Fruit in Primary, Secondary or Both

Hello,

I'm planning on making my first mead tomorrow and have seen conflicting accounts of the best manner in which to add fruit (in my case, blueberries) to mead.

Some say add in primary. Some secondary. Some both.

So, which do you guys/gals feels works best?

I can understand the idea of putting it only in secondary - gives me the option of making multiple flavors from one sweet mead 'starter' batch.

So, what do you all suggest? And what is the recommended quantity of blueberries to mead if done in primary vs. secondary vs. both.?

Thanks in advance,



Ryan

What I'm planning on doing is putting some fruit in primary once fermentation is done. I've had mine sitting for about a month now, so I'll probably add the fruit. Once I let that sit for a 7-14 days, rack over to secondary on top of more fruit. Then rack off as usual.

What I had originally intended on doing was buying some frozen blueberries, letting them thaw a little bit, beat them up a little bit and put them in a hop sack. The fruit would then be added to the water that i was going to boil to sterilize thus helping to bring the temperature down a little quicker. I was going to crush up a couple campden tablets and leave them in over night and then pitch the yeast the following day.

Thoughts?

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

I have used 8lb in the primary and 8lbs of blueberries in the secondary.

The mead went totally dry and the blueberry taste is overwhelming and quite tart. So I have k-meta/sorbed it and I am in the process of backsweetening.

No need to use campden tabs to sterilize the fruit if you get the fermentation off to a good start and use SNA. I buy spring water from the store and don't boil it.

Good luck with yours! What yeast are you using?

LightningInABottle said:

I have used 8lb in the primary and 8lbs of blueberries in the secondary.

The mead went totally dry and the blueberry taste is overwhelming and quite tart. So I have k-meta/sorbed it and I am in the process of backsweetening.

No need to use campden tabs to sterilize the fruit if you get the fermentation off to a good start and use SNA. I buy spring water from the store and don't boil it.

Good luck with yours! What yeast are you using?

Click to expand...

I was going to use D-47 yeast....

Thanks for the input on the berry quantities!

LightningInABottle said:

I have used 8lb in the primary and 8lbs of blueberries in the secondary.

The mead went totally dry and the blueberry taste is overwhelming and quite tart. So I have k-meta/sorbed it and I am in the process of backsweetening.

No need to use campden tabs to sterilize the fruit if you get the fermentation off to a good start and use SNA. I buy spring water from the store and don't boil it.

Good luck with yours! What yeast are you using?

Click to expand...

I'm curious to know what volume you started with and what your final volume was with the 16 lbs of berries added. I've had some fruit additions which really put a dent in the actual amount of mead that was left.

cheers

What I did was put 10 pounds of blueberries in the primary when that went dry I racked on top of another 5 pounds and topped up with Welches blueberry juice. After secondary I then racked again and topped up with more juice. That worked well for me.

brewingmeister said:

I'm curious to know what volume you started with and what your final volume was with the 16 lbs of berries added. I've had some fruit additions which really put a dent in the actual amount of mead that was left.

cheers

Click to expand...

Initial volume with blueberries in primary was about 6 gallons. Then racked to 6 gallon carboy and added fruit. I had to push the berries down once the gass got trapped in the skins everyday and it was all the way up to the very narrow part of the carboy. After I racked I had a full 5 gallons of mead plus a 1 liter sampler bottle.