Processing frozen blueberries?

[BrewDrinkRepeat]

Going to make my first melomel with frozen fruit -- in this case, blueberries -- and I was wondering if you guys generally recommend any specific processing? In particular, do you do anything to attempt to sanitize the fruit, and do you try to mash / smush the fruit before adding it to the must? Or do you just chuck 'em in and let 'em do their thing?

BTW here's the recipe (in case anyone sees any problems):

Sparkling Blueberry Melomel
semi-sweet / sparkling / sack
OG 1.122
FG: 1.015
ABV: 14-16%

15.75# Dutch Gold orange blossom honey
12# frozen blueberries (will contribute ~1.2gal of water)
2 gallons Knudsen Just Blueberry juice
~0.5 gallon dechlorinated water to reach 1.147 (water from blueberries will bring this back down to ~1.122 once released)
1 packet 71B yeast, rehydrated
stir / knock down cap twice per day for the first four or five days
SNA day 0, 1, 2, 3
rack to secondary after approx. 4-6 weeks
add more blueberry juice to taste, if necessary (stabilize?)
adjust acidity / tannin when kegging, if necessary
carbonate to 2.5 volumes (min)

 

[Chris_The_Rogue]

If your going to use blueberry juice in primary then you might want to save the solid fruit for the secondary. That way you get more of the aromatics and taste from them. Ive heard that when adding them in primary the yeast can kill off the flavor of the berries.

 

[BrewDrinkRepeat]

I've read a lot about the fruit in primary vs secondary debate; for this one I'm going to use it in primary based on recommendations in Steve Piatz's mead book, and also that I don't necessarily want a fresh fruit character here, more a fermented fruit character.

For my next batch I plan to do a blackberry, and for that I will likely use fruit in secondary as I want that to be a fruitier, sweeter, "fresher" mel.

I'm more concerned with any potential infection from the frozen fruit, I'm not sure if the freezing process has effectively killed off everything I need to worry about... and if not, what to do about it.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

I'm more concerned with any potential infection from the frozen fruit, I'm not sure if the freezing process has effectively killed off everything I need to worry about... and if not, what to do about it.

You're right, freezing doesn't always kill off everything, I found that out the hard way. Just hit it with campden tabs, 1 tablet per gallon. Crush the tablets & dissolve in a little warm water, pour into the must & stir, wait a minimum of 12 hrs before pitching yeast or adding pectic enzyme. Aerate well before yeast pitch. No worries.
Regards, GF.

 

[BrewDrinkRepeat]

I ended up making the mel yesterday before I saw this, and I didn't think to do that. Oh well... fingers crossed! The packages say they were washed before freezing, hopefully that'll be enough.

Smells soooooo good...

 

[shelly_belly]

The freezing will usually burst the cell walls and the skins so that pressing will not be necessary. I'd also add pectic enzyme for better flavor/color extraction and haze reduction and sulfite to sanitize the fruit. Do not use old fruit. I made blueberry wine with frozen berries that I had for over a year and you can taste the freezer burn in the finished wine.

 

[BrewDrinkRepeat]

Been stirring / degassing / punching down the cap three times a day, plus SNAs; interesting that the berries float back up to the surface within a few minutes.

It's going to be so hard to wait this one out until it's ready for kegging... I know I'm going to want to drink it sooner than I should!

 

[BrewDrinkRepeat]

One other question: this fermentation seems to be going pretty slow (1.160 to 1.140 since Sunday). I'm not at all impatient, but I wonder how long it's OK to leave the the must on the fruit before racking off? I'm not sure at what point they will have given up all there is to give (sugar, water, tannin) and I certainly don't want them to start to go bad in there.

 

[mwhitnell]

I have made blueberry melomel often. I never start out in the primary with that high of sg. I have found out that the yeast has a difficult time working with high sugar content. I usually limit the start sg to around 1.100, this is about 12 lbs honey, 10 lbs blueberries. I let it ferment in the primary down to around .995 (ABV 13.7%), takes about a week...then I add more honey if I want higher ABV, if my yeast can handle the abv. Like EC-1118 can handle about 18%, I think 71b can handle 14% or so, so adding more honey will not help. I have started wines at 1.120 or a bit higher, and they just stall, and don't produce. The only way I have made it work is to dilute the must with water to lower the sg, then repitch more yeast, by making a starter with a weak must and continually add more must in the starter, little my little to get the yeast to produce. I have found in the end that starting with a high sg over 1.100, is difficult. Well that's my take, I am sure others may disagree, but I have been there. You mention the sg is around 1.160, then you said earlier the starting sg was 1.120, which is it? I don't think yeast will work in a must that is 1.160. An aside, I always add 2 cups of lemon juice.

 

[MindenMan]

I have not made any cider with an O.G. that high, but I add three cans of FAJC to 7 pints of apple juice, 1 can at a time. I use Pasteur Red for my ciders, and it will supposedly tolerate 18% ABV. It probably takes longer to ferment my ciders this way, but I haven't had a funky batch yet, and since I freeze concentrate any little anomaly would be magnified. My first batch using a different yeast smelled like nail polish remover, and I am not ready to do that again...

 

[BrewDrinkRepeat]

You mention the sg is around 1.160, then you said earlier the starting sg was 1.120, which is it? I don't think yeast will work in a must that is 1.160. An aside, I always add 2 cups of lemon juice.

I was shooting for 1.150 but overshot a bit... the 1.122 is the "adjusted" OG accounting for the water the blueberries will give up over time. I know they won't give it up all at once (in fact, I think they've given up maybe only half at most at this point!), but for calculation purposes that would've been the OG if they had added all their water at the outset.

D47's tolerance is about 14%, which is 107 points worth, and I wanted a FG of ~1.015 so that's where my target OG of 1.122 came from.

Has this all worked out according to the calculations? No, not exactly...

I think next time I will try the stepped addition method as you and others have suggested, keep feeding it until the yeast kicks out and then a little more for sweetness if I'm not making a dry mead (and assuming I'm going for a 12-16% mead; if I go lighter I'll stabilize and backsweeten).