Blueberry melomel : when and how to add blueberries

[fun4stuff]

i usually make a sparkling cherry apple mead that turns out delicious. I stabilize it then backsweetwen with honey and cherry concentrate juice.

I want to mix things up and try a blueberry version. I already have it fermenting (Apple juice and honey). What’s the best way? How many blueberries?

1) add a gallon of frozen/thawed blueberries and do a secondary fermentation.

2) make a blueberry concentrate by mashing the thawed blueberries and then boiling down. Then carbonated a glass worth of the mead. and add small amounts of the concentrate until it tastes right and scale it up to 5 gallons afterward.

Anyone have any experience with this? Most of the recipes i have found call for adding blueberries to the primary... but why not just use a concentrate like above?

 

[CKuhns]

I have had pretty good success doing the following. For all applications, primary secondary or tertiary. Freeze them for 24 hours, sanitize a mesh bag place the blueberries whole in the bag with a handful of sanitized glass marbles.

No need to purrie or mash them as the freezing process breaks them fown without releasing the pectin. The bag makes for quick and easy clean up. If adding to primary thaw them then drop them in at yeast pitch. For secondary or tertiary. You can put them in frozen.

For a full bodied front to back blueberry forward flavor 1 to 1.5 ponds per gallon in each primary and secondary. For a lighter blueberry flavor about the same per gallon in secondary. Note - this is my flavor preference only and yours may be differ. As well you could sub blueberrie puree or juice in primary to really push the flavor.

Blueberries (or pretty much any fruit) give up all their flavor in 12 to 14 days. Blueberries, doesnt hurt to go longer but no real reason to.

Oh and a small amount of vanilla and sone oak works well with blueberries. A half vanilla bean and a 1/4 oz medium toast oak are both optional per gallon in secondary for 4 or 5 days. Check after a few days if to your liking pull it or leave in longer.

Good luck, ypu might have to experiment a bit. Start small check periodically. You can always add but cant take the flavor out once in.

 

[fun4stuff]

Cool, good starting point. I already have the causer fermenting and will be getting several pounds of fresh blueberries this week. So I’ll probably add them to the secondary.

 

[Seamonkey84]

I’ve always leaned towards more fruit, 3lbs per gallon at least. Otherwise, everything else Fun4stuff said.

 

[JimRausch]

The 1G blueberry Cyser I did a couple weeks ago used 3 lb of blueberries, 1/2 G of cider and 2 lb of honey. Honey and Blueberries on Day1, and added the cider on day2 after she was going good, because the cider was sorbated.
Why not boil down blueberries to make a concentrate? Because cooked blueberries taste nothing like fresh. Spoken by someone who lives in Downeast Maine, the Wild Blueberry Capital of the World. And blueberry extract? Don't get me started. Several well known breweries make a blueberry ale using extract. You can always tell. Sell that junk to the tourists!

 

[Seamonkey84]

Hello fellow Mainer!
Agreed, cooking down fruit makes no sense to me unless your baking or making something like preserves or pie! Freeze and mash. Or kind of simpler, Knudsen’s Just blueberry juice or equivalent.