Raspberry Session Mead
A pink, tart, five-week melomel for people who hate waiting.
ABV
5.5% ABV
Time to bottle
~5 weeks
Original gravity
1.046
Final gravity
1.006
All the berry brightness of a melomel at session strength. Raspberries carry so much aroma that even a small dose transforms a light hydromel base, and the short timeline means you can iterate on this recipe several times a summer.
What you'll need
- 1 lb (450 g) clover honey
- 12 oz (340 g) raspberries, fresh or frozen (secondary)
- Spring water to 1 gallon
- 1 packet Lalvin 71B-1122 yeast
- Fermaid-O, staggered over the first 3 days
- ½ tsp pectic enzyme
- Priming sugar at bottling
- Batch size
- 1 gallon (3.8 L)
- Yeast
- Lalvin 71B-1122
Taste profile
What a finished batch should taste like.
Aroma
Flavor
How to make it
- 1
Mix honey and water to 1 gallon, add pectic enzyme and first nutrient dose, and pitch yeast.
- 2
Ferment cool at 60–66°F (15–19°C); it will finish in 7–10 days.
- 3
Rack onto the raspberries in secondary and leave for 7–10 days.
- 4
Rack off the fruit, cold crash 3–4 days until the pink haze settles.
- 5
Stabilize if keeping sweetness, then bottle with priming sugar at week 5.
- 6
Carbonated and ready two weeks later.
Brewer's notes
- 71B softens raspberry's sharp malic acid; it is the right yeast for this job.
- Fruit in secondary only: at session strength, primary fruit character gets scrubbed out by fermentation.
- This base recipe works with any soft fruit: swap in peaches, cherries, or mango and re-run it.
After bottling: Ready in 2 weeks; the raspberry nose is loudest in the first 4 months.
Brewing this one? Let MeadMate keep it on track.
Log gravity readings, get reminded when it's time to rack, and compare your taste notes against this profile.
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