first mead

**Aschecte** · 12-12-2011, 01:02 PM

I have brewed beer for sometime now and have brewed apfelwein but have never made a mead. I was hoping for some pointers such as the boil or no boil dilema , nutrients, campden and how to use it etc. also, take a look at this basic mead i have put together and please let me know if I'm the right tack or competely off base. Thanks in advance for all the help. p.s. disregard the carb profile and stageing.

basic mead
Semi-Sweet Mead
Type: Extract Date: 12/12/2011
Batch Size (fermenter): 1.00 gal Brewer: Aaron Schecter
Boil Size: 1.89 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 20 min Equipment: Aaron's MLT
End of Boil Volume 1.56 gal Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 0.50 gal Est Mash Efficiency 0.0 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage Taste Rating(out of 50): 30.0
Taste Notes:
Ingredients

Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
3 lbs Honey (1.0 SRM) Sugar 5 75.0 %
1.0 pkg Lalvin EC-1118 (Lallemand - Lalvin #EC-1118) [23.66 ml] Yeast 2 -
1 lbs Fruit - Orange (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 4 25.0 %
25.00 Items Raisins (Boil 0.0 mins) Spice 1 -
0.20 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Primary 3.0 days) Other 3 -

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.104 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.104 SG
Est Final Gravity: 0.977 SG Measured Final Gravity: 0.988 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 17.0 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 15.5 %
Bitterness: 0.0 IBUs Calories: 351.4 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 2.4 SRM
Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out Total Grain Weight: 4 lbs
Sparge Water: 1.70 gal Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F Tun Temperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE Mash PH: 5.20

Sparge Step: Remove grains, and prepare to boil wort
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).
Carbonation and Storage

Carbonation Type: Bottle Volumes of CO2: 2.3
Pressure/Weight: 0.39 oz Carbonation Used: Bottle with 0.39 oz Corn Sugar
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 70.0 F Age for: 30.00 days
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage Storage Temperature: 65.0 F
Notes

Created with BeerSmith

**Aschecte** · 12-12-2011, 02:03 PM

actually after reading throgh this beersmith also disregard mash , water volumes etc. The pertinent info is the ingriedients and the gravities. sorry for all the clutter.

Matrix4b · 12-12-2011, 02:40 PM

Ok, some things first:

Mead: No boil. Treat the honey much like an extract brewing. Just mix it with the water, warm the water up enough to melt the honey. All in all Mead is much simpler.

Basic process: Mix honey with warm water, fully disperse the honey in the water, mix in some yeast nutrient and yeast energizer, then rehydrate the yeast. Once it is hydrated, check temp of mix, if under 98 degres or so (pending on yeast temp tollerance) toss yeast in, stir a bit to get air into mixture, then put in your fermentation vessle with airlock. In about 2-5 weeks the fermentation will have slowed down to maybe one bubble a minute, rack off of the lees, Then just wait till gravity and time takes it's due and the mead is readable through. Possible 4-6 months. Then rack off of the lees again and either bottle and bulk age for 6 months to a year. After aging the mead will be ready to drink. I don't really do less than a 5 gal batch. Makes it easier to wait the year for aging. 3 pounds of honey per gal is a good start, 4 pounds will make a sweet mead.

The rasins in your mix do serve as yeast nutrients. I prefer to have the nutrient in a powder form and I add DAP for yeast energizer.

That's the simple process. Once you have your first batch done, then you can do fruit or spices, and step nutrients and other more involved techniques if you wish.

Mead is to be treated a bit more like wine than beer. Doing any sort of boil will lessen the final quality of the product. Also, it is best if you go with raw honey, from an apiary or other source, never from the grocery store. Varietial honeys will also make for different and subtle flavors.

Simple to learn but longer to master.

Hope I didnt drone on for you.

Matrix

**Aschecte** · 12-12-2011, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matrix4b

Ok, some things first:

Mead: No boil. Treat the honey much like an extract brewing. Just mix it with the water, warm the water up enough to melt the honey. All in all Mead is much simpler.

Basic process: Mix honey with warm water, fully disperse the honey in the water, mix in some yeast nutrient and yeast energizer, then rehydrate the yeast. Once it is hydrated, check temp of mix, if under 98 degres or so (pending on yeast temp tollerance) toss yeast in, stir a bit to get air into mixture, then put in your fermentation vessle with airlock. In about 2-5 weeks the fermentation will have slowed down to maybe one bubble a minute, rack off of the lees, Then just wait till gravity and time takes it's due and the mead is readable through. Possible 4-6 months. Then rack off of the lees again and either bottle and bulk age for 6 months to a year. After aging the mead will be ready to drink. I don't really do less than a 5 gal batch. Makes it easier to wait the year for aging. 3 pounds of honey per gal is a good start, 4 pounds will make a sweet mead.

