Blackberry/blueberry mead question

first post on this site!

I am making my first mead with

12 pounds generic honey
5 pounds blueberries
5 pounds blackberries

The SG before fermentation read 1.070 which seems really low for the ingredients. But, I am a newbie and could be wrong. Four days after pitching yeast the reading is 1.040. So, I guess that could be correct. What do you think?

Is a mead under 10% worth while or should I add more expensive berries?

I wouldn't add any more berries at all until secondary, because during fermentation the vast majority of the berry flavor and aroma are going to go bye-bye.

What size batch is this?

If it is a 5 gallon batch, that does seem a tad low. Are you confident in your measurements? Welcome to HBT, by the way!

1.070 is the likely gravity from 2.4lb per gallon and suggests that you put the fruit in whole and not processed in any way (not a problem per se, just that you can't get any reading from it).

If you want it a bit stronger, you can add more honey. Likewise with the fruit, but for best flavour results, I'd let it finish and add extra fruit to secondary.

I just recently started a blueberry mead.
It started with an OG of 1.103.
Is that high?
It was really my first mead. I didn't know about raising and lowering levels etc until recently.

fatbloke said:

If you want it a bit stronger, you can add more honey. Likewise with the fruit, but for best flavour results, I'd let it finish and add extra fruit to secondary.

Click to expand...

+1. Add more honey now, then rack off the fruit and add more in secondary (mash it up).

Thanks a lot! I didn't think about the solid fruit not being readable but that makes complete sense. I will certainly add more fruit to the secondary. Would 5 pounds do the job? The 12 pound honey investment might be all I can spend for now so I might not worry about adding any more honey to it. But, I can pick all the blueberries and blackberries I want for free so that'll do. Its just a pain.

Also, is there any way to find out the alcohol content when this is done in a few months? I think a Vinometer may work but it doesn't seem like people really use these (I could be wrong).

Also, it was meant to be 5 gallons but I didn't put the honey into the equation so it turned out about 6 gallons (dummy).