Question about adding fruit

[Chadjg82]

Hey guys. I’m pretty new to mead making. I have a traditional batch with I already stabilized and racked once. I was wondering if I missed the window to add fruit? If not, what would the process be? Would I just add the fruit to the current carboy or add fruit to a sanitized carboy and rack it over the fruit then let it age? Thanks

 

[Dan O]

You absolutely did NOT miss the window to add fruit. Fruit added in primary (where the fermentation is what's drawing out the flavor), will give you fermented fruit/ wine properties, adding a nice complexity to your mead. Fruit added to secondary, (after stabilizing--- where the already present alcohol is what is extracting the flavor), will give you more fresh fruit flavor.

Using carboys for fruit additions is a real pain, more of a pain to scrub clean after bottling. I personally always use food grade buckets for fruit additions.
The buckets & lids are easy to find @ Home Depot or Lowes, ironically enough, in the paint section....go figure.
Just make sure you get the ones that are labeled "food grade".

Typically, the fruit in my melomels is never in the bucket for longer than 2 weeks, so having it in the bucket isn't any problem. Rack back to glass when you remove the fruit.

I hope this helps you.
Happy meading

 

[Chadjg82]

You absolutely did NOT miss the window to add fruit. Fruit added in primary (where the fermentation is what's drawing out the flavor), will give you fermented fruit/ wine properties, adding a nice complexity to your mead. Fruit added to secondary, (after stabilizing--- where the already present alcohol is what is extracting the flavor), will give you more fresh fruit flavor.

Using carboys for fruit additions is a real pain, more of a pain to scrub clean after bottling. I personally always use food grade buckets for fruit additions.
The buckets & lids are easy to find @ Home Depot or Lowes, ironically enough, in the paint section....go figure.
Just make sure you get the ones that are labeled "food grade".

Typically, the fruit in my melomels is never in the bucket for longer than 2 weeks, so having it in the bucket isn't any problem. Rack back to glass when you remove the fruit.

I hope this helps you.
Happy meading

Definitely helps. Do I need to add more tablets to stabilize before adding the fruit?

 

[Dan O]

Definitely helps. Do I need to add more tablets to stabilize before adding the fruit?

If you dosed it right when you stabilized the first time, you shouldn't need to.

 

[Brit the !@#$]

Any standard sanitation steps when adding fruit? I did a series of single varietal ciders this past summer, taken through as many variations as possible for education purposes (different yeasts, malolactic, wood chips added, battonage, etc.). At secondary, I set up a single gallon to coferment with a quart of fresh strawberries from our farm. They're organic and it honestly didn't even occur to me to think about washing ahead of time -- figured the wild yeasts would be useful, if anything at this stage. I got strawberry cider vinegar instead. All my other various batches turned out great, and it occurred to me afterwards that I must have brought the acetobacter in with the strawberries.

My only other experience adding fruit in secondary was making a graff beer and breaking out a small bit to coferment with apple pomace (the pressed fruit leftovers). I wouldn't dream of washing the pomace (rinse it? then you'd dilute the desirable juice leavings) or trying to sanitize it, and would have expected more potential for acetobacter contamination with fresh apple pomace, but the beer turned out fine, if wah-wah overall.

I wouldn't want to have cooked the strawberries at all before adding, but would a simple wash do me, and is that standard practice when adding fruit to any libation in secondary, whether beer, cider, or wine? Could be just a fluke with my strawberry apple vinegar batch from any number of things, but it occurred to me afterwards that it may be that I ought be more careful with fruit additions in the future.

 

[Dan O]

I typically wash fresh fruit with Veggie Wash, (which is citrus based) then rinse very well. That has always worked for me, but I tend to use frozen fruit a lot & have never had an issue with it bringing in anything funky.
That said, a lot of people do add a Campden tablet (potassium metabisulfate) to their fruit to make sure any yeast that's on said fruit can't reproduce & dominate the yeast your adding.
A couple of years ago, I went & picked 14 lbs of strawberries @ a local orchard to make a strawberry/ rhubarb/ raspberry mead with. I followed my normal wash/rinse/freeze/thaw routine, made sure to hit all the fruit with a healthy dose of pectic enzyme before making my must & it came out awesome.
I really haven't dabbled with fresh apples yet because I've always used a local cider for my cysers.

I hope this helps you.
Happy meading

 

[Chadjg82]

When adding the fruit, do I (1) need to mash it, (2) add anything to it? I already added campden about a week ago. Again I appreciate all the input.

 

[Dan O]

When adding the fruit, do I (1) need to mash it, (2) add anything to it? I already added campden about a week ago. Again I appreciate all the input.

If you're using a carboy, it's nearly impossible to use a brew bag. Using a bag saves so much headache when removing fruit additions. Once you use a bag, it's hard going back.
If you're using a bucket & a brew bag, I recommend @ least mashing it a bit but not trying to make puree out of it. As long as you freeze it first, (over 24 hrs), you'll have broken down the cell walls and made it easier for the yeast to have access to the sugars. Be sure to add pectic enzyme to your fruit@ least an hour before adding. If there is alcohol already present, you need to double up the dose of pectic enzyme.

 

[MightyMosin]

For fruit, I hand wash it first with water to rinse dirt and anything that comes off easily. After that, I create a wash of 1 part white or apple cider vinegar to 4 parts water. Put the fruit in the wash and let soak about 3-5 minutes. Take out and rinse in fresh water. Put out on towel to let dry.

Bag fruit and place in freezer. The frozen fruit will then be thawed and used in the mead. The freezing explodes the cell walls and really helps with the juice extraction in your mead.