First attempt basic mead...

First attempt basic mead...

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Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Champagne
Batch Size (Gallons): 6
Original Gravity: 1.110
Final Gravity: -
Boiling Time (Minutes): 30
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): -
Tasting Notes: -




Long time lurker, first time poster... On 8/31/2010 started my first basic mead:
5 gallons water (2 gallon boil 30 mins)
~16-17 lbs Honey
2 tsp. gypsum
3 tsp. yeast nutrient (thiamin, vit. B, pasturized yeast cells)
5 tps. Diammonium Phosphate
Package Dry Champagne Yeast

So I ended up getting champagne yeast because the LHBS didn't have a mead specific yeast at the time. Probably should have waited for some but wanted to get this stuff bubblin' asap. Since I used champagne yeast will this cause my mead to...
1.) have off flavors (no flavorings added so far, may flavor half in secondary)
2.) take longer to ferment and flocculate
3.) be overly dry...

My biggest concern is that this mead may turn out too dry, I don't necessarily want a sweet mead, but I would like a mead that is drinkable. Does anyone know if this is going to be too dry? Should I feed it more Honey over time or will this just cause the fermentation time to be that much longer?

First off, we like to only have recipes in the database that are tried and true, so hopefully a mod will move this to the recipe/ingredients or mead section...

Per your questions:

1) Nope. People tend to use wine/champagne yeast frequently for meads

2) With your added nutrients, it shouldn't take longer than a couple months (at most) to completely ferment

3) with an OG of 1.100, you'll likely get down to at least 1.000, maybe lower; so yeah, without some stabliziing and backsweetening, you're likely going to have a dry mead.

A lil' update... Racked this mead today (10/4/2010) after 34 days in a plastic primary. There wasn't much for 'trub' at the bottom of the bucket afterward, but boy is this mead a sweet golden honey color. Took a hydrometer reading of 1.000 SG, so it must be all but there... The mead is now in a glass carboy and is going to sit there for at least a month.

right after going into glass carboy secondary

With a start gravity of 1.110 and taking finished as 1.000, a 110 point drop is 14.9% ABV - if it gets down to 0.990, then the 120 point drop is 16.3% ABV

Champagne yeast will typically ferment to 18% so it's quite possible that it will ferment dry.

I'd suggest that your best method to handle this would be to let it finish, then stabilise it with sorbate and sulphite (after you've racked it off the sediment), then using a mix of honey and water (the honey that you've used to make it in the first place is probably good to use - keeps more of the original flavouring) - that's 50/50 honey water and then add it back in to raise the gravity back to about 1.010 for a medium level of sweetness.

Then start the clearing regime.

I suggest to do it this way, because you will find that back sweetening with honey, while desirable, can be a PITA as it can cause a clear mead to haze. If the back sweetening is done before the clearing, the other material that's still in suspension helps to drop any honey haze out of the mead naturally. It might also prevent the need to use chemical clearing agents etc.....

You don't mention whether it was just "store bought" (by that, you can take it to mean "unremarkable", blended, filtered, pasteurised, etc etc) honey, or whether you got some decent "varietal" honey to try.

Rule of thumb..... the better the honey, the better the mead...

regards

fatbloke

So 146 days later... Racked this mead into a keg today. It was my first experience racking into a keg, and a good one.
The mead has sat in glass secondary at ~65 F for 112 days (16 weeks). I took another standard gravity measurement and it was still at 1.000.



It has a very light faint color. It is dry, yes, but has a nice sweet floral flavor trying to come out. I think it may be too dry for true enjoyment. I plan to back sweeten, but am not quite sure how. That being said I would like to wind up around the 1.010-1.015 range. I'm guessing just under 2 lbs. of honey will do, and yes it is the same honey used for ferment.

This is going to be the first time I back sweeten. I've picked up potassium metabisulfite and Sorbistat-K (potassium sorbate/sorbic acid). Do I need both or do I just use the sorbistat-K to make sure the yeast doesn't ferment the honey I plan on adding...

Yup, noob.

Also, do I need to wait a day or so before adding more honey to back sweeten?

fatbloke -
The honey is from the apiary in Arlee, Montana. It may be wildflower honey but not positive. I do know for 100% sure it is not clover honey.

So I flip flopped for quite awhile trying to figure out whether or not to back sweeten this mead. I ended up not doing anything to it other than hoping some more time would do it justice. When I tasted it going into the keg last month it had a very strong yeasty nose. First taste impression was very dry with an overly champagne yeast flavor masking a hint of floral sweetness. The hint of floral was then immediately overrun by a burning alcohol aftertaste. Thus I figured I would have to back sweeten...

Well, something magical has happened in the last month... this mead is fan-freaking-tastic. I sampled some yesterday and couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised.

Tasting impressions...
No longer a strong yeast nose but a very distinct but light honey aroma
Still dry but not overwhelmingly so, there is an increased floral and slight citrus/orange zest flavor that has come out, the sweetness of the honey has started to show through. It finishes with a dulled and round alcohol flavor followed by a faint aftertaste of honey, and leaves your mouth begging for another drink...


I am going to try to let this bulk age longer as I now believe more time will increase floral, citrus, and other sweet and appealing flavors while decreasing the dryness and alcohol burn. That might be hard tho because last night my tasting glass turned into a pint glass full...