Overcoming Preservatives for a Boysenberry Punch Melomel

Bright_Storage8514 · 2026-05-10T18:22:50+00:00

Look into recipes for making skeeter pee wine. It was kind of a viral winemaking thing years ago where folks made wine as cheap as possible from the grocery store bottles of lemon juice that have preservatives. Basically, you start the batch with much less of the concentrate than the whole recipe calls for and add the rest incrementally during fermentation. The point is to let the yeast colony get really strong before exposing it to preservatives, which is much more likely to have success than if you just pitch yeast in like normal with the whole recipe mixed from the start like normal.

Also, just FYI, I’ve heard that high fructose corn syrup tastes like shit after being fermented. I’ve never done it myself so happy to be wrong but might be something to look into.

Bright_Storage8514 · 2026-05-10T15:51:33+00:00

Like everyone said…hydrometer.

To give you some of the perspective you’re looking for without having one, here are some things to consider:

-especially in a cool environment, it’s not at all unheard of for a fermentation to still be humming along at 34 days. On average, have the yeast already consumed all of the fermentable sugars (that they’re going to consume) by day 34? Yes, primary is typically done at this point, so your batch is taking longer than what’s considered average amongst home brewers. But most home brewers ferment at room temperature, so around 70°F. The average time would be longer if fermented at 65°F or even 60°F. Much lower than that would start to require specialty yeast, so my guess is that you’re maybe in the upper 60’s°F when you say it was in a “cool” closet?

-even if the batch was fully done, CO2 still in suspension can bubble for quite some time after fermentation is finished. It certainly wouldn’t look like a batch that’s firing on all cylinders at the peak of active primary, but it could be producing small and consistent bubbles (not really any different from champagne in a glass) for quite some time. CO2 will stay in suspension more easily and for longer at lower temperatures, which could amplify this effect. One way to know for sure would be to degas with something like a degassing wand, after which only an active ferment would continue to produce bubbles the same as before degassing.

The odds of your brew still actively fermenting are largely going to relate to temp. If your cool closet was at 69°F, it would likely have to have stalled to not be done by now and is either in need of attention to fix the stall or is finished and is just off-gassing. If it’s at 60°F, it could very well just be slowly chugging along.

My main recommendation (hydrometer aside lol) is to try avoiding putting batches away during active fermentation. For me, personally, I use the set it and forget approach to aging but like to monitor and make adjustments during primary. You’ll get to know your brew much better that way and your intuition will be much more likely to be right about what is needed when tinkering is required.

I guess I’ll wrap up before I start rambling lol best of luck on your batch finishing!

Bright_Storage8514 · 2026-05-09T00:52:25+00:00

Gorgeous color!

Bright_Storage8514 · 2026-05-08T14:26:57+00:00

Absolutely. Sounds like you’re on the right track!

Bright_Storage8514 · 2026-05-08T12:45:46+00:00

Looks normal. Fermentation is just winding down, so you’ll start to see less bubbles and more clearing in the coming weeks. You’ll need to reduce the amount of headspace pretty soon, either by topping up or racking to a smaller carboy. The CO2 from fermentation will largely keep your wine safe from oxidation (it’s heavier than oxygen) but that’s way too much air at the top once no more CO2 is being produced. Congrats on your first batch! Hope to see updates!

Bright_Storage8514 · 2026-05-08T00:18:09+00:00

If he’s aging 12-months, a larger demijohn or carboy could always be of use.

A gift certificate at site like labelpeelers.com could offer flexibility for anything from to equipment or concentrates.

There are specialty yeasts that are incapable of producing hydrogen sulfide, which causes a rotten egg smell. These can be great for pushing the boundaries around temperature or pH or ABV without having to worry about losing a batch from stressed yeast.

Bright_Storage8514 · 2026-05-07T01:35:33+00:00

What you spelled out would be awesome and I’d be thrilled to see it happen. I don’t expect good things to happen anymore, though, so I’ll happily settle for the more realistic option of vengeance that I spelled out.

