Lingonberry Melomel 1.0

You'll notice that I'm doing meads this summer, though it might not be for the reason you'd expect.  It's not because the warm weather impacts my fermentations or that I'm trying to avoid raising the temperature and humidity in the house.  Bottom line... my Brewie+ stopped working in July and I am (still) waiting for a repair part to arrive from... somewhere.

The inspiration for this mead was a trip to Ikea some months ago. I saw Lingonberry drink mix for sale and thought this might be interesting in a beer or mead, so I bought a bottle.  With the Brewie+ down for the count, I decided to try it in a mead.

Ingredients

40 ounces of Wildflower honey, plus enough more to raise gravity to 1.127 SG
1 bottle of Ikea Lingonberry Juice Concentrate (16.9 ounces)
4 grams Fermaid O
3 grams DAP
1 packet of Lalvin 71B yeast
Bottled spring water

Original Gravity: 1.127 SG actual
Final Gravity:  TBD (expected around 1.020 SG)
Batch Size:  Approx 1.6 gallons
ABV: 14% expected

I chose the 71B yeast because it's reported to work well with darker-colored fruits, and is said to produce a smoother mead.  It's also rated at up to 14% ABV, which means it should leave some residual sugar behind. That will help offset some of the tartness of the Lingonberry concentrate.  For those not familiar with Lingonberries, they're similar to a more-tart cranberry.

Instructions

1. Put 40 ounces of honey in a sanitized fermenter
2. Add enough water to reach the 3/4 gallon mark (approx.)
3. Using a sanitized degasser and cordless drill, stir until the honey is incorporated
4. Add the Lingonberry juice drink concentrate
5. Add Fermaid O and DAP
6. Stir with the degasser until well mixed
7. Add water to the 1.5 gallon mark
8. Take a gravity reading (I used a Tilt Hydrometer for this)
9. If gravity is too low, add honey and stir again.  Take another gravity reading.
10. Repeat step 9 until desired gravity (1.124 or higher) is reached
11. Gently sprinkle the yeast on top of the must
12. Seal the fermenter and add an airlock

Fermentation plan:

• Fri. Aug 23:  Extract a bit of must into a container.  Add another 4g Fermaid O and 3g DAP to this and stir with a sanitized spoon until dissolved.  Add to fermenter.  If time permits, clean and sanitize the degasser and degas the must.
• Sun. Aug. 25:  If gravity seems to be dropping as expected, do nothing.  If fermentation seems to have slowed, add 2g Fermaid O and 1g DAP to the must, the degas, and reseal the fermenter.
• From here, wait until the yeast seems to have stopped fermenting the must.  This might take 6-8 weeks to complete.  If necessary, rouse the yeast or move the fermenter to a warmer location to get fermentation to finish, adding yeast energizer if necessary.
• Once primary fermentation has finished, transfer the must into a clean fermenter for aging.  Leave here until any harsh flavors and aromas are gone, and the must appears to have clarified.

After secondary fermentation is finished, bottle the mead in flip-top bottles for extended aging.

Post-Brew Notes and Observations

08/21/2019:  Marked a new 2-gallon bucket fermenter with quart-level markings up to 2 gallons.  Sanitized the fermenter, the degasser, and a pitcher.  Put 80 ounces of honey, the bottle of Lingonberry concentrate, and yeast nutrients in the fermenter and stirred. Dropped in a Tilt Hydrometer once the volume was up to 1.5 gallons. Gravity read low, around 1.075 SG.  Added more honey until finally reaching the 1.127 SG gravity.  There was still maybe 10-20% of the honey left in the 5 pound container, so I'd estimate this ended up being about 4 pounds of honey.  Sprinkled on the yeast, buttoned up the fermenter, and added an airlock.

08/22/2019:  Gravity is down to 1.123 SG.  That's a little over 2% attenuation.  I've read that the 71B yeast strain ferments with moderate speed, results in a smoother flavor with darker-colored fruits, and can attenuate up to 14% ABV in a temperature range of 59-86F.  Temperature in the fermenter has been holding between 70-71F so far.

08/23/2019:  Gravity is now 1.098 SG and temperature has increased to 73F.  That's 22.8% attenuation and 3.8% ABV.

08/24/2019:  Added some DAP and Fermaid O to the must.  Swirled the fermenter a bit to get the nutrients distributed, which caused some degassing.  Gravity currently reads 1.081 SG and temperature is at 72F.  Attenuation is approximately 36% and ABV is 6%.

08/25/2019:  Gravity is reading 1.057 SG today, which represents approximately 55% attenuation and an ABV of 9.2%.  I'm expecting the final gravity to be 1.025 SG or less, which would be attenuation in the ballpark of 79%.  That means fermentation is probably 70% complete at this point (about four days from yeast pitch).

08/27/2019:  Gravity has dropped to 1.023 SG today, which represents a hair under 82% attenuation and an ABV of about 15.6%.  A sample taken from the fermenter was mildly sweet with a nice Lingonberry flavor, though very cloudy at this early stage.  Gravity still seems to be dropping.

08/28/2019:  Gravity is down to 1.014 SG, which represents about 89% attenuation and 16.8% ABV.

08/29/2019:  Gravity has dropped to 1.009 SG today, which represents about 93% attenuation and an ABV of over 17.6%.

08/30/2019:  Gravity is now 1.003 SG, which represents 98.4% attenuation and 18.4% ABV.

08/31/2019:  Gravity is now 1.000 SG, which represents 100% attenuation and 18.71% ABV.

09/01/2019:  Gravity is now 0.998 SG, which represents over 100% attenuation (which technically isn't possible so let's just call it 100%) and 18.91% ABV.  Despite, there are indications that fermentation is not completely finished yet.

09/02/2019:  Gravity 0.997 SG. ABV 19.16%, Attenuation over 102% (theoretically). Fermentation at last seems to be slowing down, but hasn't stopped.

09/03/2019:  Gravity 0.996 SG. ABV 19.29%.  Fermentation is definitely slowing down.

09/04/2019:  Gravity at 0.996 SG since about 9:45am yesterday.

09/05/2019:  Gravity has held at 0.996 SG since yesterday.

09/06/2019:  Gravity continues to hold at 0.996.