Bradinator

Recipes 

Hey all,

I never considered making Mead before, but after reading some of the recipes it seemed simpler then beer so I figured I would give it a shot. I used the recipe very similar to MAOM, with a couple minor differences:

Heres the recipe:

1.5kg (approx 3.5 lbs) of pasteurized honey from Costco
1 Orange, peeled and diced (I could not get organic so I did not want to put the peels in).
1 handful of raisins
1 Stick of Cinnamon
1 Clove
1 packet of Coopers Ale yeast (They had no Mead yeast available)

Dissolved the honey in 3L of water @ 75F, tossed in the orange, raisins, clove and cinnamon and let it steep for about 15 minutes. Cooled it in a water bath to about room temperature and moved it to the fermentor leaving the orange, raisins, etc in it and pitched my yeast dry. I gave it a shake, closed it up and placed it into my basement.

Within about an hour it was fermenting and it looks like some gunk came up into the tube due to how full it was. Should I clean this tube out? It does not seem to be blocking airflow but I am worried it may become a place for infection later. Any thoughts?

Thanks

Keepounding

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I guess it's a blow off tube your talking about.
I wouldn't worry about it as long as the end of the tube is under water. it'll be fine.

Bradinator

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Yes it is (sorry I did not know the name for it). I have it submerged in a bottle of water so I guess all that is left is 3 months of patience.

Brandon O

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i have done something similar, it's really good.

Bradinator

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That is really good to hear Brandon! I was not sure if this would turn out or not.

How long did you keep it in the fermentor before racking it if you don't mind me asking?

JarrodH

Recipes 

I am going to try to keep my 1 gallon test batch of MOAM bulk aging for at least 4-6 months.

etp777

Recipes 

One of my first batches of mead, and the only one that's made it into the bottle so far, was a batch of Malkore's not so ancient orange mead. Stuff is great. And makes a wonderful marinade for grilled chicken breast.

malkore

Recipes 

my only comment is that the cooper's ale yeast may not attenuate enough with 3.5lbs of honey. That's a lot of sugar...you're likely gonna stop fermenting in the 1.030's which is gonna leave an overly sweet mead that you likely won't find very drinkable.

let it play out though..and if that happens you can always pitch a stronger yeast, but you'll need a starter to keep the yeast from being shocked.

i have no idea what strain cooper's uses or its attenuation, but i've had a cooper's stout crap out on me way too early, so I don't put much stock in their yeast and higher ABV.

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Malkore
Primary: English Mild
On tap: Pale Ale, Lancelot's Wheat, English Brown Ale, Steam Beer, HoovNuts IPA
Bottled: MOAM, Braggot, Raspberry Melomel, Merlot, Apfelwein, Pyment, Sweet mead, Cabernet
Gal in 2009: 27, Gal in 2010: 34, Gal in 2011: 13, Gal in 2012: 10

blackwaterbrewer

Recipes 

i use an open fermentation for the first few days when making mead. you need to "skim the scum that riseth"

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Primary- stout
Lagering-
Primary-OKTOBERFEST
secondary-
secondary-
on tap-
on tap-
on tap-
bottle-sweet mead
bottle-bleuberry mead

Bradinator

Recipes 

Thanks for the pointers Malkore.

I have another packet of Champagne yeast sitting in my fridge just in case I need it. Would you recommend tossing it in now to be safe or is that risky mixing yeasts like that? I can certainly wait and keep checking the gravity to see if it stops changing then pitch it.

Also, what do you recommend for a starter for meads if it comes down to that?