Any mouthfeel benefit to leaving pectin in?

[jalopy19]

I am making both a blueberry and blackberry hydromel. Both one gallon experimental batches. I anticipate the final ABV to be about 5-7%. On a side note, I intend to carbonate it. I am considering adding pectic enzyme to clear it up a bit. I realize clearer is generally considered "better", but is there any benefit to leaving the pectin protein in if we consider final taste/mouthfeel? This is my first hydromel and I expect it to feel a little "thin". Has anyone seen a difference, or is the clarity benefit outweigh any mouthfeel benefit?

Edit: In terms of recipe I have two gallons of mead going about a month. They both have about 2 pounds honey per gallon. For the blackberry I added juice squeezed from about 1.5lbs fresh berries in a muslin bag after heating the blackberries to about 160 degrees F. For the 15oz blueberries I squished them up a bit in the bag after they had thawed, heated to about 70 degrees F, and added the whole lot to a jug and racked onto it. Safale US-05/ yeast nutrient/yeast energizer. Walmart "Spring" water.

 

[fuelish]

Interesting question, have no answer, but imagine the mothfeel would be minimal....dunno....but, this got my attention, as I made a black- and blueberry sparkling melomel (approx 8.5% abv) last year, turned out great - lightly sparkling, beautiful red color, crystal clear (yeah, I did use pectic enzyme), little mouthfeel....but great stuff....my Mrs is loving the "frizzante" meads i've been doing as of late. I thought about adding some honey malt, perhaps, but....didn't, maybe next time.

 

[jalopy19]

I'm glad you had some success with this kind of thing! How did you carbonate? How long did it take to become drinkable? Do you generally drink it cold? Did you use any finings? Did you prefer the blueberry or blackberry version?

 

[fuelish]

I'm glad you had some success with this kind of thing! How did you carbonate? How long did it take to become drinkable? Do you generally drink it cold? Did you use any finings? Did you prefer the blueberry or blackberry version?

Hey....it was actually a combo - blackberries (from my backyard) and blueberries (with I think a quart, maybe two of organic blueberry juice) in the same batch....bottle carbed the usual way (priming sugar added to bottling bucket, bottle, let sit for a couple months) I would say maybe 1 and 1/2 months total primary/secondary, and a couple months to carbonate - not supercarbonated like champagne, just a nice light sparkle....tastes great already, whether it'll get even better, can't say as my Mrs LOVES it, likely won't be around for many months....she had me make a sweet'n'sour cherry batch, which is in secondary as we speak. My Black'n'Blues batch came out at approx 8% abv, iirc, at most....have to dig up my notebook, I was gonna go straight blackberries, but thought it might be a lil astringent, beings as I used 1116 so it was gonna ferment dry.....and it's interesting, when drinking it, if I think "blackberries," I taste blackberry....if I think "blueberries," I taste the blueberry. All in all, a great light warm weather sipping-on -the-deck-kinda mead I've done a peach pyment this way (have another in secondary
), and a ginger (in secondary as well....gonna have to get to sanitizing some empty bottles and get busy. I feel they're definitely quite tasty after a much shorter time than heavy meads, and using 6 or 7 pounds of honey at a time isn't as "painful" as using 12 to 15 lbs....LOL.....with THE MOST important thing, my wife LOVES them She's not a fan of heavy stuff, like my oaked ginger habanero firewater....heh

 

[jalopy19]

Thanks!