Adding Flavor

[mollysings21]

I was wondering how everyone's experiences with adding fruit or teas have worked best.
For either one, does it work best for you in primary or secondary fermentation? Or do some of you add certain things after fermentation is done, like those mulling spice packs you get with the Chaucer's around Christmas?
Do you add actual fruit or tea leaves or do you brew or juice either before adding them?
Our brews have had some differences, and I want to try more things but wanted to gather info from others who have done this and may have had better results. We have been using D47 yeast, and we juice fruits or brew tea and put it all in the primary fermentation, but wanted to see if things come out better different ways.
I look forward to reading your replies. Happy brewing

 

[Stinky-Beaver]

The funniest thing about this hobby is trying all of the above. You will be amazed by the different times of adding different fruits/extracts will weaken or strengthen the flavor profiles. For a majority of my fruity meads I do both primary and secondary fruit additions as I really enjoy getting the blueberry, raspberry or blackberry flavors on the tongue.

Obviously different types of yeasts will influence this as well but I too prefer utilizing the D47 as I prefer the sweeter profiles vs the dryer stuff. Because it is a weaker strain of yeast it will be a lower ABV but I will gladly sip on a sweet mead with "only" 8-12% ABV vs trying to hit the 16-20% ranges.

Happy brewing!!

 

[Chris_The_Rogue]

Try 71B for the melomels. Ive been told it preserves the fruit tastes better than D47.

 

[nzeman20]

I currently fermenting a wheat beer for 2 weeks in primary and then I am going to add blueberry/pomegranate concentrate to secondary and rack on top of that. My plan is to let it sit 5-15 days and taste it periodically then rack to a keg when it tastes right. I'll try to let you know how that method works.