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<\/a><\/figure>\nThis week I look at the \u201cNoble Fruits\u201d, a term coined by Ken Schramm to describe the fruits that work best in mead making. Many of the same characteristics that make these fruits desirable for mead, also apply to beers made with fruit.<\/p>\n
For the last 8 years, I have been focused on making high gravity fruit meads, called melomels. These meads use very high starting gravities, along with a large percentage of fruit or fruit juice to create an explosion of sweetness and fruit flavor in your mouth. These are not light session meads, but typically 15% ABV meads more akin to a dessert wine. I wrote a short intro on mead making here<\/a> as well as integrating mead into BeerSmith software<\/a> with version 3 (video here<\/a>). I also wrote a very detailed article on modern mead for BYO which you can find here<\/a>.<\/p>\n The King of this particular style is arguably world famous mead maker Ken Schramm of Schramm\u2019s Mead<\/a> near Detroit. Ken has been on the BeerSmith podcast a number of times including Episode 326<\/a>, Episode #289<\/a>, Episode #262<\/a>, and Episode #143<\/a>. Ken\u2019s focus for the last several years has been growing specific varieties of fruit at his orchard to determine which specific varieties of fruit work best in mead. I also consulted Ken regarding this article as he developed the \u201cnoble fruit\u201d concept.<\/p>\n At the last Homebrewcon in 2023, I attended a presentation that Ken gave that included his list of \u201cNoble Fruits\u201d. Noble fruits are simply the fruits that work best in the high gravity fruit meads Ken is famous for. Because both Ken and I feel it is best to ferment the fruits along with the honey during the main fermentation, these fruits need to have flavor character that will survive a high gravity fermentation.<\/p>\n The basic concept behind a high gravity melomel is to use a very high starting gravity along with selected yeasts that have a limited alcohol tolerance. In essence, we put too much honey in the mead so that the yeast really can\u2019t ferment it all out which leaves a high finishing gravity with residual sweetness. That sweetness complements the flavor from the big dose of fruit and provides balance as well as a complete fruity finish even though the simple sugars in the fruit were fermented away. Keep in mind for many of these meads I am using nearly equal volumes of honey and fruit, and starting gravities often in the 1.140 to 1.160 range!<\/p>\n The key characteristics a fruit must have to be fermented in this way is what a wine maker would call \u201cstructure\u201d. That structure comes in the form of acidity and tannins in the fruit that will remain even after the sugar in the fruit has fermented away. So we need fruits that are high in acidity and tannins to counterbalance the residual sweetness left from the honey to provide a balanced flavor. The final gravity is in fact targeted to provide the correct balance depending on how acidic and tannic the fruit is.<\/p>\n Ken added that the characteristics which combine to create an ideal fruit for meadmaking include:<\/p>\n I wrote Ken Schramm asking for his current list of Noble Fruits for mead making and here\u2019s the ones he provided. Many of these I have used in my own meads:<\/p>\n As I mentioned in the introduction, the acidic and tannic character of these fruits also make them ideal choices when used in beer. Fermentation removes the sweetness, but these fruits have the structure that allows a lot of their base flavor to survive. The goal with a beer is still to leave some residual sweetness either via careful malt selection and fermentation or through backweetening. This sweetness counterbalances the acidity and tannins from the fruit leaving a balanced overall flavor profile. With beers I typically use lower dosage levels of fruit, however, since its very difficult to achieve the residual sweetness levels you can with mead.<\/p>\n I hope you enjoyed this week\u2019s article on Noble Fruits and mead making. Thanks for joining me on the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog<\/a>. If you want to take the guesswork out of brewing, please try my BeerSmith recipe software from BeerSmith.com<\/a>. Be sure to sign up for my newsletter<\/a> or my podcast <\/a>(also on itunes<\/a> and youtube<\/a>) for more great tips on homebrewing.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\nThe Noble Fruit Character<\/h3>\n
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The Noble Fruits<\/h3>\n
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