Grapefruit Melomel
Source: John (The Coyote) Wyllie
Mead Lover's Digest #214, 24 September, 1993
Ingredients:
- 7 lb Clover Honey
- 6 (medium) grapefruit
- 1 tbsp fresh grated ginger
- Dash of acid blend
- ½ oz cascade hops (used as finishing hops)
- 1 tbsp pectic enzyme
- 1 tbsp sparkalloid
- Champagne yeast
Directions:
- Mix honey into a couple gallons heated water.
- Bring to a boil.
- Skim scum.
- Grate peel from grapefruits and juice them.
- Add peel, hops and acid blend to boil.
- Add juice when heat goes off.
- Cool by adding cold water.
- Pitch yeast.
- Ferment for a month.
- Rack to secondary.
- Add pectic enzyme and sparkalloid.
- Ferment until done
- Rack again, and bottle with ¾ cup corn sugar.
Notes:
It was a grapefruit melomel mead brewed in Feb, `92. I didn't take gravity readings, but it was a pretty light mead. It was bottled maybe two or three months later. After a month or two in the bottle it had carbonated, but smelled like vomit. Had a sour citrusy aftertaste. Not pleasant.
I put it away for a long time, and a year later it was clear, sparkling, and smelled nicely citrus. The pukey smell had cleared. It did taste like grapefruit, but more gently so. It may have been a bit too acid. A nice champagne-like presentation. You could even make raisin submarines in it. (If you've never tried this, drop a wrinkly raisin in a glass of clear sparkly mead, and be amazed!!! Fun for the whole family! Up and down!) The take-home lesson here was: age is a good thing. Be patient! Some meads are very harsh young, but can age beautifully, and become quite enjoyable.
Dave's Notes:
See also my notes from the Citrus Mead in which I discuss how citrus zest can kill yeast and stop a fermentation.