Jelly Palm Fruit Melomel

This is what the Jelly Palm fruit looks like on the vine:
They're almost like mini persimmons.

In addition to cooking here at the Pillow Fort, we also experiment with making our own mead. This was an experiment Angela encouraged me to try. She came home with a bag of fruit collected from a jelly palm tree (Butia capitata) and thought this would make a nice mead (technically a mead made with fruit is called a "melomel").

So these are my notes of this ongoing experiment. Forgive me if the notes dont make sense for those of you not familiar with winemaking. This post is more like a journal entry than a recipe or instruction.


Batch #49: Jelly Palm Fruit Melomel
Started 11/15/13

After a month in the fermentation bucket, they dont look so pretty.

Ingredients:

• 2.5 lbs Butia capitata (with pits, frozen to break the fruit open a little to aid in fermentation)
• 1/4 tsp tannin
• Juice and zest from 1 tangerine
• Juice and zest from 1 lemon
• 3.5 lbs Kelley's Texas Honey
• 1/4 tsp acid blend
• 1 tsp nutrient
• 1/4 tsp energizer
• 1 tsp peptic enzyme
• 1 packet Lalvin D47 yeast.

Initial readings at the start of fermentation:

• Potential Alcohol: 14.5%
• Specific Gravity: 1.150

1st racking from primary
Readings:

• Specific Gravity: 1.000
• Potential Alcohol: 0%
• Alcohol: 14%

Notes:

Scent:  strong citrus
Color:  yelow/gold
Clarity: cloudy
Taste: TART

Recommendation:
All sugar was consumed in the initial fermentation, leaving 14% alcohol. With the amount of citrus added, this is going to need to be sweetened pretty good.

Added: 2/3 cup (1/2 lb or 8 oz) honey.

Racked to carboy (with excess) and airlocked.

Removing the fruit from the bucket.

It's a big 'ol pile of nasty, if you ask me.

After the fruit was removed, we started racking into the carboy.

One gallon apple juice jugs are perfect for small batch operations like this. 

Using a strainer to catch some of the smaller particles.

Taking measurements

All the sugar was completely consumed. Potential alcohol was zero.

Adding honey to the racking.

Completed racking and airlock in place.

Carboy and the excess. We'll wait and see what becomes of this in a few months.

Palm Fruit photo courtesy: Moxfyre, Wikipedia. Used under creative commons license.