Mead Calcualtor Question

[Zem]

Been doing this for years, it just goes to show your always a newbee about something...


I'm brewing a strawberry melomel with a lot of whole fruit in it.
I checked my OG at pitch and I read 1.095, but the mead calculator tells me it should be 1.109, thats almost 15 points. Which reading should
My guess is that the OG is more in the 1.109 range but the extra 15 points in sugar is just locked up in the fruit. Is that right?

Thanks so much

/Z

 

[Chevette Girl]

It really depends, this is why we tell people to go by their hydrometers rather than the calculator. It's possible your honey didn't disolve all the way, or it might have a slightly high water content... If your strawberries are mashed, it's also quite possible they contained more water than the calculator expected them to.

It's unlikely that the sugar is "locked up in the fruit" because pure strawberry juice will have a SG of less than 1.095 and would bring your SG down as it comes out of the fruit along with the water from the fruit.

If your fruit is not mashed, then you're not going to see the immediate effect of the juice release, so the calculator is probably not set up for an accurate OG in this case because the juice from the fruit isn't yet incorporated, if your fruit's whole, I'd run the calcs again and see what it thinks a traditional should be at your honey:water ratio, although if you topped up to your target volume with the fruit already in there, I would expect your SG to be reading high, not low.

Especially if your fruit is not mashed, I'd suspect undissolved honey...