Effect Of Fruit On Og

[Ronin]

Hi,

I'm into my second dry mead at the moment, and my next I'm planning on adding some fruit to a sweeter mead. Was considering using Wy1272 which tolerates about 10% alcohol, which in my 1.100 OG must I'm assuming would ferment to about 1.020-1.025.

I've been reading a lot of the strawberry/boysenberry mead threads. My question is, if I was to add 250g of fruit at the end of primary would it increase the sugars to the point where it would finish much higher? I'm assuming it will. Is it just trial and error to figure out how much? Has anyone taken a gravity reading before and after adding fruit to see how much sugar is added?

Thanks,

James

 

[Adamt]

If you're adding frozen berries, read the nutritional information of the packet it comes out of for sugar content. You can pretty much expect fruit sugars to ferment out to dryness.

For fresh fruit, I guess google some diet/nutrition sites for data.

 

[Ronin]

If you're adding frozen berries, read the nutritional information of the packet it comes out of for sugar content. You can pretty much expect fruit sugars to ferment out to dryness.

For fresh fruit, I guess google some diet/nutrition sites for data.

I'll probably use frozen raspberries.

So, for example, if they are 46% sugar and I add 100grams of fruit, assume I'm adding 46g of sucrose? Logically I guess that makes sense.

Thanks,

James

 

[Adamt]

Yep, that'll be close enough!

 

[Airgead]

Yep, that'll be close enough!

Yep. Close enough is the best you can get. Its hard to know how much of the sugars will come out of the fruit into the liquid. that can depend a lot on how fine you crush them and a whole bunch of other factors. It takes a while to extract it all too and given it is usually actively fermenting at the time its really hard to use a hydrometer/refractometer get any sense of how much it is adding. Best you can do is take the %sugars from the nutritional info and make a guestimate of say 90% for frozen, defrosted fruit that has been blended, less for fresh fruit or stuff that hasn't been liquidised.

Cheers
Dave