So I've made a gallon of blackberry mead with whisky oak chips. I will add some Madagascan vanilla liqueur once I've rained off the fruit. I was going to leave the fruit et al in there for two weeks, but I tried it this morning after it's been sitting for 5 days and the whisky oak flavour is quite strong. I've clearly added too much oak chips but it still tastes very nice! I did consider removing the fruit and oak chips and then picking out the fruit and adding it back , but seems like a lot of messing about. Hopefully the flavour won't be horrendous at the end of the two weeks.
I've also done 1gal rhubarb and a gal of raspberry. The raspberry tastes fine, and the rhubarb tastes nice, just enough tartness to not be overpowering. But again I'm not sure if two weeks will be too long to keep it in there. All three were back sweetened with honey to s.g 0.020. Will let you know how they are getting on in a couple of days.
