mead to melomel

[EBCornell]

Cheered on by my success with my batch of Joe's Ancient Orange, I'm planning on trying a traditional sweet mead using Narbonne yeast. I'm wondering if I need to take any additional considerations if I want to adapt the recipe to become a raspberry melomel. Should I put the berries in the primary or rack onto them in the secondary?

 

[Kee]

Good questions! There's a whole lot of info on this site about when to add fruit. You'll want to do some more forum searches.

I'm a noob, but my understanding is that fruit can be added anytime. In the primary it tends to add more color and subtle flavors. Fruit in the secondary or later tend to be the opposite. Some recipes have fruit in both. Based on what you decide, you'll want to determine if your yeast is strong enough to kill off / out perform any wild yeast that may be on the fruit. You may want to consider sulfate/sulfite before the primary if adding to primary. You'll probably want to research peptic enzymes to aid with clearing.