[copachino]

hi, im tryiong to make my first melomel, and i have some doubt problems, i got my raspeberries for the melomel, but this ones are pretty hard to find in my country since they dont grow in here, so they are quite expensive i got only 2.5 pounds for a light raspberry melomel about 12% ABV, but when i bought the first batch a week ago i notice that some of the berries had some moldy white stuff on them so i toss them away i did the worse mistake, i used my food saver to seal the bag, the vacumm pressed the berries and made them liquid so if i missed some moldy raspberries it will be hard to tell, so i dont want to loose them nor i want to risk at use them the way they are, so how could sanitazed them?

i was thinking on unfrost them then toss them with some cheap vodka, for about 24 hour then freeze them again and when i put it on the must i can put some Potassium metabisulfide on the must wait the 24 hours then pitch the yeast, so, do you think i can save the raspberries or im doomed to lost this batch?,

they are quite expensive this 2.5 pounds cost about 70 USD while the gallon of raw honey cost me only 30 USD. so i wouldnt like to have an infection on the mead

[pete b]

You don’t need to worry about an infection with a 12% mead as long as long as you get he fermentation off to a good start so no need to sanitize the fruit.
The only thing I would be concerned about is that there was so much mold that it leaves an off taste. Thaw out the berries and tase them, if they don’t taste moldy your good. I pick raspberries all the time and often get a bit of mold as they often get moldy because they are so moist. I find that if I pick out more led ones they don’t effect the rest.
I think you will be fine.
You can make mead out of all sorts of fruit, I would suggest specializing in meads you can make from more readily available ingredients so you don’t need to pay so much.

[copachino]

I tasted them and they are like normal raspeberries and i donr believe that there are many moldy ones  maybe im just a bit paranoic about, i will try this weekemd and he how it goes.

And im judt trying to figure out the taste of raspberries mead, i believe i will never use them again since black berries in here cost pennies per pound

[pete b]

Blackberries make a very nice mead. So do blueberries and elderberries. One of my favorites is mixed berry which we usually do with blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, and elderberries, but you could leave out raspberries.

[joe_meadmaker]

What is your batch size?  Another option is to wait until fermentation is done.  Then you can stabilize the mead (or wait a long time) and add your fruit along with a sulfite.  This will aid in protecting the mead (although as pete b mention, at 12% there's not a lot of concern), and get you the most flavor because the yeast won't eat up the fruit sugars.  You can just freeze your raspberries until it's time to add them.  When doing fruit meads, I always wait until fermentation is done before adding fruit.