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Good / Bad idea? (aka addiction to mead clouding my judgment)

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dover157

dover157

NewBee
Registered Member
Sep 13, 2010
78
1
0
Moriarty, New Mexico
A while back my wife decided to put some pears she picked away for the holidays. I had never heard of this but I guess you can wrap an unripe pear in news paper and keep it in a dark place for a few months it will be extra sweet and ripe come holiday time. Skip ahead a month and there is a strange odor of fermentation and an abundance of little flying critters in my bedroom (pears stored in an extra dresser lined with plastic) Open the dresser to find the papers wet and the fruits seem to be fermenting. First thought is to throw them to the chickens, then a thought hits me. Can I make mead with this?........ Which brings me to my questions,
1. Is this a bad idea should I quit now.
2. If im not totaly mad what is the best way to extract the juice, press and filter out anything I may not want, then flash boil to kill off any nastys. or chop up and use the steam juicer for a clear extrated juice.
3. What yeast would you recomend?

If this does not sound to crazy I may have to make a quick run to the local homebrew store for some supplys as I only have 2 1.gal carboys and they are both full of JAO. Thanks for indulging the whims of a newbee
 
fatbloke

fatbloke

good egg/snappy dresser.....
GotMead Patron
Feb 3, 2008
3,632
14
0
UK - South Coast.
fatblokeshomebrew.blogspot.com
dover157 said:
A while back my wife decided to put some pears she picked away for the holidays. I had never heard of this but I guess you can wrap an unripe pear in news paper and keep it in a dark place for a few months it will be extra sweet and ripe come holiday time. Skip ahead a month and there is a strange odor of fermentation and an abundance of little flying critters in my bedroom (pears stored in an extra dresser lined with plastic) Open the dresser to find the papers wet and the fruits seem to be fermenting. First thought is to throw them to the chickens, then a thought hits me. Can I make mead with this?........ Which brings me to my questions,
1. Is this a bad idea should I quit now.
2. If im not totaly mad what is the best way to extract the juice, press and filter out anything I may not want, then flash boil to kill off any nastys. or chop up and use the steam juicer for a clear extrated juice.
3. What yeast would you recomend?

If this does not sound to crazy I may have to make a quick run to the local homebrew store for some supplys as I only have 2 1.gal carboys and they are both full of JAO. Thanks for indulging the whims of a newbee
Click to expand...
1. Got to be worth checking the fruit....... some might have gone too far, but if it's just ripe, then...........

2. Pears and heat are the same as apples and heat, a complete no-no! If anything, crush/mill then press, then sulphite them, a couple of days later, filter......

Then check the flavour.......

3. if the flavour is Ok, then something that will definitely dominate, something like K1V-1116 should work.

And yes, I'd probably have a go as well, though any fruit that is showing signs of mould would be trashed as it's likely that any fermentation that's already taken place might give an off flavour as you'd have no way of telling what the yeast/mould is.....

The only time I'd suggest any heat is if you can lay your hands on a "proper" pasteuriser...... Otherwise you're likely to get a "cooked" or stewed flavour in the juice.

regards

fatbloke

p.s. Oh and tell the wife that it's possible to keep fruit like that, but usually in chilled (1C/33 or 34F) conditions often in an irrespirable atmosphere.......
 
Medsen Fey

Medsen Fey

Fuselier since 2007
Premium Patron
May 23, 2007
9,004
53
48
Fusel Shack, in the swamp west of Ft. Lauderdale
dover157 said:
1. Is this a bad idea should I quit now.
Click to expand...

Yes. :icon_puke_l:

I've never actually used rotting fruit in one of my batches. I'm a firm believer that top quality ingredients make top quality mead. In wine making, the use of moldy or rotting fruit adds off flavors/odors and can lead to stuck fermentations and difficult to clear haze. I expect using bad fruit would have similar issues in a mead.

Were I determined to try it, the steam juicer would probably be the way to go - eliminating molds/wild-yeast/fly-larvae.
 
Chevette Girl

Chevette Girl

All around BAD EXAMPLE
Moderator
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Apr 27, 2010
8,447
59
48
Ottawa, ON
I've dealt with pears starting to "go" many many times... I'd dump all the pears that aren't too squishy already into a bucket of water (drowns the fruit flies that don't buzz off) and then use a knife to remove anything that's not happy white pear flesh (OK, I've left bruises on fruit I've later fermented, but not where the skin has broken to let in the little wigglies), and still have anything left, I'd go for it. Although I'd definitely be sulphiting the lot as soon as I got it all sanitized.
 
T

teejay58

NewBee
Registered Member
May 31, 2010
72
0
0
Texas
Geeze. I hope it's ok to use fruit that is starting to go. I got a great deal on peaches that were on the verge of being trash. Took me 3 days to clean and freeze all of them. And in that time, I estimate I threw out maybe 25-40%. I threw away the brown parts that were mushy. But if it was mushy and not brown (just bruised) I kept it. Cut off anything with mold on it. But there was a lot that was salvageable. And sweet. Every once in a while, I tasted to make sure my judgement of what was good and what wasn't, was on par. I plan on making mead with those peaches. So hope they're ok.
 
N

Nubster

NewBee
Registered Member
Sep 21, 2010
18
0
0
West Virginia
Those IMO are the best peaches to eat anyways. Actually the one gallon of mead I have working is made from peaches that were in a similar condition. I froze mine after processing them.
 
dover157

dover157

NewBee
Registered Member
Sep 13, 2010
78
1
0
Moriarty, New Mexico
Well I gave it a shot last night, and they were to far gone, they all had mold on them and the nice sweet smell was comming from the news paper not the pears. Not wanting to be to discouraged I remembered the few quarts of crabapple juice I put in the fridge a while back........ Brewing has started will post the mix in the near future. Thanks for the advice.
 
O

onanguiste

NewBee
Registered Member
Apr 2, 2010
9
0
0
england
hey dude sorry 4 butting in but i need 2 do this now coz i see u are on line...i remember chating to u a fue months ago about my eggy mead...welll. its gon eggy again. any pointers?
 
fatbloke

fatbloke

good egg/snappy dresser.....
GotMead Patron
Feb 3, 2008
3,632
14
0
UK - South Coast.
fatblokeshomebrew.blogspot.com
onanguiste said:
hey dude sorry 4 butting in but i need 2 do this now coz i see u are on line...i remember chating to u a fue months ago about my eggy mead...welll. its gon eggy again. any pointers?
Click to expand...
how about starting a separate thread, but include details of the batch i.e. how much honey, water, nutrients, any gravity points you might have taken, the type of yeast etc etc.....

It's better etiquette to do that than hijack another thread that isn't about the same type of problem you're experiencing.......

Oh and rotten egg smell is usually to do with not enough nutrient, and yeast that needs a lot (like RC 212), the usual cure is more nutrients and aeration but it could be something else as well, hence suggesting starting a different thread as there's lots here who can help......
 
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