I would like to experiment making a 1 gallon batch of blackberry or raspberry mead. Made several five gallon batches of regular mead over the years. My question is this. Is it better to try and use fresh berries, frozen berries or fruit bases? My intent is to get a full bodied mead.
Hum? well I'd say either fresh or frozen, it's not so much about the state of the fruit but about the quality of the flavour.
Oh and when it's actually used, of course.
Me? I like to use my steam extractor to get the juice as it removes the possibility of any adverse flavours from stones/pips/seeds etc.
I also like to use some in primary, then some in secondary, or even waiting till the ferment has finished and add the fruit to the tertiary/clearing stage.
It seems that way, you end up with more of a fruit flavour to the product, if you add it all to the primary, a lot of the flavours can be blown straight out the airlock with the CO2.......
Oh and it doesn't seem to need so long to age.
Blackberry might need more fruit as it's a more subtle flavour, but at the same time, if you made a batch of raspberry, don't go over the top with raspberry as it can be quite over powering......
regards
fatbloke
