Ok newbie question here. I've not even started a mead yet but have been reading every thing I can on this site. From what I have gathered fruits/spices added during Primary fermentation gives you subtle flavoring were as the same thing added in secondary ads more intense flavors. So my question is would it hurt anything if one added fresh fruits at Primary and fresh juices in secondary. The reason for the question really is for now I do not see myself doing larger than 1 gallon batches and I thought the use of juice in the secondary would allow me to have full one gallon batches without the loss of space in the 1 gallon jug while still adding the more intense flavorings. I have a rather powerful juicer that extracts probably 95% or greater the juice from what ever I juice. Just wondered what you experts thought.
Question?
- Thread starter BluesGuy
- Start date
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I am by far no expert, but in my opinion fruit in the primary give you a flavor all the way through while the fruit in the secondary puts more of it up front.
There's nothing wrong with topping up with juice in the secondary, but keep in mind that if the yeast have not exceeded their alcohol tolerance or have not been stabilized, they will start fermenting that juice as well. If it doesn't ferment, it will also dilute your alcohol a bit so you might plan your recipes to start a bit higher to begin with.
What kind of juicer it that - it sounds awesome?
What kind of juicer it that - it sounds awesome?
Thanks for the advice...i'd kind of hoped that it would keep fermenting the juice as well but will make sure to use a yeast that has a high alcohol tolerance. The Juicer is called "The Champion". The motor on it looks like a bench grinder motor, when the pulp comes out of it it's almost dry damnedest thing I've ever seen.
Welcome Aboard Blued Guy
but now that your here you must go through our secret initiation :icon_pirat:
I kid. But here are some ideas for you to consider:
-most yeast have an ABV tollerance of at least 14%, so one way to ensure that you have meads in which the juice ferments after racking would be to undershoot that in your SG (1.106 = ~14%)
Just about all of these meads will be dry, however you can always stabilize and backsweeten if you want.
Also lower alcohol meads (10%-14%) will tend to mature faster than high alcohol meads which may need more time to for the alcohol to mellow.
-if you want to exhaust your yeast to leave the juice unfermented just overshoot the ABV. You can find Lallemands yeast chart here and you can find many of their yeasts here and here
good luck
/wolfie
but now that your here you must go through our secret initiation :icon_pirat:
I kid. But here are some ideas for you to consider:
-most yeast have an ABV tollerance of at least 14%, so one way to ensure that you have meads in which the juice ferments after racking would be to undershoot that in your SG (1.106 = ~14%)
Just about all of these meads will be dry, however you can always stabilize and backsweeten if you want.
Also lower alcohol meads (10%-14%) will tend to mature faster than high alcohol meads which may need more time to for the alcohol to mellow.
-if you want to exhaust your yeast to leave the juice unfermented just overshoot the ABV. You can find Lallemands yeast chart here and you can find many of their yeasts here and here
good luck
/wolfie
