I want to make a red cherry mead, i've got a whole bunch of 6ltr plastic water bottles that i want to use.
I bought some red cherries, the Oregon Brand, but not puree whole (pitted) tart red cherries... i have a couple of questions...
Should i strain off the liquid/juice and discard that, or add that to the brew? From the label it appears to be water...
Should i puree the cherries or put them in 'as is'?
Should i freeze the cherries or is that less important with canned fruit?
I am only making a 6ltr batch, i want it to be sweet as my last attempt was very dry... how much honey should i add? I guess the sugars in the cherry 'juice' will help with the overall sweetness? I am not planning to back sweeten so i am looking to have more sugars in there than the yeasties can consume...
One final question, my first batch of mead tasted very watery, no body or 'mouthfeel' (is that the right term?) i could hardly taste any alcohol, even though i know its there (the GF got a bit tipsy on one glass) i was kind of expecting it to be more 'wine' like but it came across as more of a 'wine cooler' than a 'wine wine' - i admit its still very young and is barely old enough to be in a bottle yet, will this improve with time? How do i prevent this from happening again?
What are the cherries in ? Syrup or juice ?
Freeze them ? No, they'll already have been heat treated somewhere in the canning productions. But you will need to use pectolase/pectic enzyme, to prevent pectin hazes, but it also helps with flavour/colour extraction from the juice.
Crush them ? No, you said they're already pitted so the yeast etc can get into the main part of the flesh through the pit hole.
As for how much honey ? Well it's more a case of how much fruit. No I wouldn't strain off the canning liquor, as that will have some of the colour/flavour in it. You should search for a canned fruit recipe, as most fresh fruit recipes suggest in the region of 3lb per gallon (though it does depend on the density of flavour/colour in the fruit, I'd have thought that ratio wouldn't be far off).
You could work out roughly how much cherries you're intending to use, then make them up to about 5 litres volume, then add 1lb of honey, stir it in gently (but completely) then take a gravity reading and so on until it gets to the levels you'd want (roughly) for the corresponding level of alcohol you're aiming for. The amount of fruit will depend on how much depth of fruit you're after.
Don't forget, it's often the case that you get a more fruity flavour from fruit added to secondary fermentation (or even tertiary i.e. you steep the fruit after the ferment has finished).
So I suggest that you work out, how strong you want it, what yeast you want to use (one that's good for retaining colour/flavour ?), whether you're gonna put all the fruit in from the get go, or whether you want to take some out of the starting must and reserve it until it's half or maybe 2/3rds or 3/4's through the ferment to add later.
Cherries can be a PITA, as done wrongly, you can end up with something tasting like cough syrup, hence I'd be thinking about maximising the fruit flavour.
Oh and also, when checking gravity of the pre-ferment must, if it's got fruit in it, there will be some margin for error as the fruit will have some sugar in the flesh that can't be measured by a simple hydrometer check.
I'd also be thinking along the lines of making it, fermenting it dry and then back sweetening it. As it's not so easy to stop an active ferment, even with stabilisation chems and cold crashing etc.
Mouth feel is rather a different issue. It's a combination of many factors - the amount of fruit, the alcohol level, tannins, residual/unfermented sugar, etc etc. I'd be thinking of something like make it how you decide, then once it's finished the ferment and you've got it mostly cleared, then stabilise the batch with sorbate/sulphie, then back sweeten with another can of the cherries (and pectic enmyzme) and let it steep on the fruit for a couple of weeks. That might be enough to get the mouthfeel up to how you'd like it, or you might need to use some glycerine to bring it up to the required viscosity.
The earlier batch you mention, well yes, ageing can indeed help with the development of mouth feel, but it can also do stuff like the honey character that might have been lost in the making process can sometimes recover. It's only as dry as you allow it to be, and most "young" meads taste pretty hideous IMO, 6 months to 1 year ageing can make all the difference.
Dunno if any of that is of use to you......
regards
fatbloke
p.s. Oh and taking "dry" as 1.000, if you aimed for a starting gravity of about 1.110 as a max, then that's gonna give about 14.9% ABV - a lot of wine yeast has a tolerance of 14% so there could be some residual sugar/sweetness, depending on the yeast and the fermentation management (look into staggered nutrient additions, it's a valuable technique)
