cooked fruit in mead

[Scadsobees]

I've got a bunch of grapes and elderberries in the freezer, just begging to become mead. Some is destined to become jelly, but not all...that would be a lot of jelly...
However, it seems to be more inconvenient and messy to try to monkey with all of the fruit and racking off the skins etc, and seems like it would be nicer to just boil up the fruit and run it through a jelly bag to get out the fruit (since I have to anyway to make jelly). Then I can just add the juice at any stage easily.

And I don't have a press. Yet.

What are the reasons not to cook the fruit for mead/wine and what happens if I do?

I have to get it out soon because I also have some wild grapes I would like to harvest and I'm out of freezer space!!!

Thanks for the input!
Rick

 

[wayneb]

First and foremost, cooked fruit doesn't taste the same as fresh or frozen fruit. You'll make a good mead, but it won't be the same flavor profile that it would have had if the fruit had not been cooked.

Second, if you choose to do this, you'll need pectinase (pectic enzymes) to break down the pectins that set when fruit is heated. Otherwise you'll risk making a cloudy mead that doesn't clear easily.