Apricot mead?

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RandallT

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Fellow Meadiators,
I love apricots and was wondering if anybody has made an apricot Mead. If so, would it be better to use fresh ones or would processed dried ones work? I imagine there are preservatives in the dried apricots and I wonder if this might impede fermentation. Best of bubbling.
 
for apricots and peaches, people seem to do best with tree ripened fruit. Grocery store fresh is always underripe and wont' develop the full flavor/aroma. ditto for dried and frozen peaches.

now, for blueberries, people like the dried fruit a lot it seems.

There shouldn't be much preservatives in dried apricots...the drying IS the preservative, but check the label to be safe.
 
Malkore.
Thanks for your input. The more I think about it I think the fresh apricots will impart much more flavor. Can you recommend a specific yeast that you like to use. I have Red Star Montrachet and Lalvin EC-1118 in my supplies right now, but I have not used them for Mead.
 
Malkore may or may not back me up here but... if you want to preserve fruit flavor I personally recommend lavin 71B-1122 (I've used it with 5 different melomels with no issues and a great fruit flavor) or I've heard that d47 works real well if you can keep the temp below 72*F.
 
2nd,
Thanks for the tip. Where I live gets very warm so perhaps the 71B is a better choice. Right now I have JAOM and a blackberry-raspberry mead going. The JAOM is looking beautifully clear now after 4 weeks, and still slowly fermenting. The berry blend is just now winding down after 4 weeks and starting to clear. These were both mixed with clover honey.
 
Randall,

Clover is a pretty good choice. You might consider trying a varitial some time. Certian honeys compliment fruits better then othes. For example I used Sage Blossom honey when I made a strawberry melomel it was just divine... I get my honey form Miller's in bulk for a great price (right now around $25 a gallon). As far as I know they are in California so you might be able to pick it up directly and save on shipping. Here is the link: www.millershoney.com. I hope this helps.
 
I have been considering an apricot mead lately as well but wasn't able to collect enough off my friends trees to make a standalone batch. If I recall correctly, dried apricots are processed with lots of sulfites aren't they? I would suppose that this would be detrimental to fruit fermentation.

GTG
 
GTG,
Yeah, it's probably better to go with fresh I am thinking. Thanks for your input. There are so many things to consider when you get these ideas. Best of bubbling to you.
 
I have a few pounds of apricots in the freezer. I'll be making a mead with them this summer, when the temperature is a little cooler
 
Yup. The better your honey, the better the mead is. If you use average honey you'll get average mead. Not bad, just avaerage.
 
Well, I launched the apricot mead this afternoon. I used 40 oz. of clover honey, 6 large apricots that I mashed up real good, couple dozen raisins and a cinnamon stick. I used Lalvin EC-1118 for my yeast. So, we'll see how it develops. I got action in the airlock after twenty minutes.
 


Randall,

If you are using both fresh and dried, I would start the dried in the primary and the fresh in the secondary. I have used dried & fresh fruits and extracts & puree's. The dried fruit just doesn't give the same flavor and aroma that the fresh fruit does. Granted it takes longer to clear but the flavor is worth it.
 
Witch,
Thanks for the heads up on that one. By the way where did that painting come from of the nymph on the bottle? Very enchanting!
 
A consideration to take with apricots is that they have a pronounced bitterness, which can stick out if you're fermenting to dryness.
 
Yan,
Thanks for that. Would it be better then to begin tasting it maybe a little earlier, right after fermentation is complete?
 
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