First Mead (TJ's Mesquite Sticky Recipe)

armorshell · 01-10-2009, 05:57 PM

Followed the sticky recipe to the letter, scaling it down to make a 2.5 gallon batch.

Pretty new to brewing anything (as you can see by the first post), but the girlfriend got me a full setup for Christmas and I've always been interested.

Not too much in the way of bubbling yet, so I'll update in a couple of hours? When does the mold usually start bubbling furiously?

Recipe:
6 pounds TJ's mesquite honey
6 L filtered water
5g RedStar Cuvee Yeast rehydrated in GoFerm
Staggered nutrient addition schedule per sticky
OG - 1.096

armorshell · 01-10-2009, 07:34 PM

Just added the first supplemental nutrient addition. SG dropped to 1.042 since ~8 PM last night and the must bubbled like crazy when I de-gassed it so I guess it's working alright.

**Yooper** · 01-10-2009, 07:43 PM

You degassed it? Or you stirred it?
Just trying to understand what you're saying!

armorshell · 01-10-2009, 09:05 PM

Sorry I though vigorously stirring and degassing were along the same lines. Either way I stirred the living heck out of it after adding in the nutrients and I got a whole bunch of CO2 out.

**Yooper** · 01-10-2009, 09:20 PM

Ok, I gotcha now!

Usually, "degassing" is done with wines that have trapped co2 in them after fermentation is done. Sometimes the co2 all gradually disapates and bottling can proceed, but sometimes the co2 is "stuck" there and needs to be removed before bottling so that you don't have a carbonated wine. It's more commonly done with kit wines, but I've seen it necessary in other wines occasionally.

That's why I was confused- it's still fermenting, so the co2 should still be in there and forming. After a year or two, if the co2 is still in there, it might need to be degassed!

Let us know how the recipe turns out for you.

armorshell · 01-17-2009, 03:42 PM

Well, I thought it was dead all week because I wasn't getting any movement out of the airlock, but I checked it last night and the OG is at 1.040 (The first SG I took of 1.042 was bogus, no idea how I got that, the next time I checked it was around 1.87)

Anyway, it's coming along well. I put a new lid on and it started bubbling away shortly after. I suspect it wasn't bubbling because there's too much headroom (2 gallon batch in a 6.5 gallon bucket.)

Any tips? Advice? I've toyed with the idea of racking it onto a very small amount of mesquite chips in secondary but I really have no idea how that would turn out.

flyweed · 01-17-2009, 06:09 PM

I assume you have this in a fermentation bucket, as opposed to a clear glass carboy?? Just let it go until it starts to clear...then you can rack into a secondary and onto any additions you so choose.

Since you are doing a Staggered Nutrient addition, are you doing those at the 2/3 and 1/3 sugar breaks..or??????

Dan

armorshell · 01-31-2009, 03:20 AM

Racked from the bucket to a carboy, still a slight haze but I'm going to let it sit there until it clears. Tasted some and it's absolutely delicious, only a slight hint of rocket fuel on the back of my throat and a strong, dry floral honey flavor. FG .996 for a calculated 14% ABV.