My first mead

[Okie Parrish]

So I'm making mead for the first timestarted out with a 3 gallons in primary starting SG was 1.120 everything seems to be going smoothly I let it ferment in primary bucket tell it got down to 1.030 and racked it into 3 1gal jugs for secondary I added 2lbs og BlackBerry's to 1 gallon, 2lb of strawberry to another, and left the 3rd traditional....as expected the sugar from the fruit boosted fermentation activity....my question is how long to leave the fruit before rackicking to remove the fruit do you remove it when fermentation isfinished, or should I leave it and let it age with the fruit, or does it need to be removed after a certain amount of time like Iremember my strawberry wine last year Ihad to take it off the fruit after a week sothe seeds wouldnt start breaking down

 

[Zephyr259]

I'd probably leave it until fermentation subsides again then rack and top off. Good luck with the mead, I've been trying to get a decent batch going but they either stall or taste terrible. I finally got my last batch down to a decent FG and it's maturing now.