dried cranberries instead of raisins?

[wmcc75]

Hi I'm going to try making my first mead today and due to the season, wanted to do something with some spice and cranberry flavor. I have read that you should put raisins in the mead for nutrients for the yeast. My question is can I use dried cranberries in place of raisins for nutrient, and maybe some tasty flavor? Any help or ideas are greatly appreciated.

 

[Bearmaul]

A lot of the time if you have fruit in your fermentation, the yeast nutrient becomes optional as they can usually get it from the fruits involved. I think if you're going to have a substantial amount of cranberry in your mead you'll be ok.

 

[wmcc75]

Cool thanks for the info, I'm really excited about my first mead.

 

[Bearmaul]

We all were - we are usually excited for all the other batches too. Keep us updated!

 

[millsbrew]

And post pics if you can. I'd be interested to see how much color bleeds from the cranberries. I did white raisins in mine. Not that it mattered since I put in a few dried red hibiscus leaves and they are bleeding out a lot.

 

[wmcc75]

As of this morning

 

[Arpolis]

Looks like a healthy ferment so far. My only suggestion is to make sure that you reduce that headspace once the fermentation dies down a bit.

 

[wmcc75]

Yeah because it is all new to me I didn't know how much head space I needed so I left a bit too much. I also put in in a bucket, something I did not need to do but better safe than sorry. Having made beer for about a year now I can say I will definitely have a hard time waiting as long as I should for this.

 

[fatbloke]

Yeah because it is all new to me I didn't know how much head space I needed so I left a bit too much. I also put in in a bucket, something I did not need to do but better safe than sorry. Having made beer for about a year now I can say I will definitely have a hard time waiting as long as I should for this.

Patience young Jedi!

You'll quickly learn that with meads, while there are a few techniques that can mask flavours, generally it's down to time.

I say mask flavours, because batches of young meads, often don't taste how you think they should. It's made with honey right ? so it'll be sweet right ?

Well, no. It won't be sweet. All, or at least most of the sugars will have been fermented away, so you just don't get a sweet flavour. Many young meads can taste hideous.......

Of course, it depends on the recipe, but using beer making technique, like "all the fermentables in the brew up front" is often bad for meads.

If you think about it, a gravity drop of 133 points equates to 18% ABV, so to get that (presuming finished as 1.000) you'd need a gravity of 1.133 too start with. Now that's doable, but still a bit on the high side, and if you wanted to make the batch strong, but with some residual sugars, then numbers increase accordingly.

Bad, bad, bad.......

Much more likely to be stressing the yeast and if you go too high, you can cause the yeast to suffer osmotic shock and it sometimes, won't start at all.

It's better to check out stuff like "step feeding", along with "staggered nutrient addition"/SNA, and use those methods.

You want to look after your batches, and do everything possible to prevent off flavours etc.......

 

[Ashar83]

I actually did this a little while ago. Just racked into secondary the other day and it imparted great color. Also, this was the best tasting I've ever made (at least at this point in fermentation). I've included a picture of where it's at. I'm very pleased so far!

 

[Arpolis]

Very very cool color bleed. Since this thread the next JAOM I want to do would include raspberries instead of raisins. What was your recipe? How much cranberries gave you that glorious color?

 

[Ashar83]

I didn't really measure, I just put a couple of handfuls in. Otherwise it's pretty much a regular show mead. 3 1/2lb honey, water, yeast neut, k1-v1116 yeast.

 

[Arpolis]

Hmmm not really that much which is a good thing. Probably 1-2oz then. Thank you for the info. Best of luck with the brew. You have a great yeast choice there but k1v meads really shine once you age them a good bit. Make sure to hold back at least one bottle for the long wait. Should be nice.

 

[Ashar83]

I always do. I have my 'private reserve' which consists of one bottle from every batch of mead I make.

 

[HoosteezMorgan]

Okay so you speak of nutrient staggering does that mean I shouldn't add what I'm planning to add(a bag of frozen dark sour cherries and half a bag of dried raisin like sweet cherries) at the beginning , like I've made a few batches of beer very basic but pretty much I've got 12.5 pounds (and I've got more I left in my cupboard) of pure honey a 1 lb or so bag of frozen dark sour cherries half a bag of dried sweet cherries a carboy filled with spring water a whole malta goya and one I poured half out of added 130 degree water to and pitched in a packet of yeast and made a hillbilly starter set up(pretty much a piece of tubing(yes I'm an ex dope cook so tubing is black electrical tape that kinda stuff just fits into my style if you've lived that life you'll understand )) running into a water bottle just barely breaking the surface as an airlock after swirling the yeast /malta goya/water blend real good to aerate the yeast before putting this red neck setup together I've produced some pretty good wines and beers mead well this will be my first go but my question is should I add some of cherries now and some when fermentation slows down again or should I add a little every few days or will it be okay if I pour them all in add my honey( I kinda figured on adding the honey and frozen cherries to a pot of boiling water and doing it like a wort but after some more reading I've come to understand that might not be the best idea?) Any tips would be appreciated

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi HoosteeMorgan - and welcome. Looks like you are resurrecting a long dead thread... Many folk I respect in the mead world suggest that you really want to start with a simple mead - honey, water, yeast and nutrients. When you have mastered this very simple mead you can then go on to more complex recipes.
The yeast is important because some yeast will blow off all the volatile flavor and aroma molecules. QA 23 is good, 71B (IMO) is good 47D is good... champagne yeasts are a last resort. Ale yeasts can be good.
Adding fruit in the primary may be good but you risk losing a great deal of the flavor and aroma. Adding fruit to the secondary may help preserve the flavors. Fermenting the fruit separately is a third option - You then blend the wine with the mead - but again... you need to have mastered the simple mead.
Making mead does not involve brewing (heat) . You want to dissolve the honey in ambient room temperature water (or fruit juice). You can warm the honey to help make it flow more easily if you need to but with one exception heating the honey will remove the aromatics. (the one exception is bochet - where you cook the honey until some, many, most of the sugars become caramelized).
Others may disagree , but you don't want to start making mead with too high a specific gravity. Aim for around 1.100 (about 13% ABV). Mead - like fruit wines (and beer) is all about balancing ABV with the dryness (or sweetness) and the acidity . a pound of honey dissolved in water to make a US gallon will raise the gravity of the water 35 points (1.035) - so I am talking about 2.5 -3 lbs of honey in each gallon. Most fruit when juiced will get you close to 1.050 (with no added water). That is to say, when ripe the fruit will have more or less about 1.25 lbs of fermentable sugars in every gallon of juice you express.
Fruit contains pectins. Pectins create haze in a mead or wine. To remove the pectins (or to break them down) you might want to add pectic enzymes about 6 hours before you pitch the yeast.
Good luck