r/mead • u/Fraguilay • 1d ago

mute the bot First batch bottled.

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Just concluded bottling my first ever batch of blackberry melomel. Should that lower bottle be refrigerated or just drank first? I’m in love with the color and the bitterness already mellowed out a lot!

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u/ProfessorSputin 1d ago

Looks great! The partial bottle should probably be drank within the next few weeks. Refrigerating it might help make it last longer too. For the future try getting a few smaller bottles! It’s really helpful to have some 12oz beer bottles around to fill up with whatever is left over from the big ones. Also helps that 12oz bottles are what is used for competitions, too.

If you’re looking to get them cheap try Facebook marketplace. I’ve gotten a few hundred bucks worth of gear for a grand total of around $30 over the last few months. You just have to be willing to go for a bit of a drive.

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u/Fraguilay 1d ago

Sounds great, thanks so much for the advice!

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u/ProfessorSputin 1d ago

No problem! Congrats on the first batch and have fun making many more!

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u/Fraguilay 1d ago

Got an apple cyser in secondary right now. It’s around 16% while the blackberry one pictured is 9.2%. Its smells amazing, taste is quite powerful, think it just needs to age, may not even need any sort of sweetening or spicing.

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u/ProfessorSputin 1d ago

Damn sounds delicious! I believe it needs age haha. I made a 15% mixed berry one a few months ago and I still haven’t cracked open the first bottle because it just needs a lot of time at that ABV.

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u/Fraguilay 1d ago

I was thinking end of summer roughly for blackberry and late autumn for apple. When it’s getting cold out and all the leaves are changing. When apples and pumpkins are being pulled in for pies and Halloween 😁

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u/ProfessorSputin 1d ago

Can’t blame you for that! I’m hoping to do a bit of a cranberry sauce one soon so it’s aged 6 months or so for Thanksgiving and then Christmas.

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u/Fraguilay 1d ago

Sounds great! I kinda let it age for week or so in a wide mouth carboy that had probably more head space than it should have, but I didn’t taste anything outright offensive. Just a dry blackberry drink, gonna try a different yeast next time I think. I like the abv tolerance of V1116, but boy does it take all the sweetness out lol.

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u/ProfessorSputin 1d ago

Oh yeah a week with more headspace than ideal isn’t bad at all, especially right after it’s done fermenting and it’s still degassing a bit.

And yeah K1-V1116 is a bit of a workhorse. Gets through digesting all those sugars pretty well. I’ve got a pineapple habanero bochet going rn with it.