Blackberries in secondary

[Jaeger]

Is it normal for them to start turning white about 12 hours after adding them to secondary? Also, while I'm thinking of it, how long can I leave fruit in secondary? How long do you guys (and gals) leave fruit in secondary?

 

[xpops]

i've done raspberries, as well as strawberry/rhubarb....all of which quickly drop their colour - i think you're ok!

depends on the beer. for a base blonde/wheat, i typically would leave it for 2 maybe 3 weeks, depending on how busy i get. But for something more complex like a sour blonde with nectarines, or sour old english ale with tart cherries i plan to leave them for 2-3 months.

cheers,

 

[fossilcat]

It's recommended to leave fruits with little seeds like strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries for 8 - 10 days. After that time, those little seeds tend to leach tannin. To help the alcohol extract the flavor and color of the fruit, it's a good idea to freeze the fruit for a couple of days, then thaw before adding it to your secondary.

 

[Jaeger]

It's recommended to leave fruits with little seeds like strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries for 8 - 10 days. After that time, those little seeds tend to leach tannin. To help the alcohol extract the flavor and color of the fruit, it's a good idea to freeze the fruit for a couple of days, then thaw before adding it to your secondary.

Thanks for the advice. I did freeze the fruit for about 6 days before adding ​them, however, I added them still mostly frozen straight to secondary. Here it is as of about an hour ago.

 

[BeerSmith]

I recently made one with 16+ lbs Blackberries in the primary. I bagged the fruit and left it in the primary of 7 days and then removed the bag. Also racked it a week later once the primary fermentation was mostly done to get the mead off the sediment.

So far it is fantastic -the blackberry flavor explodes in the mead. Mine needs a few more weeks of aging but it is a great fruit to use with mead.

 

[CKuhns]

+1 Fossilcat

Personally I only do Blackberries in secondary - for a 5 gallon batch nearly dry Mead I use 9 - 10 pounds.

I found that in primary unless you use a boatload of fruit (as noted by Beersmith) you tend to blow a lot of the flavors out the airlock. It does add complexity, however Tannin's in primary help to round out the mouth feel.

NOTE - Hibiscus tea in primary for tannin's work well with blackberries.

 

[BeerSmith]

I have tried both primary and secondary and don't find that a lot of fruit aroma carries over in the secondary for me because these things are still fermented and aged for a fairly long period. However if you leave enough residual sugars (which for blackberry is a very high FG) you will get an amazing Blackberry fruit bomb. There is still plenty of blackberry flavor left even with a primary fermentation.

I don't do many dry meads (only fruit bombs), but I would think in a dry mead it would be more of a flavor accent than in a central flavor.

 

[CKuhns]

I would think in a dry mead it would be more of a flavor accent than in a central flavor.

Agree with BeerSmith

The balance i try for is to let the Mead and honey used come through a bit along with enough fruit for a light to mild flavor. No fruit bombs or sack Mead (just too sweet for my taste) I target and prefer a just off dry 1.004 or semi sweet 1.008 gravity Mead.

The great thing about Mead is that it is endlessly variable and as such each of us can find our own techniques and practices to adjust its flavor to meet our own tastes and preference.