How much Fruit to add to Mead

[bordeaaj]

It looks fantastic! Nicely done dude!

Let me think about where to put this. Your call do you want it in the public area, or would you rather it stay in the Patron's area?

Might as well benefit everyone and make it public...I suppose it's mostly for us newbies anyway.

 

[dogglebe]

I disagree with dogglebe. It isn't that hard to add more fruit later. You just need to plan a little so you don't oxygenate the mead.

I just noticed that someone disagreed with me on this; I don't like it when people disagree with me. It infuriates me. Next thing you know, I kill a dozen people.

It is harder to add more fruit at the end than honey. With honey, dissolve some in a little warm water and add to taste (after you've sorbated the batch). After adding fruit, you need to wait, once again, for the batch to clear. And it's a little harder to add fruit to taste as the flavor isn't all in the batch as soon as you add it; it needs to be drawn from the fruit.


Phil

 

[knowlesbrew]

Very nice. Sorry if this is a dumb question but where would blackberris fall on this list?"

 

[STLBrewer]

I would be inclined to think they would be in a similar situation as Raspberries...

 

[ndbrewlady]

When adding fruit in the primary you have to punch down the cap to allow air in, control the heat and probably other issues I didn't state. But when you add the fruit to the secondary do you just leave it alone? ???

When I added fruit to my basic mead, it started fermenting again, I had to "gently" shake the bottle every day to keep the fruit from plugging up the nose of the bottle.

 

[Kee]

I just noticed that someone disagreed with me on this; I don't like it when people disagree with me. It infuriates me. Next thing you know, I kill a dozen people.

Well, if you kill a dozen people, it will discredit you and I will RULE THIS THREAD by default!! Mowahahaha!!

 

[Medsen Fey]

How does this look?

Absolutely terrific!

I guess I have to ask, with the combined wisdom of the folks around here, dare we propose some other fruits to add to Ken's list?

For example -

Mango
Mild Fruit Character = 3-6 lbs in secondary = 0.6-1.2 lbs/gal = 72-144 g/L
Medium Fruit Character = 8-12 lbs in secondary = 1.6-2.4 lbs/gal = 192-287 g/L
Stronger Fruit Character = 15 lbs or more in secondary = 3 lbs/gal or more = 359 g/L or more


Pete? Ken? Anyone else have a better idea for mango?
What other fruits should be added?

Medsen

P.S. Thank heaven for google conversions. :angel7:

 

[bordeaaj]

Mango
Mild Fruit Character = 3-6 lbs in secondary = 0.6-1.2 lbs/gal = 72-144 g/L
Medium Fruit Character = 8-12 lbs in secondary = 1.6-2.4 lbs/gal = 192-287 g/L
Stronger Fruit Character = 15 lbs or more in secondary = 3 lbs/gal or more = 359 g/L or more

I think further additions to the list by meadmakers experienced with different fruits would be a great resource. Some fruits can be reasonably extrapolated from or between similar fruits already on the chart depending on flavor intensity of the fruit...such as with the previous suggestion that blackberries follow the recommendations for raspberries. If most agree blackberries and raspberries have reasonably comparable flavor intensities just copy the Raspberry suggestions, paste it to the appropriate place on the chart and change the title to Blackberries. We can always insert any general technical information as well, ie:

1) The quality of your mead will depend directly on the quality of the fruit you use. Whenever possible, use the best quality fruit you can get your hands on. Also, in general, a blend of different varietals of a particular fruit will result in a much more complex and satisfying end product. For example, in a cherry mead you may blend different types of cherries to to make the best mead...one type for color, another for flavor intensity, and a third for acidity. Sometimes a small amount of a completely different type of fruit may be used to add depth.

2) Pureed and/or freezing fruit ruptures cell walls and releases flavor into the mead more completely.

3) Covered, open containers are preferred for secondary fruit additions in case the sugars in the fruit restart fermentation. If a carboy must be used make sure there is a couple gallons of headspace to avoid clogged carboy openings and the distinct possibility of a horribly unforgettable (and even dangerous) mead eruption.

4) Cap Management tips

Feel free to modify to your hearts content.

What other fruits should be added?

My suggestions:

Kiwis have always interested me...though I'm not sure how good they would be in a mead. They are always being compared to strawberries in the literature so they could probably use the Strawberry suggestions.

Apricots would a be good addition too, they are often used in place of peaches in craft brewing fruit beers as they give a stronger perception of peach flavor than do peaches themselves. Might be similar effects in mead.

Cranberries since they are mentioned in the intro as intensely flavored fruit.

Huckleberries...are they significantly different from blueberries?

Black Raspberries...are they mellower and less acidic than red raspberries?

Pomegranate

The Tropicals
Bananas...sounds weird but I had a banana lambic that was awesome.
Pineapple
Guava
Papaya
Passionfruit

The Ancient
Dates
Figs
Raisins

 

[STLBrewer]

Bananas...sounds weird but I had a banana lambic that was awesome.

Saw online somewhere (while bored at work ) a recipe for a Spiced Banana Mead...looked oddly interesting!!

 

[Oskaar]

I'm going to have to check with Ken on this. I skimmed right past the fact that this is directly from Ken's book (I don't use secondary additions to make most of my melomels so I haven't really hit that section of Ken's book very hard) and is copyrighted material so we need to get Ken's permission in order to post this in a public forum. That doesn't mean however that we can't continue to compile listings of fruits that are not on his list and publish those.

I'm going to take the post down for now until I hear back from Ken.

Sorry for this folks, I'm very busy right now and all I saw was that someone was taking the onus to document fruit additions to the secondary and didn't internalize that this was straight from Ken's book.