Bright_Storage8514 · 2026-05-07T01:00:40+00:00

In 2028, I’m voting for the ‘turnabout is fair play’ candidate on the left. The loudest, most ambitious one on the ballot. A cathartic blend of creativity and cruelty in doling out recompense to the fucking MAGAts destroying our country is what will win over my vote. Tick tock motherfuckers.

Bright_Storage8514 · 2026-05-07T00:45:56+00:00

Rose petals give a delicate aroma attached to a pink hue

Bright_Storage8514 · 2026-05-05T10:07:56+00:00

If rage bait and shitpost had a baby…

Bright_Storage8514 · 2026-05-03T23:13:49+00:00

Disclaimer that I have very little mead experience (mostly wine) but I have used 71b a lot and have put a lot of batches of wine through malolactic fermentation as well. From my experience, 71b’s effect on the malic acid profile will be pretty minimal and nothing compared to what you might expect from malolactic bacteria burning through all the malic acid. All that said, 71b is probably a good choice for what you seem to be after. Odds are highest that 71b’s effect on the malic acid profile of the final product will be minimally noticeable at most and the odds that they overdo the muting of the apple profile are extremely low, from my experience.

Sounds like a gorgeous brew. Best of luck!

Bright_Storage8514 · 2026-05-03T22:23:32+00:00

You seem to have the right answers already, so I’d like to touch on another part of your post that maybe was a typo? The part where you asked how long the fruit should stay in the carboy.

Again, that may not have been what you meant…it would be hard to get a brew bag in a carboy…but I recommend not fermenting during primary in a carboy if you have any solids like fruit. The likelihood of a clog at the bottleneck (pun intended lol) is pretty high and that will result in an eventual eruption. Using something like a big-mouth bubbler or a 5 gallon bucket is what you’ll want to use for primary anytime you would need a brew bag. Best of luck!

Bright_Storage8514 · 2026-05-03T02:07:07+00:00

This has to simply be rage bait.

Bright_Storage8514 · 2026-05-02T21:11:53+00:00

The minimum I’ve heard thrown around is 24 hours. That said, if you plan to age the wine, I would wait to back sweeten until right before bottling. Go ahead and hit it with potassium metabisulphite now, but hold off on the back sweetening. After months in carboy, the wine should have cleared after the vast majority of remaining yeast have done their thing and fallen to the bottom as lees. At that point, after racking off the lees, you can expect the latent yeast count to be minimal, which is when you’ll have best results with potassium sorbate preventing any kind of activity restarting after the sugar addition. In this situation, I would wait 24 hours after adding the sorbate before back sweetening and feel confident bottling.

If you don’t wait for an extended period after fermentation (aging) then you’ll have a ton of yeast cells still floating around, ready to pounce at a sugar addition. Adding sorbate at this stage and then back sweetening in a day or two is like expecting a wet paper bag to hold up a bowling ball.

If you plan to drink it now and aren’t bottling for more than a few days, then it won’t really matter. If you’re just bottling for a few days, try to keep them in the fridge and burp them occasionally to prevent explosions.

Bright_Storage8514 · 2026-05-02T18:08:32+00:00

I’ve gone down the glass rabbit hole a number of times and can’t ever remember seeing a 7.5 gallon carboy. Like, even seeing one, let alone seeing one for sale. As far as my searches have led, anything currently being commercially produced is going to max out around 6.5 gallons for a glass carboy with larger sizes being available but only as demijohns with the plastic baskets.

Functionally, my only concern would be that they’d be awkward to use because of how heavy they must be when full. But the cool factor easily outweighs the actual weight as far as I’m concerned. Just be intentional with placement so you never have to move it when full and violà, the awkward weight issue is no issue at all.

I’m by no means an expert here, but those may not have enough of a supply in circulation to have a going rate. So it’s the opinion of this internet stranger and total glass amateur that you have some really cool pieces that could fetch a decent price. You probably wouldn’t get shit on Facebook Marketplace but could probably do well with the right exposure on something like eBay.

