grublam

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first post on this site!

I am making my first mead with

12 pounds generic honey
5 pounds blueberries
5 pounds blackberries

The SG before fermentation read 1.070 which seems really low for the ingredients. But, I am a newbie and could be wrong. Four days after pitching yeast the reading is 1.040. So, I guess that could be correct. What do you think?

Is a mead under 10% worth while or should I add more expensive berries?

Meadrol

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I wouldn't add any more berries at all until secondary, because during fermentation the vast majority of the berry flavor and aroma are going to go bye-bye.

Goofynewfie

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What size batch is this?

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avidhomebrewer

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If it is a 5 gallon batch, that does seem a tad low. Are you confident in your measurements? Welcome to HBT, by the way!

fatbloke

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1.070 is the likely gravity from 2.4lb per gallon and suggests that you put the fruit in whole and not processed in any way (not a problem per se, just that you can't get any reading from it).

If you want it a bit stronger, you can add more honey. Likewise with the fruit, but for best flavour results, I'd let it finish and add extra fruit to secondary.

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luda007

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I just recently started a blueberry mead.
It started with an OG of 1.103.
Is that high?
It was really my first mead. I didn't know about raising and lowering levels etc until recently.

huesmann

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+1. Add more honey now, then rack off the fruit and add more in secondary (mash it up).

grublam

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Thanks a lot! I didn't think about the solid fruit not being readable but that makes complete sense. I will certainly add more fruit to the secondary. Would 5 pounds do the job? The 12 pound honey investment might be all I can spend for now so I might not worry about adding any more honey to it. But, I can pick all the blueberries and blackberries I want for free so that'll do. Its just a pain.

Also, is there any way to find out the alcohol content when this is done in a few months? I think a Vinometer may work but it doesn't seem like people really use these (I could be wrong).

Also, it was meant to be 5 gallons but I didn't put the honey into the equation so it turned out about 6 gallons (dummy).