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How much Fruit to add to Mead

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knowlesbrew

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I would like to make a Blueberry Mead. My recipe is below. I have a 96 oz can of Vintners Harvest reserve blueberries. Would this be a suitable amount to flavor a five gallon batch?


Five gallon batch
12 lbs of Orange blossom honey
2 tsp of Yeast nutrient
2 tsp of energizer
1 tsp of Yeast Nutrient/energizer at 1/3 break
Lavin ec 1118
OG- 1.09

the batch is in the primary an has pretty much fermented out. I plan to rack it into a bucket with the blueberries. I was just wondering if I should add more than this amount?
After I rack it with the fruit I plan to leave it for two weeks then move it to a corny keg to bulk age until November or so.
 
My first mead was a blueberry mead, I made it with 2 lbs, which wasn't nearly enough. It seems like 10 lbs is the way to go when hoping to get a lot of a certain fruit flavor.
 
It depends on the fruit though. When I make blackberry meads and wines I'll only use a couple pounds and it's more than enough. Blueberries are different though not nearly as kaboom! flavorful. Expensive little buggers too I almost got some at the co-op today but the organic mango bits were a third the price so I got a pound of them instead for a gallon of mango mead.
 
According to Ken Schramm's The Compleat Meadmaker it depends on the amount of fruit character you're looking for. He offers the following suggested fruit additions as a guide:

For Blueberries in 5 Gallons of Mead
Mild Fruit Character = 5 to 7 pounds in secondary
Medium Fruit Character = 7 to 10 pounds in secondary
Stronger Fruit Character = 11 pounds or more in secondary (many of the berry mead recipes from this forum easily double that amount of fruit and more)

Hope that helps!
 
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Whenever I make a fruit melomel, I tend to over-fruit the batch. It's easier to add more honey at the end, to balance the batch, than to add more fruit.


Phil
 
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.

Knowlesbrew, 92 oz is a little light for 5g, but go ahead and give it a whirl. If you want more blueberry after a week or two, rack onto another can and bucket. Keep going until you like the flavor. You're not really changing much since you're bulk again for the year anyway.
 
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Yeah, its in a carboy at the moment, but i am going to rack it to a bucket with the fruit. If the one can isnt enough I was planning on using the flavoring extracts that Midwestsupplies.com sells to give it a little more blueberry flavor. I will probably do that after I age it.
 
bordeaaj said:
According to Ken Schramm's The Compleat Meadmaker it depends on the amount of fruit character you're looking for. He offers the following suggested fruit additions as a guide:

For Blueberries in 5 Gallons of Mead
Mild Fruit Character = 5 to 7 pounds in secondary
Medium Fruit Character = 7 to 10 pounds in secondary
Stronger Fruit Character = 11 pounds or more in secondary (many of the berry mead recipes from this forum easily double that amount of fruit and more)

Hope that helps!
Click to expand...

I know this is a thread specific to blueberries but could someone who is experienced with Melomels make a sticky thread for a guideline on how much fruit should be added to secondary for a desired taste in a 5 gallon batch?
 
Odinsson said:
I know this is a thread specific to blueberries but could someone who is experienced with Melomels make a sticky thread for a guideline on how much fruit should be added to secondary for a desired taste in a 5 gallon batch?
Click to expand...

That's a pretty tall order Odinsson. Ken's book has a good guidline if you're going to add fruit to the secondary, but, there are a lot of folks like me that will add fruit to the primary and sometimes the secondary as well. I prefer the integration of flavors when the fruit, juice, skins, seeds, etc. are mixed with the honey in the must and fermented. Adding the fruit in the secondary is a great way to keep the flavor of the actual fruit and over time it will integrate and develop it's own character as it oxidizes with age.

Both ways produce excellent meads, so it's tough because you'd have to break down what people's tastes are, and then figure from you're own experience with local fruit, out of state fruit, frozen fruit, dried fruit, canned fruit, fruit juice, etc. So to me it makes more sense to ask the person what they want to make and what they desire in the end product and then kind of dial in the recipe.

Do you have a mead in mind?
 
I am working on a 3g Raspberry. I was planning on doing a puree in the primary and seeing where that left me at secondary. The brewshop sells a raspberry puree and I can find frozen raspberries all over town but the fresh ones are outragously expensive right now and idk how they will go down during raspberry season.
 
Yeah where I live I know tons of people that grow blackberries, I am planning on taking advantage of that and go crazy on the Blackberry Mead
 
PBakulic said:
Ken's book has a good guidline if you're going to add fruit to the secondary, but, there are a lot of folks like me that will add fruit to the primary and sometimes the secondary as well.
Click to expand...

To make things even more confusing, although in his book Ken recommends adding fruit to secondary, I have heard or read somewhere (probably here) that he now prefers fruit additions toward the end of primary as well.

Seems like it would be easy enough to sticky the suggestions from Ken's book with the understanding that since fruit character preferences vary wildly they are just basic guidelines, are not to be taken as hard and fast rules, and that there are variations of these techniques available for those who are interested.
 
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Sounds to me like you just volunteered :), welcome to the Got Mead Volunteer Corps!
 
knowlesbrew said:
Yeah where I live I know tons of people that grow blackberries, I am planning on taking advantage of that and go crazy on the Blackberry Mead
Click to expand...

Knowlesbrew do you live in the northwest too? Blackberries blackberries and more blackberries!!! (and blackberry honey!) Ever read any of Tom Robbins' work? He's got a nice little digression manifesto thing in Still Life With Woodpecker about how Seattle should just give in and let the blackberries grow over everything and become the blackberry capitol of the WORLD!
 
PBakulic said:
Sounds to me like you just volunteered :), welcome to the Got Mead Volunteer Corps!
Click to expand...

LOL...should have kept my fingers off the keyboard :). Well, I guess I could start a new post with the suggestions from the book if you're serious (if that's the best way to do it).
 
bordeaaj said:
LOL...should have kept my fingers off the keyboard :). Well, I guess I could start a new post with the suggestions from the book if you're serious (if that's the best way to do it).
Click to expand...

Dude,

I'm serious as a heart attack!

Please be sure to include a bibliography at the end of your post so that proper credit to Ken and the Publisher, along with recognition of the Copyright is observed.

If you want a template for the bibliography PM me and I'll give you the standard format used for publications and abstracts, which are what I use when I quote from copyrighted sources.

Cheers, and I thank you for your willingness to take this on! Oskaar
 
This post has been placed on hold pending permission to publish here on Got Mead?

Apologies for misunderstandings.

Pete Bakulic
 
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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?
 
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