mead. Then I would either just add the thawed fruit to the must when adding the yeast or after 6-8 hours when adding the first nutrient addition. Then letting it ferment as I would a traditional mead – expect for punching the fruitcap down a 3-4 times a day. Then after 5-7 day I would get the fruit out of the fermenter letting it finish before racking to secondary. And then treat it as a traditional from there on.
Now I see pectinase to the left of me, campden tablets to the right and what not. I once thought that not heating the fruit would take care of the pectin problem. And pitching a fair amount of yeast in a must that would reach 12 abv and ferment out dry would reduce issues with wild yeast and bacteria on the fruit.
Please somebody give me a couple of hints on what is a reasonable process for melomels. It’s not that I mind it being complicated. But I have a strong tendency to overthink things and with all these different process aspects chances are that I won’t get anything done anytime soon unless somebody tells: “just do like this!”.