How do I know what my Starting Gravity is?

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karalaok

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Hi folks,

Long time browsing first time posting here. I want to start a batch of mead. The recipe call for 20 lb. of honey and 20 lb. of triple fruit (frozen blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries). I know how to take a reading of the liquid honey to get the OG reading but how do I know how much more sugar will I get out of the fruit to get my accurate OG?. Do I let the fruit soak in my primary fermenter for couple of days to get the fruit releases the sugar then take a reading before adding yeast?

Your time is greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Alain
 
How many gallons? The raw fruit juice should come out around 1.04, that is just the juice from the fruit but you dont know how much juice you are going to get unless you macerate the fruit by itself and press the juice out of the pulp. Does your recipe dump all of the honey into the primary at one time or does it say to step feed your yeast? 20 might be a bit high for some yeast to do a healthy fermentation, the acids from the fruit are good, you should have a balanced mead. What yeast do you plan to use?
WVMJ
 
Is this one of the occasions when a refractometer is useful? You could sample the sugar content of each of the kinds of berries you will be using and if you sample a few times and take the average, you assume that this will be a good approximation to the gravity (or brix) of the juice you will get from that fruit
 

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