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Adding pre fermented fruit to Mead mix?

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Mead_Monster

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 13, 2013
28
0
1
Colorado Springs, CO
Hey Folks,

Finally getting ready to make my first batch. Gonna go for a quick mead the first time. The question I have involves some pineapple in juice that has been sitting in fridge for a while that is starting to ferment. For some reason I am thinking that pineapple and honey would make for an interesting drink. Has any of you added fruit that is in the process of fermenting to your mead at the beginning? Would the yeast that is causing the pineapple to ferment be detrimental to the the yeast that I use for the process? Would the pineapple be too acidic as compared to using oranges? I guess the short of the long is would the already fermenting pineapple ruin the mead making process? It is not a whole lot but I will probably be making a small batch of a gallon to start off with.

Sorry for the rambling I am typing in a migraine haze.

Thanks in advance for any help.
 

Maylar

Got Mead? Patron
GotMead Patron
May 23, 2015
621
63
28
Connecticut
Some (most) yeasts don't play well together. Depending on what your mead yeast is, it might kill the wild yeast in the pineapple juice. The opposite won't happen though, wild yeast doesn't have the kill factor. Might be an interesting experiment.

Can you measure pH of the pineapple juice?
 

Squatchy

Lifetime GotMead Patron
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Nov 3, 2014
5,542
261
83
Denver
I would make sure you know how to make mead before you jump in and make something that sucks. Go listen to the Gotmeadlive podcast here on the site and go back about 5-6 weeks. The piecs that starts with yeast. We go through how to make good mead with modern science starting at the very beginning all the way to the end. Welcome to the forum. We have a great group that meets once a month here in Denver. Are you interested in coming? We have a private Facebook page I can add you to.
 

Stasis

Honey Master
Registered Member
Jan 10, 2014
1,123
13
38
Malta
Hey Folks,

Finally getting ready to make my first batch. Gonna go for a quick mead the first time. The question I have involves some pineapple in juice that has been sitting in fridge for a while that is starting to ferment. For some reason I am thinking that pineapple and honey would make for an interesting drink. Has any of you added fruit that is in the process of fermenting to your mead at the beginning? Would the yeast that is causing the pineapple to ferment be detrimental to the the yeast that I use for the process? Would the pineapple be too acidic as compared to using oranges? I guess the short of the long is would the already fermenting pineapple ruin the mead making process? It is not a whole lot but I will probably be making a small batch of a gallon to start off with.

Sorry for the rambling I am typing in a migraine haze.

Thanks in advance for any help.

So much to process here. I was going to talk about wild yeast but that was going to turn into a couple hundred words on it's own. I would avoid this wild yeast because:
- It was not grown on the skins of very specific fruit (grapes being possibly the best)
- It can tolerate very low temps. If it were a good yeast that can ferment at 5C the yeast companies would really like to get it's hands on it. So probably it's a bad yeast
- It has had a head start on your dormant yeast which will be introduced later.
- It's fermenting at 5C... It will go crazy at higher temps (15C). Even if it somehow tastes good (it does not), it will taste horrible later on.

How does the pineapple taste now? Disregarding the sweetness, is the actual taste worse than it was untainted/fresh? If it's worse, why would you make mead from inferior ingredients? Garbage in, garbage out. Honey is expensive so I wouldn't skimp out on some pineapple.

You can give this a try, but I wouldn't go near it with a 10 foot pole as the saying goes

Maylar, are you sure there is no wild yeast anywhere that have the competitive/kill factor? I'd be absolutelyamazed, especially since yeast which have the competitive factor were once isolated from the wild.
 

Mead_Monster

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 13, 2013
28
0
1
Colorado Springs, CO
Hey Folks,

Thanks a bunch for your help. I believe I will just throw out the "bad" pineapple and just stick to the BOMM and Joe's ancient orange for now. I still would like to try a pineapple mead in the future. So while my brain is all aflutter with potental ideas, I am starting to keep a journal, I will keep with a basic tried and true recipe to start with.

When I do try a pineapple mead would you use fresh or canned?

Thanks again for your help.

Boycott shampoo, demand real poo!!
 

bernardsmith

Got Mead? Patron
GotMead Patron
Sep 1, 2013
1,611
32
48
Saratoga Springs , NY
Hiya Mead_Monster - and welcome. Perhaps tossing the pineapple is unnecessary. If it's started to ferment and the fermentation is using indigenous (wild) yeast, I would seriously consider allowing the yeast to finish the job they started. It's not going to cost you a penny if you were going to throw the fermenting juice out and it may (despite the thoughtful opinion of Stasis (post #5) turn out to taste really fine in which case (and only if it tastes really OK) you might then consider blending all or some with all or some of your mead...
 

lee.day

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 24, 2017
1
0
0
kent uk
Hello everyone, i am a newbee to all this and i have just started 2 1ltr batchs of mead and both are fermenting and in both i used 3lb of honey elderflower in one and strawberry in the other both with jack mengrove mead yeast i started these on the 12.10.2017 and i would like to put some or a ghost pepper into the strawberry on would this be a good idea or nor and if it is when should i do it any help over here in the uk would be great please,
many thanks lee
 

Squatchy

Lifetime GotMead Patron
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Nov 3, 2014
5,542
261
83
Denver
Personally. I don't think that's a good match. Strawberries are so delicate, especially in mead. That there's almost no flavor in their of strawberries to begin with. Now, put a ghost pepper in there which is incredibly powerful. It would just seem like if you got enough ghost pepper for it to be hot. You would Stomp all over the strawberry. Of course you could do this if you would like. But it doesn't fit good in my opinion
 

darigoni

Got Mead? Patron
GotMead Patron
Jun 4, 2016
945
63
28
Brookline, NH
Hello everyone, i am a newbee to all this and i have just started 2 1ltr batchs of mead and both are fermenting and in both i used 3lb of honey elderflower in one and strawberry in the other both with jack mengrove mead yeast i started these on the 12.10.2017 and i would like to put some or a ghost pepper into the strawberry on would this be a good idea or nor and if it is when should i do it any help over here in the uk would be great please,
many thanks lee

Welcome to the group Lee.

FYI. It's not considered good manners to hijack someone else's thread. Better protocol is to create your own thread.
 
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