How soon can I remove the fruit from my melomel?

[JohanTheMighty]

Good afternoon/evening. I recently started two melomel batches, using over 10 pounds of fruit in one, and a couple of pounds in the other, much smaller batch. I have a family emergency that just arose, and this weekend will have to leave to manage the issue. Up until this weekend when I leave, I have been faithfully doing everything I can to take of the fruit cap. I opened the lids and stirred 3 times a day until the 30% sugar break, and I have been doing it twice a day since. Come this weekend when I leave, the fruit will have been in the melomel for a grand total of 10 days. My understanding is that the fruit is to be removed after 4 weeks of fermentation (according to the instructions I printed off). My option is to either remove the fruit, or let it sit and possibly mold while I am away for a week.

Should I leave the fruit, and see if the people checking in on my cats will give it a stir every other day, or should I just remove the fruit? Do you think this is going to take away from the final product?

If it helps, I mashed the fruit with a potato masher and the fruit is floating freely in the must.

Thank you for your time, as well as any insights that you can provide.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

If your fruit is in a bag you might be able to weight it down, though after 10 days you’ve probably gotten most all the good stuff, so removing it rather than asking pet sitter (unless they happen to brew too) is what I would do. You can always use fruit in secondary and expect more from it flavor wise.

 

[CKuhns]

Agree with @Hoppy2bmerry my experiencd is that 10 to 14 days is about max for flavor extraction. Many leave it a month or more.

 

[JohanTheMighty]

Okay, so seems like I should just go ahead and remove the fruit and any impact should be minimal. That makes me feel better. These are my first meads/melomels, as well as my first go with fruit, so just a little paranoid is all, lol. Much thanks.