Mango mead - sweet or dry?

[SKBugs]

Does anyone have a view on whether the Mango would compliment a dry or a sweet mead? The acid may add to the sweet, but not sure. Any ideas?

 

[Miraculix]

I would go for semi dry, but this is personal taste. I don't like sweet mead so I try to keep it as dry as possible but still with enough residual sugars to complement flavours. Somewhere around 1.01 I guess.

 

[Mogambo]

I have used mangoes in beer and usually it ferment with no sugars left. Also I feel mangoes have very little taste and aroma after fermentation.

To answer to your question. Go sweet. As it will compliment with mangoes better.

 

[Toxxyc]

I would also go with semi-sweet. 1.008 to 1.01 specific gravity after backsweetening. This will break the intense dryness of the mead and incorporate the mango flavours better. It also won't go super-sweet down the line when it inevitably goes into the higher perceived sweetness stage with aging.

 

[Blacksmith1]

I did a bochet with mango. It is semi dry. If the wife were not diabetic I would do it again semi sweet to sweet. It is however very good as is.
It is just over 6 months from pitch date (4/5/19) and the acid taste is calming a lot. The mango flavor is there but not strong, I used about a pound per gallon, not quite fully frozen, then thawed and smashed a bit. Use a brew bag!
this batch taught me that time is key to a good mead.

 

[SKBugs]

Def have a brew bag ready. I was also planning on adding in some pectinase the day before to try and break the fruit apart. Never used it before but am keen to give it a go.

 

[RPh_Guy]

My advice:
Ferment completely dry, adding the fruit after the primary fermentation.
THEN stabilize and sweeten to your taste, with honey and/or mango juice.
With this process there's no regrets.

 

[Blacksmith1]

.I agree. I did mine in primary and didn't get as much mango flavor as I would have liked. And Rph_guy might disagree, but if you stabilize then do the fruit addition, the alcohol will help extract your flavor without a restart ( or at least a very minor one) of your fermentation, which should leave more of the straight mango flavor. Mind you This is based on research, not personal experiance. Next time tho'

 

[Toxxyc]

.I agree. I did mine in primary and didn't get as much mango flavor as I would have liked. And Rph_guy might disagree, but if you stabilize then do the fruit addition, the alcohol will help extract your flavor without a restart ( or at least a very minor one) of your fermentation, which should leave more of the straight mango flavor. Mind you This is based on research, not personal experiance. Next time tho'

To build on this (SACRILEGE INCOMING), you could also make a short mead or hydromel, and rest your mangoes in vodka. Then, when you mead is done, just add the vodka to the mead. It boosts the ABV and extracts a ton of flavour.

 

[Blacksmith1]

My wife agrees with you.

 

[SKBugs]

That’s a really good idea. I have really good experiences using vodka with spices.
I was originally thinking of a session mead and actually with the amount of mango I have (7lbs of flesh) I can give a couple of these methods a go.
Good job

 

[hdziuk]

To build on this (SACRILEGE INCOMING), you could also make a short mead or hydromel, and rest your mangoes in vodka. Then, when you mead is done, just add the vodka to the mead. It boosts the ABV and extracts a ton of flavour.

Interesting. What ratio of infused vodka to mead would you use? That sounds like something worth trying!

 

[SKBugs]

I add according to taste in the secondary.
There are some who take small samples and scale up, but I’m not really that accurate. I just add a dash, wait a day and taste. It usually doesn’t take too much to dial it in to the taste I want.