3 gallons of sweet black cherry

[cooknhogz]

Getting ready to rack 5 gallons mead I started a month ago. Stopped into Wally World for a few things and seen frozen pitted sweet black cherrys in a 2 lb bag so I bought 2 bags 4 lbs total. Think that will be enough for a little flavor in a 3 Gallon Carboy? Just wanted to try something different. Thanks

 

[GreenEnvy22]

Last year I made a sweet cherry wine, also 3 gallons. I used 13lbs of cherries. To that I added about 1/2 gallon cherry juice, and 1.5 gallons water, and 4lbs sugar.
Turned out really well, I'd made it again. It's about 12% alcohol.

With just 4 lbs of cherries if you just use water I think you'll get a pretty watered down flavoured wine in the end.

 

[BernardSmith]

I think there is also a danger with sweet cherries that your mead may remind you more of cough medicine than a mead. Any phenols that your yeast produce will resonate with you with those cherries as medicine. You need to make sure that the mead finishes somewhat acidic (high alcohol and low acidic tends to taste like medicine). I would suggest using tart cherries rather than sweet but the problem is the acidity (in my opinion)...

 

[cooknhogz]

Right now the alcohol content is probably going to be very high in this Mead I believe because, I started with 18 lbs of honey in a 5 Gallon Carboy and pitched a champagne yeast. I will check the alcohol level when I rack later today. This was more like an experiment with that amount of honey, the jugs were 6 lbs each so I just use it all.