²Blåbær / Svartbær Melomel$

Must

Yeast Starter

20 lbs wildflower honey

2 c white grape juice

5 lbs blueberries

Large pinch of energizer

4 ½ lbs blackberries

Few drops of lemon juice

3 habañeros

Ice

½ lemon, large

Champagne yeast

≈ 4 gallons distilled water

Sterilize / sanitize all equipment first.  I put 1 cup of bleach & 5 gallons of warm water into my primary fermenter, and let everything else sit in there until needed.  Rinse the bleach mix off before using.

Make yeast starter before starting must.  Heat juices and energizer to just below boiling for about 15 minutes.  Let cool on ice to about 90°F.  Remove from ice, shake well, add yeast, & put in the dark.

Run frozen berries (buy fresh & freeze) and dried peppers through food processor.  Peppers need to be completely covered by berries.  Add to must (20 lbs honey, 2 gal. water).  Simmer, do not boil, must until all scum is gone.

Remove from heat, cover (not tight), & let sit for six hours.

Make sure both mixtures are the same temperature.  Run the must through cheesecloth and screened funnel directly into your primary fermenter.  Add lemon and yeast starter, top off with water to 6 gallons, there should still be space on top.  Install airlock.

First rack around 1 month, remove lemon.  Bottle at about six months, make sure air lock popping is down to about once in ten minutes.  Should be palatable at one year, but better to age longer due to the high honey content.

OG:  1.125

Rack 1

Rack 2

Rack 3

FG: 1.000,PH 3.5

2-21-04

3-21-04

6-27-04

10-7-04 

bottled 11-14-04

Around the middle of June I switched to One-Step for sterilizing, so the racking on the 27^th was not using the bleach method.

Primed with 6 oz clover honey