Help with dragon fruit mead

Well I decided to try something basic but interesting - a melomel with dragon fruit. In my one gallon batch, I added 3 lbs. saw palmetto honey (light and buttery sweetness), the purée of three fist-sized dragon fruit, yeast nutrient, and white labs sweet mead yeast (WP720). Everything's going fine, but I didn't really think about the seeds (ok I did, but I chose to ignore them). It's been a few days now, and fermentation has gotten up to a bubble every five seconds or so. The tiny fruit pieces and seeds have separated out of the liquid now, absorbed a some of the must, and are now floating on top. It's about a one inch thick layer, and it's pretty solid. I guess I'm just concerned about what impact the seeds will have on the mead - do you guys think I should rack it out into another container and leave the fruit bits and seeds behind? I could always add some more dragon fruit to secondary in a muslin bag or something. Anyway - does anyone have any advice on the seeds? Have you worked with them before? Do seeds usually impart a bad flavor?

I think as long as you didn't use a blender, and as such the seeds havent been broken up you shouldn't fine. At least that's the case with other fruits.

I did, actually, but I only had the blender on for like a half second at a time for two times. The fruit was so fragile that I just flipped the switch on and off a couple times and then it was purée. I don't know if the blades were active long enough to cut up the seeds (I certainly don't see any seed parts at all, just whole seeds)

If anyone's lurking, I need advice sooner rather than later...so please post what you think.

Well, if it was me I would just leave it to do its thing. Just push any floating pulp down a bit each day to stop it drying out or forming a seal. When I bought some dragon fruit last year to try (they were red skinned with white flesh and tiny black seeds, are yours the same?) I found the taste to be rather subtle and the seeds to be almost spicey rather than bitter like many fruit seeds. I actually posted asking if anyone had used them, noone seemed to have so I doubt you will get a deffinitive answer. Keep us informed with how it ends up though as if its good I may have to give it a go.

From what I understand, there are a bunch of different varieties of dragon fruit, but you can split them into three broad categories: red outside with white flesh, red outside with purple/pink flesh, and yellow outside with white flesh. I made mine with the second variety, which was a dark purple when I purchased it. But yeah, lots of little black seeds in the flesh, consistency is the same amongst all varietals, etc., etc.

I'll post a pic later, but I have green jars so it'll mainly be a photo of pulp and whatnot.

I took a photo of a sample I had today, about two weeks after pitching. The photo doesn't do it justice - this stuff is a bright, neon purple. That's definitely pretty awesome (calling it Dragons blood due to the color/dragon fruit). Additionally, the dragon fruit really added some amazing flavors to this mead - there's a nice, vibrant passionfruity tartness that mellows out fairly quick into a barely there sweetness. I think the seeds have added the former flavor, and boy is it good.

OG - 1.126
Current SG - 1.21
ABV - 13.76%

I did a mother batch of standard orange mead, went through a primary until it reached about 6% abv then split into 2 x 3 gal for secondary. I added 3lbs of blueberry to one and Pitaya, Nicaraguan Dragon Fruit, to the other. I found it in the frozen fruit section of a health store. It's the main ingredient of a Barbie Bowl. It is packed full of nutrients which is why it's become such a health craze. The yeast love it and bubble activity was reinvigorated. After two days, the yeast dropped out of solution and formed a thick lees at the bottom of the dragon fruit. The fruit pulp is floating at the top. I will not have to clarify this with bentonite as it has done it all on its own. The color is an intense neon magenta fuchsia. I am extremely happy with how it's turn out and will be making another variation expermenting with an English ale yeast. As great as San Diego Super is, it does produce some sulpher. That may be a desirable flavor profile in certain styles of beer but, not so much in mead. A splash rack did help correct this. The dragon fruit acidity helped balance the buckwheat honey flavor and added what I call it a Jolly Rancher candy hint. The color is amazing and I am super impressed with how quickly it help clarify the mead.

Zabuza, did you remove the skin before you blended it? Or did you include them?

Dragon fruit is a succulent, related to the more common (around here, anyway) prickly pear. As such, it has a light, delicate flavor. I've never worked with dragon fruit, but with prickly pear I never put it in the primary, always the secondary, so as not to blow off any of that light flavor. I wouldn't be concerned about those seeds, but I would add some additional fruit to the secondary to boost the flavor profile.

I always freeze prickly pear fruit first. Freezing *really* ruptures the cell walls and releases all kinds of juice. I pile the skinned fruit into a large pot and use a potato masher to break them up and normally get huge amounts of juice released that I strain into the carboy. That way I don't have to worry about seeds, pulp, etc. The juice is a gorgeous burgundy color, but alas, its not stable and fades to a watery pink over the next few weeks. I wonder if the same is true for dragon fruit?

I used this. Pitaya Plus smoothie packs. It's raw organic Nicaraguan Dragon Fruit in the freezer section. No additives or preservatives, just raw frozen fruit. It has to remain frozen until use. It was $6.50 per 4 pack at the local health food store. I used 8 packs which is about 1 1/2 lbs of the fruit for my 3 gal batch. Pitaya Plus' website has a store locator by zip code. It's also available as frozen cubes but I've only seen the packets in my area.