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Using Cherry Conc

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marauder211

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 18, 2015
19
1
3
Hi, it's been a while and i have finally found out how to ask the stupid questions on here.

I have recently found black cherry and sour cherry concentrates (100% purity) i think the name was Dynamic Labs or something along those lines.

I am making an 8 LTR batch of mead using 3lb of wildflower honey and 700g of morello cherry (whole). How much do you recommend of these concs should i use? I don't want to end up making an 8ltr batch and only end up with 5 because of excessive lees and pulp.

I have the yeast and nutrients sorted out.

Any help is massively appreciated. I may end up scaling the honey up if i don't get to the SG of 1.118.

The end finish will be a medium dry finish as i will backsweeten with wildflower honey.

Thank you.
 
S

Squatchy

Lifetime GotMead Patron
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Nov 3, 2014
5,542
261
83
Denver
So you're asking a question to us that we really aren't the ones to be able to answer that. It depends entirely on. How much fruit forward you want your meat to be. Some people like it with just a hint of fruit. While other people like fruit bomb that's really strong with fruit. And then you've got sweet cherries and tart cherries. And neither one none us know. Whether you want it to be tart or sweet. Lastly I think it'd be good if you ran your intentions past us with your protocols for everything that's way more important than Taking how much concentrate to use, and if it's concentrate, you shouldn't lose any of it to the Lee's other than what you would lose naturally making a traditional.
 
4give

4give

Honey Master
Registered Member
Jan 1, 2018
402
76
28
Montrose, CO
Hello - As Squatchy said, it's hard for us to tell you how much fruit to use. One thing I'm not clear on about your post is if you're asking to use the concentrates instead of the whole fruit, or in addition to the whole fruit. You can use both, and maybe even save some concentrate for tweaking flavors in secondary.
I've found that using the mesh bags (reusable ones on morewine.com work well) to hold some fermenting ingredients/fruit is helpful when it comes to that initial racking. It also has the benefit (IMO) of being able to remove most of the fruit flesh when I want to. For example, my ferment might go for 3 weeks, but I want to remove the fruit at 2 weeks, so I just take the bag out.
Obviously, a lot of ingredients are just too soft/mushy, and the bag can't hold some of the smaller particles from getting into the mead. I find the smaller bits sink to the bottom in the rough lees, and I have no issues racking off of them.
I hope this helps.
 
M

marauder211

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 18, 2015
19
1
3
Squatchy said:
So you're asking a question to us that we really aren't the ones to be able to answer that. It depends entirely on. How much fruit forward you want your meat to be. Some people like it with just a hint of fruit. While other people like fruit bomb that's really strong with fruit. And then you've got sweet cherries and tart cherries. And neither one none us know. Whether you want it to be tart or sweet. Lastly I think it'd be good if you ran your intentions past us with your protocols for everything that's way more important than Taking how much concentrate to use, and if it's concentrate, you shouldn't lose any of it to the Lee's other than what you would lose naturally making a traditional.
Click to expand...

Hi, so the thought i have at the moment is more of a cherry-forward mead (with cinnamon and clove. The tart cherry is going to be more to bring a small amount of acidity to the batch moreso than anything else, the black cherry is more for colour and sugar, the morellos are the main bulk of the flavour. All that is sorted in primary. I aim more for the middle ground of both and look to balance the flavours out as i don't want it overly tart or sweet. I hope this answers your question and i apologised if my first question isn't really descriptive enough, i'm not very good at it. I tend to look for generic amounts and add or take away based on those.
 
M

marauder211

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 18, 2015
19
1
3
4give said:
Hello - As Squatchy said, it's hard for us to tell you how much fruit to use. One thing I'm not clear on about your post is if you're asking to use the concentrates instead of the whole fruit, or in addition to the whole fruit. You can use both, and maybe even save some concentrate for tweaking flavors in secondary.
I've found that using the mesh bags (reusable ones on morewine.com work well) to hold some fermenting ingredients/fruit is helpful when it comes to that initial racking. It also has the benefit (IMO) of being able to remove most of the fruit flesh when I want to. For example, my ferment might go for 3 weeks, but I want to remove the fruit at 2 weeks, so I just take the bag out.
Obviously, a lot of ingredients are just too soft/mushy, and the bag can't hold some of the smaller particles from getting into the mead. I find the smaller bits sink to the bottom in the rough lees, and I have no issues racking off of them.
I hope this helps.
Click to expand...

Actually, i do plan on using whole morellos, that is where the main bulk of my flavour is, the issue is i lack storage for frozen fruits and this stuff is as close to whole fruit as i can get without buying loads. I need to get used to it since getting sour cherries in the UK that aren't mixed with other fruit is very expensive.
 
4give

4give

Honey Master
Registered Member
Jan 1, 2018
402
76
28
Montrose, CO
If I did my conversions correctly, I think you're going to need more honey to get to an SG of 1.118. You could probably go with more morello cherries if you want those to dominate - maybe a kilo or more.

Yeast, nutrients and must variables (SG, ABV, temps, etc.) all need to be considered.

If you don't have them, the following links may help.
https://gotmead.com/blog/making-mea...e-to-making-mead-appendix-6-abvbrixsg-charts/

https://scottlab.com/content/files/Documents/Handbooks/FermentationHandbook2019.pdf

https://www.meadmaderight.com/tosna.html
 
S

Squatchy

Lifetime GotMead Patron
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Nov 3, 2014
5,542
261
83
Denver
Make sure to consider the water in the fruit juice that will dilute your gravity. I would save some of everything you are going to use in this mead so that you can add more to tweek on the backside. I add everything organically. Meaning I don't even know how much I use. I add everything to taste.
 
M

marauder211

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 18, 2015
19
1
3
Thank you, i will keep that in mind. I just hope i end up with enough to get the flavour and colour i am looking for. I have finally found a place where i can get raw honey available to me which is amazing.
 
M

marauder211

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 18, 2015
19
1
3
4give said:
If I did my conversions correctly, I think you're going to need more honey to get to an SG of 1.118. You could probably go with more morello cherries if you want those to dominate - maybe a kilo or more.

Yeast, nutrients and must variables (SG, ABV, temps, etc.) all need to be considered.

If you don't have them, the following links may help.
https://gotmead.com/blog/making-mea...e-to-making-mead-appendix-6-abvbrixsg-charts/

https://scottlab.com/content/files/Documents/Handbooks/FermentationHandbook2019.pdf

https://www.meadmaderight.com/tosna.html
Click to expand...

I use the industry standard of staggered nutrients and rehydrating around 38c, i am considering getting another bag of morellos and adding more black cherry but i'll only know when i get there. As for the batch calculator i can not figure it out at all.
 
4give

4give

Honey Master
Registered Member
Jan 1, 2018
402
76
28
Montrose, CO
I'm not sure what you can't figure out about the calculator.

*You tell it that you are using liters, and put '8' in for batch size
*Select your nutrient
*Select which yeast you want from the list of values, and select either 'low', 'medium' or 'high' N requirement based on the yeast you're using if it's not listed
*input your SG values
*Input if you're going to be pitching more yeast than what's recommend using the override yeast pitch rate (e.g. maybe you only need a minimum of 2g of yeast, but you're going to pitch an entire 5g packet).
*It automatically calculates go-ferm and nutrients

I hope that helps.
 
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