The rasins in your mix do serve as yeast nutrients. I prefer to have the nutrient in a powder form and I add DAP for yeast energizer.

That's the simple process. Once you have your first batch done, then you can do fruit or spices, and step nutrients and other more involved techniques if you wish.

Mead is to be treated a bit more like wine than beer. Doing any sort of boil will lessen the final quality of the product. Also, it is best if you go with raw honey, from an apiary or other source, never from the grocery store. Varietial honeys will also make for different and subtle flavors.

Simple to learn but longer to master.

Hope I didnt drone on for you.

Matrix

Thank you for the thorough info ! The only question that arises to my inexpierenced mind is sanitization and bacteria. If there is no boil or even pasteurization wouldnt there be a concern about wild yeast or bacteria like bottulism spores surviving and thriving ? I assume i would still sanitize the Carboy spoons hydrometer just like with beer but it seems like it could potentially be contaminated by the must itself. I'm probably wrong as I see lots of people doing no boil but it's hard as a beer guy to wrap my head around.

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BryanThompson · 12-12-2011, 05:46 PM

Being a brewer myself I had a hard time letting the no boil thing go but it has worked fine for me. Don't worry about it.

lsmith47 · 12-12-2011, 11:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aschecte

Thank you for the thorough info ! The only question that arises to my inexpierenced mind is sanitization and bacteria. If there is no boil or even pasteurization wouldnt there be a concern about wild yeast or bacteria like bottulism spores surviving and thriving ? I assume i would still sanitize the Carboy spoons hydrometer just like with beer but it seems like it could potentially be contaminated by the must itself. I'm probably wrong as I see lots of people doing no boil but it's hard as a beer guy to wrap my head around.

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Honey has natural antibiotic properties, so don't worry so much about your honey contaminating the must. As long as you properly sanitize everything else (as best as you can at least) you shouldn't have much to worry about.

Bugeaud · 12-13-2011, 12:46 AM

You CAN boil it if you're so concerned but it's not recommended as it can greatly alter the flavour of the honey, specifically delicate flavors such as in honey's like wildflower and buckwheat honey the background flavour is very subtle and you will most likely ruin these flavours and would have might as well of bought crap honey.

**Aschecte** · 12-13-2011, 01:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bugeaud

You CAN boil it if you're so concerned but it's not recommended as it can greatly alter the flavour of the honey, specifically delicate flavors such as in honey's like wildflower and buckwheat honey the background flavour is very subtle and you will most likely ruin these flavours and would have might as well of bought crap honey.

Ok I won't boil ...... I wasn't nesarilly going to I was only stating as a brewer of beer I found it hard to comprehend not boiling but that's why I asked because I trust my fellow hbt members. And I would never just as well buy crap ( as a side note)

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Matrix4b · 12-13-2011, 04:08 PM

The others have sufficiently covered why bacteria and wild yeasts aren't a problem. The already antiseptic quality of honey. The only thing that I would add here is what I learned about the wild yeast consern.

Wild yeast can ferment honey but the yeasts you put in will more than likely out compete the wild yeasts. They tend to be weaker strains anyway. Lavin D-47 is known to be a very stong and clean yeast that vastly out compeates any wild yeast. Some more "Traditional" type of brewers do brew the honey only with the wild yeasts in it. Takes longer and is more iffy but not impossible. Infact it has been theroized that the storage of honey and water in a skin is how Mead was frist made. Without those wild yeasts there wouldn't have been a mead.

Personally, I have never had an infection of bacteria. Just fermentation. The reason why is that I am adamant on sanitizing my tools prior to use. Not just clean but sainitize. Every brewer should. I am sure you do yourself.

No with fruits, I don't sanitize the fruit but then again I mostly put the fruit in juice form in the secondary. By the time the secondary comes around, I usually have 7-10% ABV so the small number of bacteria and the like in the fruit isn't a consern, it gets killed by the near 10% ABV alcohol mixture. Some prefer to use a campden tablet or two in the Must or in Fruit and then let it sit for a day for the campden to do it's job. I prefer not and I haven't had a problem.

Hope you are successful too.

Matrix

**fatbloke** · 12-13-2011, 05:56 PM

Well I pretty much agree with most of what Matrix4b has already mentioned.

It would seem that the OP, having had experience with Beers, needs to forget a lot of that as mead methods can see like heresy. It's not, it's just that as has already been said, meads generally have more in common with wine making that with beer.

Plus, while a lot of mead makers seem to like D47, I'm not so keen as I don't have any way of managing temperature control apart from the most basic i.e. if it's cold a brew belt..... Whereas D47 is an example of a yeast that will good, does carry a caveat - ferment it below 70F/21C otherwise it can generate a lot of fusels...

Myself, I prefer K1-V1116 or D21, especially for traditionals.....

Apart from that, here's your link for an informative read and it answers pretty much most questions that a new mead maker might have.....