Dried Tart Cherries - How much?

[thgirwa]

I have a sweet to medium show mead that is about nine months old. I would like to through it on tart cherries and oak (maybe a vanilla bean?) for a week or so when I travel back to the states in two weeks. I'm getting some dried tart cherries because fresh ones won't be available in that area. What dosage would some of y'all recommend. I've only ever used whole, fresh fruit before in meads and have never used cherries. For a mild to low cherry flavor presence (which is what I'm aiming for), I believe Ken Schramm recommends 2 to 3 pounds in secondary. However, my dried tart cherry source (from a friend at a brewery) normally only puts a few ounces in per firkin.

Does anyone have any experience using dry tart cherries on a 5 gallon mead scale? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Alex

 

[thgirwa]

Any thoughts?

 

[chickabeelane]

It's kind of tricky, because I mostly used fresh fruit, not dried. Anything that is dried would have a much more intense flavor compared to fresh. Also dried fruit obviously weighs a lot less than fresh so a little goes along way. You would also have to consider what kind of creepy crawlies (wild yeasts, etc) are hanging out on your dried fruit.
Try racking off a cup of your mead and do a test batch until you are happy with the flavor, then scale it up. Good luck!