dried fruit

[Sweetalpineh20]

Greetings. New mead-maker here! I want to make a 1-gal batch of elderberry ginger mead. The berries are dried. Guidelines on amount of berries and ginger? Also, do I make a tea and then use that as my base gallon of water, or do they get added after the yeast? Many thanks.

 

[cgenebrewer]

Hello! I would rehydrate the berries then freeze them to break down the cell walls to more easily extract the juices.

I do not have knowledge on the amount to add, but there are plenty of melomel(mead with fruit) recipes floating around!

As far as whether they should be added in primary or secondary, thats up to you. If added in secondary they should add a bit more flavor, as fermentation is said to carry off some flavors as it bubbles away.

 

[Sweetalpineh20]

Thanks for the advice. I proceeded before hearing back and this is what I did - I make a tea with the berries, ginger and raisins. I steeped all ingredients in a crock pot for 6 hours, then added the honey and yeast. Can you give me any thoughts on how you think the flavors will turn out? Thanks bunches!