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When to remove berries because of astringency

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Need for Mead

NewBee
Registered Member
Jan 11, 2018
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I'm making a melomel with European blueberries, and it's quite astringent now - my mouth felt dry for several minutes, actually. It's hard to know what to aim for, as I'm guessign the astringency will mellow with aging. How do you judge this? Of course, you need the recipe... I started three similar 1,5 gal batches of mead, and added blueberries to two before 1/3 sugar break.

They all had gravity of 1100, 2g/gal DV10 rehydrated according to GoFerm protocol, oxygenation at pitch, aeration at 12 h and oxygenation at 26 h. Made a measuring error and gave too little nutrients at end of lag phase, but continued with SNAs 12 hours after that mistake. Must temp at 20 C, sometimes dipping to 19 C, agitating the mead twice daily.

At gravity 1065 I added the blueberries 1:2 w:v, diluting the must a bit. Probably due to high benzoic acid content, the fermentation stalled a day or two at gravity 1055, but started up again. It has now gone down to 1045 in one day. The blueberries have been in for 4-5 days. I didn't notice any astringency at earlier tastings, so perhaps the greatly increased yeast activity has helped pull out the astringent substances. Should I remove the berries now, or keep calm?

The mead batch is a week in at gravity 1040 and tastes hot of fusels after initially producing pleasant esters of apple, pear and peach. It does not have any astringency.
 

Squatchy

Lifetime GotMead Patron
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Nov 3, 2014
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When would you pull your finger out of a fire? Pull the fruit once it gets to where you want it to stop. Tannins, and/or astringency usually very rarely lose ground over time.
 

Need for Mead

NewBee
Registered Member
Jan 11, 2018
57
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Ha ha, I learnt something new about blueberries there. I'll be tanning from the inside this summer.

In wine tannins bind to each other over time, giving longer, more mellow tannins. Depending on the starting point, this can take years, of course. However reactions in aging wine and mead are complex, and they may well be different. Happily, the benzoic acid in the blueberries will allow for long aging.

I'll remove the berries right away.
 
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