I too have had an issue with fermenting a lemon wine (high acidic content). So I had to use a lemon mixer as a base (that you mix with vodka) and it ferments fine.
My wife wanted to make a Cherry Limeade using "Simply Lime" and fresh squeezed Lime juice. Now the last time I tried a lemon wine using "Simply Lemonade" and the mixers mentioned before, it stalled on me several times; went thru 3 yeast packets and lots of yeast energizer and nothing worked.
Fearing it may have spoiled I went ahead and dumped it and restarted the batch just using the lemon mixer.
Going back to the cherry limeade, I did some research and asked my local brew supply store questions on how to reduce the acidic content and they recommended Calcium Carbonate. Since I didn't have an acid tester kit, and wasn't sure what the appropriate acidic content should be, I just used the minimum recommended dosage for a 1 gallon bacth to reduce it by .10 (whatever that means).
Well, I checked in on it this morning (pitched yeast over the weekend) and it seems to be fermenting just fine now...it was a 3 gallon batch.
Hey Nicole, what process did they follow for making these melomels? Did they add the fruit during the secondary fermentation process? I'd like to know.
Thanks!