pectin haze and cough syrup in a cherry mead

So I'm about 2 1/2 months in on my first mead which turned out to be a cherry melomel. When it was time to add the fruit, I pitted/stemmed all the cherries and froze them, then added directly to the fermenting mead. I planned on adding pectic enzyme, but the brewshop was out "and I don't know when I will get it again."

I'm of the understanding that you have to heat the fruit to extract the pectin, so should I have added the enzyme or will my mead be cloudy for ever?


Second question is this. I used sweet cherries because they were really cheap when I needed them, but the last time I tasted the mead it was awful...like cough syrup. Is there any way to fix this...add some other flavors....let it dry out completely....?


Thanks in advance,
Eric J.

You can still add a little pectic enzyme, though in all likelihood it will clear on its own. As for the taste, tart cherries are the way to go. You can try adding some acid blend to balance the sweetness but be careful when you make the additions.

If you can live with it, or if you want to wait, pectin usually will clear out in about 3 months. There is pectin in the fruit naturally. If you heat the pectin with sugar (as in making a wort) it will turn the pectin into jelly (this is actually how you make jelly). You most certainly do not want jelly globs in your mead.

That being said as long as you did not heat the juice to boiling. I would say more like 150F, but this is the reason you do not boil honey or juice.

You can add it after you brew as well. It takes about 1 tsp per 5 gallon batch. It is best to add it while fermentation is still going on as the fermentation will move the liquid, helping the enzyme eat away the pectin. Some people think it has a bad or off taste so I generally do not use it.

I have a pear nectar wine that I made from the juice & sugar left from canning pear preserves, so it had been boiled with the fruit. I didn't add pectic enzyme until after the primary, but it cleared it on up anyway and it's nice & clear now. Oh, and going into secondary it tasted remarkably like Nyquil. I added some acid blend and also blended it with some apfelwein. After a few months in secondary it's starting to taste like a wine and not a cold remedy. The upshot is, add a little bit of acid and a large amount of time.