Question on ageing first batch of mead

Hello everyone, if anyone remembers, I recently posted a question about the fruit in my blueberry mead which I made using the following recipe:

12# local wildflower honey
3# organic frozen blueberries
and Ec-1118 yeast in 4 gallons of water.

Well, after two weeks my fermentation completely stopped and I racked the mead into secondary, removing most of the fruit in the process. A small amount of fruit is still in the fermenter, but I at this time I am not too worried about it. After racking, the first thing I noticed was that my mead has a beautiful pale red color. While in the fermenter the mead was a dark purple, but in the racking rube and my sampling glass is thinned out into a pale red, just north of pink. I hit the target color I wanted, but when I tasted the mead, I realized that it had little if no flavor at all. A small bit of blueberry was still hanging around, but there was no honey or other flavor, but it did have a noticeable amount of alcohol in it. Some small flavors came through which I assume came from the yeast.

I thought about all this and decided that I needed to bring more flavor to the party. I purchased 48oz. of honey, 32 oz. of an organic preservative free blueberry-pomegranate juice, and 1 gallon preservative free apple cider. This was all mixed together, cooled to around room temperature, and added to the fermenter. It took several days, but fermentation has restarted, albeit at a very slow pace. Then again, I am not in a hurry, I just want good booze.

My questions are as follows:

1. Did I do the right thing by adding more fermentables?
2. Does freshly fermented mead usually have a lot or a little bit of flavor, and does such flavor improve during ageing?

Thanks in advance for any help

Oskaar and WW, once again thank you for your comments. They really do help. To get you some of the information you asked for:

1. Because I am an idiot I keep on forgetting to buy a hydrometer, so I really dont know exactly what my starting gravity was. However, the GotMead gravity calculator showed my original gravity as 1.09. I promise to buy a hydrometer on my next run to the LHBS, probably next weekend.

2. I used some yeast nutrient when I first started this batch around a month ago. At that time I added 5 teaspoons of a product my LHBS sold me which was labeled as simply "Yeast Energizer", as the directions with this product said to add 1 teaspoon per gallon of must. I have not added any kind of energizer since then.

3. Finally, my original goal was a semi-sweet sparkling mead with a hint of blueberry.

I grabbed a sample from my fermenter this afternoon, and while I still have a slow steady fermentation going right now, the mead is noticably sweeter and has much more flavor. I think I am going to patiently let this batch run its course and see what flavor I have when the fermentation is finished. At that point I will either drop some campden tablets to kill the yeasts and backsweeten as needed or just saw what nature does when allowed to run its own course. I guess part of the joy of this hobby for a newless clueby like me is to experiment and see what happens. My friends all think I have gone crazy with my newest hobby, but I will show them, yes, I will show them. (If you could see me right now I am cackling evily as I hunch over my keyboard).

My final question, and then I will shut up, is what kind of flavor changes can I expect as this mead ages? Right now the only word I could use to describe this mead is harsh and yeasty with a nice level of sweetness. I know that is far from a scientific or objective description, but a general rundown of what will happen in the aging process will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the help.

I was thinking about carbonating half of the batch and leaving the other half still. However, I am really afraid of bottle bombs and not sure what to do to prime the bottles, but I think I will cross that bridge when I get there. I realize that campden tablets will remove the ability to make the mead sparking, so I probably should not use them if I want a sparkling mead.

Oskaar:

In your earlier post you stressed the importance of sufficient nutrients during fermentation to prevent the yeast from producing off flavors. I have to date used the recommended amount of nutrients according to the package of yeast nutrient my LHBS sold me.

My question this time around is whether I should add some raisins during this secondary fermentation to add extra nutrients and tannins? I have read some posts on here about adding raisins in the primary, but could not find anything about adding raisins in secondary. Any advise or comments would be appreciated.

Nate

Oskaar:

Thanks man, you are the best. Plan on buying a wine thief and a hydrometer this weekend (I will be in heaven if I can find one of those combo wine thief/hydrometer at my LHBS) and I will post my numbers just as soon as I can.

Thanks for all the help.

Nate