Melomel questions

[Nate]

Mead newbery here. I was thinking of making a traditional 5 gallon mead and letting it go dry. From there, breaking it into smaller quantities and back sweetening with various fruit juices and combinations to see what we like.

Anything wrong with this approach? What are the pros and cons of adding fruit and/or juice to the must vs back sweetening or fruiting the secondary?

Thanks!

 

[Vex3521]

Nothing at all wrong with that approach. I think it gives you a chance to try different techniques with a few smaller batches and then also does give you additional mead to top off with for the smaller batches when you split.

 

[fuelish]

Adding fruit or juice to the must up front, some say that some flavor/aromatics are driven off by the ferment. If you add it to secondary, it likely will start fermenting again unless you chemically "stun" the yeast as many do - this applies to backsweetening as well....if the yeast are just hibernating after primary fermeentation, they'll kick back up when additional fermentables are added in secondary, more than likely. I typically put juice in up front and add fruits near the end of primary....mine are plenty fruity per my wife

 

[Nate]

Adding fruit or juice to the must up front, some say that some flavor/aromatics are driven off by the ferment. If you add it to secondary, it likely will start fermenting again unless you chemically "stun" the yeast as many do - this applies to backsweetening as well....if the yeast are just hibernating after primary fermeentation, they'll kick back up when additional fermentables are added in secondary, more than likely. I typically put juice in up front and add fruits near the end of primary....mine are plenty fruity per my wife

My thoughts were to push the ABV to the limits of the yeast on the primary and I wouldn't have to worry too much about kicking off a secondary fermentation by adding juice but... I guess once you change the volume by adding juice, you've essentially lowered the ABV so it could possibly kick off again (at least somewhat).

That being said, I'm guessing it would probably be best to stick with some relatively intensely flavored natural juices to avoid any significant volume change... I was thinking pure cranberry juice for a start.

 

[fuelish]

Cranberry juice is indeed some potent stuff.... I've got a cranberry raspberry ready to transfer now (used organic cranberry juice and frozen cranberries along with raspberries I froze when they were on sale) ... dunno what I'm gonna do with this one, tastes OK, even interesting, to me, but my says "it tastes like a Jolly Rancher candy" ... LOL ....''twill be oaked, for certain