Blueberry Mead- Questions

OK, so I've gotten into meads and had a few successes so far. Doing a blueberry mead and thought I might get some suggestions from you guys. I was originally going to do a straight blueberry wine, but everything I've read said they can be a bit weak by itself. So at the last minute instead decided to add some honey instead of just sugar and kick it up to a mead. Hence why so much fruit compared to what's normally added in meads. Recipe is:


Blueberry Mead - 5 gallon batch
12 lbs of Wildflower honey
12 lbs Blueberries
30 oz. Blackberries
3/4 lbs Banana Chips (organic)
Juice of 2 lemons and 2 limes
1 1/2 tsp Pectic Enzyme
1/2 tsp Nutrient Blend
Harvest R56 Yeast

Here's my thinking on why I added what I did. Like I said, I already had all the fruit, so they got used. Banana chips I've had success using to add some body to wines, though with the honey and everything else, I'm really not sure it was needed. I usually use lemon/lime juice instead of acid blend. Honestly, tasting it so far I think it will also need additional tannin, so I'll probably add a bit of earl grey tea to get that in. For some reason, I like using natural ingredients to affect the flavor rather than just straight chemicals.

Here's where I could use some help. It's finally time to rack into secondary and I'm thinking of adding a few cinnamon sticks to the mix. Any one had any success with a Blueberry/ Cinnamon Mead? How many sticks are normal? I'm thinking I'll probably start with only two. I've also got a new 5 gallon oak barrel sitting around just waiting for something, so this might get tossed in there for a couple of weeks as well. Any thoughts?

It would have been better for you to rack onto your blueberries in secondary. In primary, their flavor tends to be a bit lost, and blueberries don't have a super strong flavor to begin with.

That actually makes sense. Well, hopefully the amount will help at least some. Otherwise, I may just rack onto some more just to see what happens.

I did a blueberry honey mead about 8 months ago and i discovered that the simpler the recipe the better it came out, instead of fruit i used about a quart or two of blueberry juice that i got from an organic food store with about 10lbs of honey for a five gallon batch and after about 6 months of sitting around it came out with a really nice flavor and fairly high alcohol content..

On a side note, everyone who has tried this mead told me that almost immediately after drinking it that they had a desire for pancakes, so brew wisely!!! lol

Well, went ahead and racked off the fruit and onto 2 cinnamon sticks. I'm hoping that's just enough to add just a hint to it on top of what's there. Still some very definite fruitiness as this point, but I'll have to wait to see how it settles down. The color though... wow. See the "show us your mead" thread for a pic, but it's a dark reddish purple color that's pretty neat. Can't wait to see what it's like when it clears fully.

And Thor... just reading your description makes me want pancakes!

I started a one gallon blueberry mead last month. 5 lbs. honey, 2 lbs frozen blueberries from Costco, 1 tbl lemon juice. S.G. 1.16
Took a reading yesterday and still 1.16! I had a lovely yeast eruption shortly after pitching the yeast and it bubbled through the airlock turning the water purple a few times. It even turned color while fermenting. I'm not sold on the idea it was a stuck fermentation. If I look closely I can see pinhead size bubbles coming up through the blueberries even now.
I'm thinking of straining the blueberries out, mashing them, and returning them to the primary along with a packet of Lavelin D 47. Basically restarting the fermentation. Any other suggestions before I try this?

5 lb. of honey in a one gallon batch is nearly twice as much as normal. 1.160 is an extremely high starting gravity, which stressed and killed most of your yeast.