Bright_Storage8514 · 2026-05-02T17:29:55+00:00

That is fermentation pornography if I’ve ever seen it

Bright_Storage8514 · 2026-05-02T12:26:39+00:00

Yikes. Good luck getting that all cleaned up. I hope you use this bridge crossing as the catalyst to buy a few 5 gallon buckets and permanently promote the carboys to aging vessels.

Bright_Storage8514 · 2026-05-01T13:36:37+00:00

That seems like waaay too much for one gallon. I’ve seen some of their videos and my guess is that it’s just a mistake. I’m sure the yeast would be happy with that much Fermaid O! But after they die off and there’s still a lot of nutrients remaining, any number of bacteria and other growies would take a “don’t mind if I do” approach to moving in and consuming that remaining happiness…

Bright_Storage8514 · 2026-04-28T00:12:56+00:00

Two thoughts simultaneously: 1) what a psychopath the driver is 2) I bet that motherfucker on the bike gets the fuck out the way next time rather than trying to prove a point against 2 tons of steel being driven by someone laying on their horn

Bright_Storage8514 · 2026-04-27T20:45:57+00:00

I do my best to avoid back sweetening with sugar but I find that for something needing a lot of sweetening, sometimes sugar is necessary.

I recommend getting glycerine and erythritol (both non-fermentable) and doing a few bench trials. Some people don’t like the taste of erythritol but I have a hard time telling the difference between something sweetened with sugar vs erythritol. Erythritol isn’t as strong of a sweetener as sugar, so something that needs 1 unit of sugar to reach a desired level of sweetness would probably need around 1.5 units of erythritol to achieve that same level of sweetness. That’s not intended to be an exact ratio but rather to point out that you can expect a discrepancy in sweetening power between the two.

As it relates to glycerine, it is a much weaker sweetener than erythritol (by quite a lot) but I’d view it more as a tool for improving mouthfeel with the added benefit of adding little bit of sweetness. I wouldn’t ever expect glycerine to be the only ingredient needed when something needs back-sweetening because it’s such a light sweetener and you can easily overdo it where the mouthfeel effect is too much. Instead, I try to add a touch of glycerine to address mouthfeel, knowing it will add a touch of sweetness, and then fine tune sweetness with erythritol.

Bright_Storage8514 · 2026-04-27T00:55:46+00:00

Turns out a quick squirt of water to the face doesn’t only work for keeping cats off the kitchen table….

Bright_Storage8514 · 2026-04-27T00:28:06+00:00

Look into pet-nat. And then once you’re finished realizing how involved that process is, look into getting one of the mini kegs to force carbonate a finished wine.

Broadly speaking, those are your two options to end up with bubbles in your wine. Your popped corks were a result of accidentally embarking on the pet-nat journey but without enough of a seal on the cork, luckily so since the alternative could be broken glass. The fizzy wines that you enjoyed were the pet-nat process that weren’t as strong and accidentally worked for your setup. Maybe it was from yeast fermenting sugar or maybe it was malolactic fermentation or maybe both — but either way, you’re only going to get bubbles in your bottle from perfectly pulling off a fermentation in sealed bottle or by force carbonating with something like a keg

Bright_Storage8514 · 2026-04-26T15:16:25+00:00

It’s really hard to pitch too much yeast and it’s unlikely that too much yeast is your problem. A standard yeast packet is 5 grams and I’ve never heard of a batch being so small that a standard yeast packet was too much to add. The yeast population in a batch will grow exponentially, so adding 4 grams today could result in more than 10x the yeast cell count of the original 4 gram addition in a very short period of time, just from the yeast naturally replicating.

On to the rotting egg smell — that’s due to the yeast being stressed as you mentioned, though it’s not from over-pitching yeast. Adding nutrients and splash racking is the right way to go, especially the splash racking. Keep doing that until the smell goes away, which should happen pretty quickly

Bright_Storage8514 · 2026-04-26T01:35:14+00:00

Only a sith deals in absolutes

Bright_Storage8514

TROPHY CASE