When to add fruit

[sgraham602]

So i am making a variation of a blackberry melomel https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/blackberry-mead-melomel-95583/

When is it normal to add fruit? In the primary or in the secondary (or both) ?

Are there advantages to one or the other?

 

[snuesen]

Adding fruit in secondary will make it take longer to clear I believe, but I would let mine age anyway. As far as flavor goes, only real experimentation can tell you you're preference - people swear by either method. You could even add fruit extracts prior to bottling if that's your fancy.

 

[CaptainLongneck]

In my blackberry melomel I added some of my fruit in primary, then the majority jn secondary. Maybe it will take longer to clear... But it takes time anyways.. What's the extra wait?

 

[sgraham602]

Did you pasteurize it for the primary and secondary? Or just toss it in?

 

[snuesen]

For secondary, it's gonna be a pretty harsh environment for any bacteria to thrive- I wouldn't worry about doing anything special. For primary, some people dose the whole must with campden prior to pitching yeast. I don't even think that's necessary. If it's food you would eat without thinking twice about, any bacteria/wild yeast are gonna get out-competed by a healthy pitch.

Give it a good rinse, freeze it and thaw before you add it to must and Bobs your uncle. I would add tho to try to stay away from items that may have been heavily sprayed with pesticide. I don't even know if pasteurization would help with that.

 

[fatbloke]

Hum ?

Ok, if you add the fruit to primary the sugars will be fermented out and the flavours are different (think on how usually, the flavour you enjoy about a fruit is actually connected with the sweetness).

Whereas, if you put it in secondary, especially if you've stabilised from primary, you retain more of the original fruit flavour.

It may not necessarily take longer to clear, there's no real way to judge that, it just depends on whether you want it clear quickly or not......

Pectic enzyme is usually needed, but if it can be used before you add fruit, it sorts the pectin and aids flavour and colour extraction.

I generally add 1/3rd to primary and 2/3rds to secondary. I don't heat or process it other than freezing and thawing, which breaks down the cell walls so yeast can get to it quicker and it releases colour and flavour quicker.......

 

[CaptainLongneck]

+1 to fatbloke... would have been the paragraph from my own lips

 

[fun4stuff]

How long do you keep fruit in secondary before you remove it and let it clear?

Right now I have a raspberry melomel in the secondary (a glass carboy). When I initially added the raspberries in the primary (bucket), they were in a bag. If I wanted to add more raspberries- would you recommend moving it back to the bucket with a bag of raspberries (there would be a few inches of air gap) or just putting the raspberries in the glass carboy it is in now and moving to tertiary later??

 

[fun4stuff]

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