strawberry guava island style

I'm gathering up materials for my first batch of mead and debating whether to do a whole 6 gal carboy or something smaller, say the typical glass big jug of apple juice found in a market- 2.5 gal maybe. So my first question is whether a smaller batch will be significantly easier to produce a positive my first time round.
Any advice?
My second questions regard picking the fruit and how much. Ive got a few pounds already but If I do the larger carboy Ill need to pick more.? How much for a 6 gal of dry to med sweet?
Lastly the strawberry guava is now falling pretty fast off the bush and Im wondering if I need be concerned about insects, larvae being inside the fruit. Will the insect life taint my mead?
Im not picking off the ground but even the fruit off the bush upon closer inspection reveals little beady worms wriggling.
Should these critters be considered show-stoppers?

mahalos and gracias
Hog

Interesting concept....they're falling here on the big island as well...might have to make a batch myself...as for bugs, just rinse and wash and chuck em into fermentor..start mashing em up...
You planning on using the yellow or red variety?

Guava mead, that might be interesting !

abbot555 said:

Guava mead, that might be interesting !

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I have a Guava Pulp (7.04 lbs.), Mango Pulp (4.4 lbs.) Passion Fruit Pulp (.88 lbs) Lime Juice & Zest (1-2 limes) mead that is bulk aging. It'll be a year old at the end of April.

That sounds interesting...A couple years back an uncle of mine made lilikoi (passion fruit) mead using 15 lbs of kiawe (mesquite) white honey and man that thing was wicked....mango and guava interesting blend..the lime will definitely balance the sweetness of the two with tart..good idea.

The red cause theyre easy picking right at eye level. My brew partner and I picked about 10lbs and froze for keeping but before we sampled some of the mush which was a combo of ripe and less ripe guava. It was delicious. Tasted alot like the soda canned guava at the store (verns?) without the sugary taste.
Last year I was hiking the same mtn and came across a hive. My big fantasy plan is to find a hive there and harvest the honey local to the guava. Double bang bang. Course I know more about making mead (which Ive never done) than I do about bee keeping.
We'll see.
Mahalo for the info.

hilohwn said:

That sounds interesting...A couple years back an uncle of mine made lilikoi (passion fruit) mead using 15 lbs of kiawe (mesquite) white honey and man that thing was wicked....mango and guava interesting blend..the lime will definitely balance the sweetness of the two with tart..good idea.

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For a while, it just tasted like I mixed a bunch of fruit juices with rubbing alcohol. The last time I sampled, the flavors had blended better, but it still wasn't anything I was too excited about. I'm courious where it stands now because the difference between 6 months and 12 months is huge in meads.

If your freezing the fruit for 48 hours or more, you could just treat the must with camben tablets for 24 hours before pitching.
I would recommend going large with 5 gallons if you can get the ingredients, just keep everything sanitized and let it ferment well. The reason being meads take so long to make, if you only do one gallon your be upset at yourself a year from now when you want more.

Ok. I got the tablets but havent read on how to use them just yet. The fruits in deep freeze right now. Im debating whether to use my only glass carb for the mead or do it in jugs. This is my first mead, now perhaps I should be more optimistic about results but with my 6gal carb I could be busting out the barley soda in the year. Do you have any comments on mead in a 5gal #7 H20 jug? Lets just say to clarify that I dont think Ill have more than 2.5 gal jugs in glass. Can I still go big?

2nd crucial question. For 5gals of Guava mead how much fruit should I have in total. I got around 10-12lbs frozen right now.

Just an interesting note to follow. Today on my trail rounds I discovered a hive. Known the logistics to stealing honey?

Cheers always and mahalo for the interest/notes
Hog