Is there any noticeable increase in gravity from adding fruit post-fermentation?

[bob1852]

Help me understand this, what about the secondary ferment?

Yes, additional fermentation will create alcohol, but not at the 13-15% abv (or whatever the mead already is).

Adding fruit adds sugars, but also adds way more water than fermentable sugar.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Overall...

The stuff is very inefficient for mead making. Which is fine, if you're aware of it and plan for it (the massive volume loss).

In my view, it's much better to use other methods.....whole fruit, juice, steam juices fruit, etc.

The example I gave, the meadery used 70 gallons of honey, 500 gallons of puree, no water, and wound up with ~280 gallons of product. But, they also were expecting that...

Ahh, yeah that's really not comparable to beer at all. So I don't think any reliable inference could be made either way.

 

[bracconiere]

So if my math is right, 10 pounds of peaches is 4535 grams. Divided by 100 g is 45.35 x 8g per 100g equals, a ton of sugar. Nearly 90 tablespoons of sugar assuming 4.2 g per tsp. That is over 5 cups of sugar. I suspect some of it is unfermentable or whatever, based on experience.

But it's also adding ~10x the volume of water compared to sugar...

beat me to it.....another run away thread, lol....did the OP say how big a batch? 10 pounds would be a lot of fruit for a 1 gallon batch of mead, and would definitely reduce ABV...if sorbate was used....

 

[bracconiere]

The mead will probably finish around 1.00. I'm curious how much of the sugar will actually migrate from the fruit into the mead and how much will remain trapped in the fruit. Is there a rule of thumb like "1 pound of fruit in 1 gallon of water will add XX points to the solution"?

i'd imagine that would depend on how fine you puree it....and what fruit, something more fibrous like apples or pears would be best pressed? i'm guessing....

 

[Qhrumphf]

Overall...

The stuff is very inefficient for mead making. Which is fine, if you're aware of it and plan for it (the massive volume loss).

In my view, it's much better to use other methods.....whole fruit, juice, steam juices fruit, etc.

The example I gave, the meadery used 70 gallons of honey, 500 gallons of puree, no water, and wound up with ~280 gallons of product. But, they also were expecting that...

Also that has to be a hella expensive mead lol. 16 odd barrels of effectively must, plus 70 lbs of honey, and that low of yield. Yuck.

 

[applescrap]

Apologies all, and thanks for the info AZ_ipa. Guess its time to make some mead so I can learn a thing or two. I think I know someone who I trust that could help me Btw, like the idea of fruit juice.

 

[bracconiere]

Btw, like the idea of fruit juice.

didn't i just see your first hydromometer in a bucket of apple juice?

 

[hezagenius]

I am expecting about 4.5 gallons into the secondary and wanted to add strawberries. It's using the Joe's Quick Grape Mead recipe mostly, so it will already have some grape flavor to it. I want to add some extra fruit complexity with the strawberries and was curious if I should backsweeten the same amount as in the recipe. I didn't want to end up with something super sweet and syrupy by extracting a lot of sugar from the fruit.

 

[bob1852]

Also that has to be a hella expensive mead lol. 16 odd barrels of effectively must, plus 70 lbs of honey, and that low of yield. Yuck.

70 gallons of honey

Or, roughly 840lbs...

 

[applescrap]

Dang that sounds good to me, how was it?

70 gallons of honey

Or, roughly 840lbs...

 

[applescrap]

Smart question, perhaps it will be just right, not too sweet, not to dry?! Maybe a squirt of extract too?

I am expecting about 4.5 gallons into the secondary and wanted to add strawberries. It's using the Joe's Quick Grape Mead recipe mostly, so it will already have some grape flavor to it. I want to add some extra fruit complexity with the strawberries and was curious if I should backsweeten the same amount as in the recipe. I didn't want to end up with something super sweet and syrupy by extracting a lot of sugar from the fruit.

 

[Qhrumphf]

70 gallons of honey

Or, roughly 840lbs...

Yeah that was a fat finger on my part.

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

Is there a rule of thumb like "1 pound of fruit in 1 gallon of water will add XX points to the solution"?

Don't know about a rule of thumb, but there is a website calculator that i use from time to time: http://blog.craftbeertraders.com/fruit-gravity-alcohol-calculator/