Raspberry mead question

[JB_Brewing2]

My first attempt at making a mead in 10 years - October 2016 with 12 lbs honey topped to five gallons with water and added Lalvin D-47. Fast forward 11 months and I added two pounds of whole organic raspberries to it. Will the whole raspberries ferment?

 

[ike8228]

My first attempt at making a mead in 10 years - October 2016 with 12 lbs honey topped to five gallons with water and added Lalvin D-47. Fast forward 11 months and I added two pounds of whole organic raspberries to it. Will the whole raspberries ferment?

After 11 months your yeast is either dead or dormant at the bottom. Usually adding fruit takes place near the very beginning for a hint of flavor or after racking to secondary with about 10-15% left in fermentation for stronger flavor. It is not impossible, but in my experience you may have waited too long for additional fermentation. The color and flavor should still be released. Expect a strong raspberry flavor. Raspberry is potent and may over power the honey flavor.

 

[JB_Brewing2]

After 11 months your yeast is either dead or dormant at the bottom. Usually adding fruit takes place near the very beginning for a hint of flavor or after racking to secondary with about 10-15% left in fermentation for stronger flavor. It is not impossible, but in my experience you may have waited too long for additional fermentation. The color and flavor should still be released. Expect a strong raspberry flavor. Raspberry is potent and may over power the honey flavor.

Would it help to agitate? Give it a little shake?

 

[ike8228]

Would it help to agitate? Give it a little shake?

You could stir up the yeast cake at the bottom I suppose, but you'd be stirring up all the must settlement too and you would have to wait a while for it to settle back down again. Even then it isn't guaranteed that it will do anything. It could introduce off flavors with the dead yeast being kicked up.

Your mead is already alcohol so adding raspberries to ferment more is beside the point. If you are unhappy with the ABV and it's on the sweet side, more yeast would fix that, but raspberries are purely a flavor thing (also a source of nutrient during early fermentation). You could just leave it as it is and try it. There's nothing going to be wrong with it.

If you really want it to go through more fermentation you could just pitch some new yeast (small amount) in, being careful not to stir the bottom. Maybe rehydrate the yeast in a cup of sugar/honey water (boil water first like a mini mead batch) essentially making a starter and pour it into the raspberries to get it mixed in well with them. You would need to wait until all that settles down to....it all depends on what you're going for.

 

[voltron]

My first attempt at making a mead in 10 years - October 2016 with 12 lbs honey topped to five gallons with water and added Lalvin D-47. Fast forward 11 months and I added two pounds of whole organic raspberries to it. Will the whole raspberries ferment?

assuming you did not add anything to kill the yeast you will get slight fermentation. Probably not much but some. The main factor is where your abv was at when you added the raspeberries, if you where at a high abv then you wont get much fernemtarion just a tiny bit as you are proaching the alcohol tolerance of the yeast. I have an 8 month old mead againg and every so often i hear a bubble so there is still activity in there very little but some.

But if say your abv was a lot lower than the alcohol tolerance you will get a but more fermentation not as vigorous as some of the yeast is in the bottom and may nit be in immediatate direct contact.

At this point since you added the juice would just leave it alone and let it age maybe three more months. .if you do stir the sediment then let it age 3 months to five more just to let it settle out. but i woukd be incline not to stir and and enjoy a nice raspberry mead in a in a few more minths.
the onky reason .i say this is bc Mead can be stubborn when it comes to clearing if you wanted to clear without adding clearing agent.
i have had meads that cleared in 3 months, i have had mead that atbthe 7 month mark are still cloudy.

 

[JB_Brewing2]

assuming you did not add anything to kill the yeast you will get slight fermentation. Probably not much but some. The main factor is where your abv was at when you added the raspeberries, if you where at a high abv then you wont get much fernemtarion just a tiny bit as you are proaching the alcohol tolerance of the yeast. I have an 8 month old mead againg and every so often i hear a bubble so there is still activity in there very little but some.

But if say your abv was a lot lower than the alcohol tolerance you will get a but more fermentation not as vigorous as some of the yeast is in the bottom and may nit be in immediatate direct contact.

At this point since you added the juice would just leave it alone and let it age maybe three more months. .if you do stir the sediment then let it age 3 months to five more just to let it settle out. but i woukd be incline not to stir and and enjoy a nice raspberry mead in a in a few more minths.
the onky reason .i say this is bc Mead can be stubborn when it comes to clearing if you wanted to clear without adding clearing agent.
i have had meads that cleared in 3 months, i have had mead that atbthe 7 month mark are still cloudy.

Thanks to both of you for the input. I'm just gonna let it sit for a few more months.