Strawberry Melomel #2 Started

So fresh strawberries are coming into season and the smell was awesome in the store.  So I bought 9 pounds, picked up 17lbs of honey and 8 lbs of frozen strawberries.

Tonight I started my preparations and here's how it went down.

Washed the strawberries is fresh water then hulled them removing all of the greens.  Dunked into a solution of StarSan for a few minutes then rinsed with fresh water.  Then I sanitized my fermentation bucket (6.5 gallons) along with a fruit straining bag.  Mushed the strawberries with my hands and crushed the frozen berries.  All this went into the mesh bag along with a gallon of tap water.  

In order to prepare the fruit I added 2.022 grams of K-Meta to kill off the wild bugs.  I also added 4 teaspoons of Pectic Enzyme to start breaking down the cell walls of those berries.  I tied off the bag loosely and put on the lid.

At this point I'm going to wait for a day and let the pectic enzyme do its thing.  The K-Meta should stave off the bugs until I mix in the honey and pitch yeast.

Ingredients:

• 9 lbs of fresh strawberries
• 8 lbs of frozen strawberries
• 1 Gallon water
• 2.022 grams K-Meta
• 4 tsp. of Pectic Enzyme

After the rest period the following will be added.

• Balance water to ~6 Gallons 
• ~16 lbs Honey to a SG of 1.100
• 10g Lalvin 71B yeast re-hydrated in Go-Ferm
• Lye water to adjust pH to ~3.8

Nutrient Schedule:

The last time I made this I had real problems with Sulfide production due to a lack of nutrients.  At least that's what it appeared to be.  The last run used 16g of Fermaid-K and 14g of DAP for a total YAN of 260ppm.  This time around I am going to alter the balance of Nutrients more towards the Fermaid-K and also increase the total YAN to ~300ppm.

After the lag phase, not at pitch like  before, I will add 1/3 of the Fermaid-K and 1/2 of the DAP.  So that means 8-g Fermaid-K and 6g DAP.

At the 1/3 Break - 8g Fermaid-K and 6g DAP. 

At the 1/2 Break - 8g Fermaid-K and 0g DAP.

Aeration every day until 1/3 Break.  

Fermentation will be carried out @ 64F.  But if the fermentation speed is too fast I will drop it to 60F.  All this will be done with my newly build Water Bath Cooler.  Wait for details on this cool piece of kit.