Black Raspberry Maple Mead

I have a black raspberry bush, and could quite easily drink maple syrup continuously if it were socially acceptable and good for my health.

I have yet to find cheap maple syrup, but do have a half gallon of Vermont dark maple syrup. I have at least 5 lbs of black raspberries.

I would very much like to transmute these ingredients into mead/ wine.

I'm assuming this would be about 1.5 gallon batch, but i have no idea how much fruit to add. Anyone with skills feel free to school me. I have never made any wine before, but do brew beer. I'm a novice you can't offend.

Just looking for ideas, thoughts, recipes..... I could not actually find much info on this combination so I am expecting it to be somewhat of an experiment.

I ended up using the follwing....

(5 gallon batch)
1 cup brown sugar
1 gallon apple juice
5lbs Honey (clover & wildflower)
1/2 gallon maple syrup
7lbs Black Raspberries
3 lemons
champagne yeast

I found a bug in my blackberries after I heated them up. It looked like a stinkbug so hopefully that doesn't ruin everything. I brewed this with only half of my wits available due to a barleywine that kind of snuck up on me. Cross my fingers and hope it tastes good.

Fermentation kicked off almost immediately. The carboy appears to be like a booming alien metropolis with ethereal globs traveling to and fro at high rates of speed.

rhogg said:

I ended up using the follwing....
1 cup brown sugar
1 gallon apple juice
5lbs Honey (clover & wildflower)
1/2 gallon maple syrup
7lbs Black Raspberries
3 lemons
champagne yeast

Fermentation kicked off almost immediately. The carboy appears to be like a booming alien metropolis with ethereal globs traveling to and fro at high rates of speed.

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You added an incredible amount of fermentable sugars. Adding honey OR maple syrup probably would've been plenty. Adding both, AND brown sugar.......Holy crap! Honestly, I'm surprised it's fermenting. Did you take a gravity? It's gotta be 1.180, or even higher. I would expect the FG to be quite high as well. Possibly extremely sweet. Which champagne yeast did you use? They are not all the same.

You added an incredible amount of fermentable sugars. Adding honey OR maple syrup probably would've been plenty. Adding both, AND brown sugar.......Holy crap! Honestly, I'm surprised it's fermenting. Did you take a gravity? It's gotta be 1.180, or even higher. I would expect the FG to be quite high as well. Possibly extremely sweet. Which champagne yeast did you use? They are not all the same.

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I did forget to mention that water was added to fill a 5g carboy. This did not seem too over the top considering the amount of honey some recipes call for.

Doesn't sound like too high gravity really, but if you want more of a raspberry flavor in the end you may want to put some in secondary. if I recall correctly, 3-4 lbs per gallon is average. Don't forget pectic enzyme too, half tsp per gal

Should I wait to rack this into a secondary until after it has quit bubbling in the primary? It has been bubbling steadily for about 8 days now. Still bubbling 8-10 times per minute which is slow compared to how it started.

Is it bad to add pectic enzyme into the secondary? I failed to do this in the primary. With the lemons and blackberry it looks pretty nasty. Reminds me of some bad nights I had in the Army.

If you have the enzyme I would add it now, as it's still in primary. You should get a hydrometer-it's immensely helpful for tracking fermentation.
If a hydrometer isn't for you at this stage, then wait at least a week AFTER the bubbles stop coming out.
Also I apologize for not adding this earlier but are you punching the cap? Meaning as the fruit sits on the top on the must it acts as a co2 trap that creates a hostile environment for the yeast. You should be found this a few times a day. At this point in fermentation you don't want to oxygenate, so disturb gently

Pectic enzyme is better suited for primary, but it's not bad in secondary by any means. just don't exceed recommended dose. If you're looking for a quicker final product you might want to use a fining agent like sparkolloid

Not sure exactly what punching the cap means, but I have gently rocked the carboy to kind of get the layer of fruit at the top to move down. It has pretty much settled level with the liquid. It is bubbling at the top which makes me think the gas is still escaping.

Punching the cap is to push the fruit under the surface of the must, using sanitized spoon or other such instrument, and putting any trapped gas in a pressurized state encouraging it to leave it's fruity home. This is quite necessary as failure to properly degas can result in a stalled ferment, among other problems.
You're gonna wanna do this until you transfer to secondary, when fermentation is complete. after that you can take fruit out. Don't forget to taste it and if you want more fruit flavor feel free to add more