17 replies to this topic

[paulatbeach]

I need some suggestions on what else might belong in a cranberry and apple mead. I currently have about 6 oz of fresh frozen cranberries, 1 cut-up Fugi apple, and a handful of raisins. I did 40oz of honey and will top up to a full one gallon once it has passed peak ferment. Yeast is Fleishmans.

any ideas?

thanks, paulc

[saramc]

paulc....Can I ask why you want to use BREAD yeast to make this mead? I do realize many use bread yeast to make JMAO mead, but seriously leave the Fleischmann's to bread you will appreciate it in the end.

You don't indicate what LIQUID component is being used in the gallon recipe? 6 ounces of cranberries and 1 cut up Fuji apple will not impart much liquid. Any chance you can add apple juice or a cranapple blend?

[paulatbeach]

I used water so the only juice will come from the cranberries and the apple. I used the bread yeast in the hope it will crap out before eating all the sugar so as to leave it a bit sweet.

thanks, paul

[saramc]

Did you chop/crush the cranberries? What was your OG?
Good luck and keep us posted.

[paulatbeach]

I did crush the cranberries...sorta. I put them in the jug ahead of time thinking that way all the juice would be in the primary. With hind sight it is pretty hard to crush a cranberry through the neck of a gallon jug; one berry at a time and that is just crazy. So I would do that differently in the future if this batch turns out okay. I don't know the "OG", I assume you mean starting specific gravity.

I am treating this pretty much the same as a JOAM, which may be a mistake, but I simply added the honey, fruit, water to about 3/4 of gallon of water and then yeast. I figure I will let it ferment strong for a couple days, get it past the fermentation volcano stage and then top it off to a full gallon and leave it all sit in the closet until it tastes "right" or the fruit drops and it clears by itself. I was not able to find any recipes on a mead like this so I was pretty much shooting in the dark but I liked cran-apple juice growing up so maybe this will be a bit like that with about a 12% kick.

I will let you know how it goes. paulc

[saramc]

I like looking at "The Bee's Lees" for mead recipe ideas, http://brewery.org/l...y/beeslees.html

One last question, is your honey measured by weight or volume?

You have inspired me to make a cranapple mead! Thinking I will use 3# fruit per gallon, 1# cranberry to 2# apple, and may add 1/2# zante or 1# bananas for a bit of body. And I might, just might, see if I can make a sparkling mead with this.

[paulatbeach]

Honey was by volume. I have not seen a recipe specific to cranberry but surely I am not the first to try it. Maybe there are no recipes cause it doesn't taste so hot:-) I used the raisins as I believe they help with body and tannin but I am barely a year into this obsession so I am far from educated on it. But I have made two batches of JOAM, one following recipe carefully and the other with slightly less honey. Both were well received to the point I have only one 750ml bottle left. I hope these two batches can be allowed to age a bit longer. paulc

[paulatbeach]

Hi Sara, I just looked through the beeslees link a bit and it looks great. I will have to bookmark that site. Thanks!

[ArmyBean69]

I just finished and bottled a Cranberry-Apple Melomel "Quick Mead" using Fleischmann's yeast. I'm still using the bread yeast for it's speed and low alcohol tolerance, my apartment doesn't provide me the space for long slow fermentation and storage unfortunately. Ran about 10 weeks from start to bottling.

Baseline 5 gallon recipie was: 10# Golden Delicious Apples, 6# Fresh Cranberries, 15# Texas Wildflower honey, 4 cinnamon sticks, pectic enzyme, distilled water and 5 tsp. yeast. I macerated the apples and cranberries using the grinder on my Kitchenaid (Stainless Steel, easy to sanitize) and combined the mush with the remaining ingeadients in a 22-quart food service bucket modified as a primary fermentor. Cap management was a pain in the
"glass" for the 10 days it spent in the primary. After roughly half of the cap was consumed by the yeast and fermentation slowed, I filered it using a coarse nylon mesh to remove the fruit remnants into a 5-Gallon carboy. I added some heavy toast american oak chips and distilled water to fill the carboy. This dropped the alcohol % and SG enough to vigorously restart the yeast in the secondary. After another 8 weeks in the secondary, fermentation halted and began to clear. I racked it again and stabilized using Potassium Meta-Bisulfide and Potassium Sorbate so I could back sweeten it. Added 2# more Wildflower honey and filtered with my mini-jet filter down to the #1 (polishing) filter and bottled it.

Finished product: 9% Alcohol, 5% Residual Sugar after sweetening. Strong Apple and light vanilla on the nose, crisp acidity and honey in the middle with a lingering edge from the cranberry on the finish.

Things I will change next time: Use a variety of apples for a more rounded flavor; skin and core apples before macerating them (added a little more bitterness than I wanted and will reduce need to filter as finely); allow the pectic enzyme more time to work on the must before pitching yeast; give gravity a little more time to settle out in the secondary before filtering.

I'll post some pics when I get the chance...

[paulatbeach]

thanks AB69. Sounds like a pretty nice batch. Mine is bubbling away in a gallon jug. the color has begun to leach out of the apple skins and cranberries so it is a promising red/pink right now. Nice contrast with teh JAOM bubbling next to it. paul

[Minnesotaris]

So, to not use bread yeast, can one use Red Star Cote de Blanc or a similar wine yeast instead? And, since wine yeast noms on everything, I assume it will ferment dry but will dry be appropriate for a JAOM? I am SUPER-interested in making JAOM now!!

[paulatbeach]

It is my understanding that JAOM is susposed to be a sweet mead. search JAOM and you will easily find the recipe. A guy that goes by FatBloke seems to be the expert as near as I can tell, but I can't remember if he is on this board or winemakingtalk. I am sure he would argue that going with a wine yeast "voids" the warranty of awesomeness that is inherent in the JAOM recipe. I have made two batches so far and both have been super. I am now trying to reduce the amount of honey in the recipe as it definitely finishes sweet. But it is argued that the sweetness makes a good balance to the bitterness of the orange pith. Some folks talk about preparing the orange such that the pith is kept to a minimum but again, see fatblokes "warranty". So my experiementing with the honey amount may result in a mead that is too bitter. I don't know yet.

But I can whole heartedly recommend a batch of JAOM. Let it sit for 6 months before bottling, then let it sit another 6 wks before you try the first bottle. Try to let some age a full year. Serve it slightly chilled, or maybe over ice. It has been a big hit as an after dinner drink passed along side a commercial port. paulc

[ArmyBean69]

Here are some shots of the batch in progress:

[Minnesotaris]

Looks great! How does it taste there?

[ArmyBean69]

Peter,

It came out quite nice. It's still young and will improve with some time in the bottle for sure, but it has been very well received by the tasting panel of my friends.