This double batch reflects a certain amount of disorganization during the initial brewing process. No errors in sanitation, but the process did take longer than it should as we had to pause to sanitize some item or other that didn't make it into the bleach tub. One batch turned into a blueberry melomel while the other became a rosehip melomel. We were going to bottle both batches, but again disorganization struck. That's what happens when you don't do this very often.
Ingredients:
Processing rose hips: Remove the stems, most of heads, and seperate out the debris before washing the hips. Then boil, mash and strain. This was done three times over the course of two days, resulting in 12 cups of rose hip juice/tea. This was frozen for later use. Processing rose hips is somewhat labor intensive.
Four packages of somewhat old Lalvin EC-1118 yeast were rehydrated at brew time (two packages per carboy).
October 25, 2007 - Twenty one pounds of honey was heated with water. We used the last of big bucket of Madhava wildflower, the last of a big bucket of Madhava clover, and a bit of some Clarke's wildflower honey. Yeast energizer was added while the must was heating, and once the temperature got to 140F the must chiller was placed into the kettle. The temperature was brought back up to 140F and the must was kept hot for 15 - 20 minutes. The must was cooled and poured into two carboys. Yeast was added to each carboy. Water was added to fill the carboys which were then stirred and stored with a bubble lock.
November 15, 2007 - picked just over two quarts of rose hips and transformed them into rose hip tea.
November 24, 2007 - Created D2 Boilberry and D2 Hippy. The blueberries and rose hip tea were removed from the freezer in the morning. By evening they were not quite thawed, so we heated them on the stove. We added two large spoonfuls of honey to the rose hip tea. While the blueberries were heating Marcia said, "Don't blue the boilberries", so that's where we got "Doubly Disorganized BoilBerry". We also boiled some marbles in a mesh bag. First we poured the sweetened rose hip tea into a carboy and then racked some D2 must onto the tea. The mesh bag with the marbles went into a sanitized bucket and the blueberries were poured into the bag, which was tied. Not all the must from the first carboy fit into the Hippy mead, so we racked that bit into the bucket, along with the other carboy of must. Both batches were burping nicely when we stored them in the brew box.
July 24, 2008 - The marbles in with the blueberries were supposed to keep the fruit from floating to the top of the bucket. This did not work. Maybe we need to use more? We did boil 3/4 cup of corn sugar in 1 cup of water and racked the blueberry mead into a clean bucket with the sugar solution (and stirred well) before bottling.
February 6, 2009 - Boiled 1 cup corn sugar with 1 cup water. Racked Hippy onto sugar water, stirred well. Bottled.
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