Recipe question

I am planning on trying this recipe: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/strawberry-cabana-mead-32421/

Would you get a stronger strawberry flavor by adding the fruit in a secondary?

Could I make my secondary a plastic ale bucket so getting 18lbs of strawberry's into it would be easy?

If I hold the strawberries till the secondary...should I do a tertiary fermentor and rack onto the banana's at that time? or just add them in the secondary?

Thanks for your advice.

I'd try the recipe as intended first, and once you rack to your seconday for aging, taste test it. See if the strawberry flavor suits you. If not you could add a strawberry extract to the secondary or even at bottling if you want to.

Dan

flyweed said:

I'd try the recipe as intended first,

Dan

Click to expand...

I prefer to try a recipe as written first then adjust it the next time. You may find you like it just as it is. I will probably be making that recipe in the near future.

Adding the strawberries to the secondary will give more intense flavors for some things. This however will not raise or increase the flavor very much. However, I would say that trying half of the strawberries in the primary and half in the secondary might work okay. Remember that the fruit just needs to have the color and the juices extracted. Having the must sitting on the fruit too long will start to impart bitter flavors. You will see that the strawberries get white after a few days.

This does have a nice nose with noticable strawberry and banana esters. Theflavors are there also but nothing is overpowering the other. I also would suggest you try it like it is and then go from there. It is worth sticking to this recipe!