Fruit in Primary, Secondary or both

[James0816]

Ok, so I learned making mead (and wine) by adding fruit to the primary, ferment dry then backsweeten.

my question is pretty much this. if during the fermentation, the yeasties strip out the flavor of the fruit, why not brew a batch of regular mead then add the fruit on the back end during secondary for the flavor?

This may be a gray area to me. But, as I advance along, I plan on adding additional fruit to the secondary after fermentation has stopped and stabilized.

Is there really a right/wrong way, more preferred...pros/cons to either process?

just curious.

 

[Seamonkey84]

You can do it either way or both for a fruit bomb effect. The point with wine for most people isn’t just about having alcohol in juice, they have a different taste. But with mead, it can go either way. Usually you’ll need to stabilize before adding fruits if you don’t want it to restart fermentation.

 

[bernardsmith]

My sense is this: alcohol is a far better solvent than water and so when you add fruit to the secondary and use the alcohol to help extract flavors you get a more intense profile than if you simply add fruit to the primary. That said, you may need to consider whether you are heating the fruit to help extract flavors when you add them to the primary. Typically, I would imagine that even those who cook their fruit don't do so when adding to the secondary. All that said, generally speaking, I ferment on fruit when I make wine - and use far more fruit - and add fruit to the secondary when I make a mead. But the practice of others on this forum may be very different.

 

[CKuhns]

No real wrong way or right way to add fruit.

It really all depends on if you want the fruit flavor to shine or let the honey come thtough.

Fruit in primary: allows for the fruit to be up front and kind of overpowers the subtle honey flavors. But great if you also add fruit to secondary with the intent of letting the fruit flavor to be the main focus. In this case more is better 2 to 3 pounds per gallon.

Fruit in secondary: the trick here in my opinion is to ballance the truit flavor while still allowing some of the honey flavor to come through. Depending on the fruit 1 to 1.5 pounds per gallon.

 

[Brett_Bellmore]

It's really a matter of taste, fruit in the primary and secondary produces different flavors, which is why wine doesn't taste like grape juice with a shot of vodka. I tend to do both, because as Seamonkey says, I'm aiming for "fruit bombs".

Why not do a small batch each way, and see which you like better?

 

[Maylar]

Another method is to freeze and thaw the fruit and use the juice as part of the primary water. Then add the fruit in secondary after stabilizing. Some fruits are up to 85% water (juice) so you need to compensate for the post-fermentation dilution by using more honey than usual.

 

[Wanne]

probably the best mead I've made so far was my banana. I simply put the bananas in the secondary in a mesh bag for 3 weeks in a traditional mead. The consensus with my family has been it's been the best also. Tasted like Banana Bread. I'm getting ready to attempt a 5 gallon batch with hopefully the same outcome.