When to add fruit?

[Draygon]

I have Ken Schramm's book on making mead and in it he states he adds his fruits to secondary, but I also thought I saw somewhere on here that he has since changed that and adds it to primary once the bulk of the initial fermentation is done.

So I am torn between which to do, I am making a mixed berry mead (raspberry, blackberry, blueberry and sweet cherry). I am unsure if I should add it to primary , or secondary, or a mix of both. I am going for a mead like Ken's where it is very fruit forward and semi sweet.

I started yesterday with 12 lbs of honey, and have 15lbs of fruit to add, I will pasteurize the fruit before adding it because I don't want a infection (have had them in the past with beers, so Im being cautious).

So when/how would be the best to add these to get a fruit forward semi sweet (even if I have to back sweeten) mead?

 

[bernardsmith]

You ask three different mead makers this same question and you are likely to get three very different answers. Me? I generally add fruit to the primary, but I know that some people swear that adding the fruit to the secondary not only preserves more of the fruit flavor but also allows the alcohol to extract more of the flavor from the fruit. And others, as you suggest add the fruit to the primary, not prior to pitching but far closer to racking. Suppose you say ."yes" to all three possibilities - and add 5 lbs of fruit before pitching, 5 lbs when the yeast have fermented say 2/3 of the sugar and 5 lbs in the secondary. Hopefully, you will get the best of all three options rather than the worst of all three...

That said, getting the flavor of the fruit to be more forward may mean simply getting very flavor rich fruit and using a honey more as a vehicle for the fruit rather than as something that demands the limelight while standing front and center stage. That may mean using very little water and relying more on the juice you can express from the fruit... and THAT may mean upping the amount of fruit you plan on using...