Kumquats!!! making my first mead with em'

While I was eating my sunday morning bagel and drinking a cup of Joe at the neighborhood cafe with SWMBO. a crazy lady wandered by (Maui is full of weirdos) who insisted i try a kumquat -as she was carrying a a butt ton of the things in a box (had to have been 30 pounds...)
she was intent on leaving this box of kumquats at the cafe so that folks could help themseves to them - after eating one... i was struck with a brilliant idea. This could be the caytlyst to making my first mead (which I have been contemplating) so I took 10 pounds of them home (all but a pound went into the deep freeze for later -should this recipe actually work I may make a 5 gallon batch later.
I stoped at the store and obtained a gallon of distilled water, a 2.5 pound jar of clover honey, a 1 pound jar of local Ohi'a Lihua blossom honey (lol... dare you to find THAT on the mainland)

and set about making a brew -
probably did this ALL wrong but the activity at the airlock 2 hours later says I'm getting fermentation - so if i made mistakes they were minor. and the power of the yeastie beasties rules all.

I ran out of camden tabs - since a new supply would be a week out (and I rarely use them anyway... in favor of a a bleach solution soak and a hot filtered water rinse for my equipment (which wouldn't work on fruit) since I mainly work with sealed pastureized juices and frozen fruits, I figgured I'd need to do something to treat the fresh fruit - so I boiled some filtered water and dunked them in that (briefly... not long enough to actually cook them - only long enough to - hopefully - kill anything on the skins)
meanwhile I heated up 1/2 a gallon of distilled water to 140 -50 and dumped in 3 pounds of honey, 2 pounds of the clover and the 1 pound of Lihua I set this aside to cool, Added 1 tbs yeast nutrient to my 1 gallon glass jug, squished and added 14 kumquats, added the honey/water solution when it had hit 100 degrees topped the it off to 1 gallon with the distilled water, then shook the hell out of it. to this I pitched one of my two remaining Lavlin EC-1118 packets, which seems to be quite happy in there as while I'm typing this 2 hours later - it's actually already bubbling 3+ times a minute.
I still down't own a Hydrometer - so no gravity readings... one of these days. the outfit I order online from for supplies won't ship glass via USPS priority mail (which is the only cheap + relitively quick way to get stuff to Hawaii)
is there such a thing as a plastic Hydrometer?!

so Mead misters... How bad did I screw this up? what did I forget? and dispite whatever mistakes I made... will this stuff actually be drinkable someday?

Looks great the only thing you made need is some pectic enzyme since you boiled the fruit even for a few seconds it could still be a pain to get it to clear. I wouldnt worry about campden at least till you rack it. Wild yeast have a hard time dealing with honey and any that could the lavlin would beat out.

Well, as you said, you didn't do anything too far wrong. You've got an active fermentation!

Two things I'd do -- first get some pectic enzyme ASAP and add it to the must. The sooner the better, since ethanol interferes with the action of the enzymes so you'll want it in there to reduce the chances of a pectic haze right away.

Second, get some more yeast nutrient (like Fermaid-K) and add it over the course of the first 1/3 of fermentation or so. I don't know what nutrient you added up front, but even that designed specifically for wine will often not supply enough nitrogen for a clean mead fermentation. Nitrogen starvation of the yeast could result in lots of H2S production. You don't want this otherwise excellent recipe to start smelling like rotten eggs -- or even worse, like spoiled cabbage once the sulfide starts to turn to mercaptans. Nutrients will prevent that from happening. If you need more quantitative info, read Hightest's sticky in the mead forum, and go to his website and read his FAQs.

this stuff is still going like a bat out of hell and SMELLS like a nectar of the gods....
I'm going to have to risk a pectin Haze (I don't care if it's not crystal clear - don't have any pectic enzime and it'll be a week before I could get some -and with the speed that EC-1118 goes - the real fermentation will be over)
besides - only the seeds contain pectin (which did not get brought to boiling when I sterilized the peels)

I did add an additional teaspoon Of yeast nutrient yesterday.

we shall see how it continues to go... if the smell is any indication - I'm gonna love this stuff...

Snuffalupagus - That sounds like it will be a tasty mead, just remember to give it a good amount of time to ferment, then mellow.
A friend of mine runs the homebrew shop on Oahu, if you ever come over you can check out what he has. Basically everything you would need except he only has pellet hops.
Best of luck, I don't know if I have ever had a kumquat, think I need to try one.

sounds yummy.
Will be hitting my produce vendor for kumquats next week.

if you want to you can improvise some pectic enzyme from the inner peal of a papaya, or so I'm told. Maybe someone else knows some specifics.

Sounds like a great mead.

Kauai_Kahuna said:

Snuffalupagus - That sounds like it will be a tasty mead, just remember to give it a good amount of time to ferment, then mellow.
A friend of mine runs the homebrew shop on Oahu, if you ever come over you can check out what he has. Basically everything you would need except he only has pellet hops.
Best of luck, I don't know if I have ever had a kumquat, think I need to try one.

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a Kumquat tastes kinda like a sour orange inside - the SKIN is where the sweetness is - it's the best part. There is a Kumquat tree across the street from me... I'm thinking of doing a "midnight raid" on it next time it fruits. Also... I noticed a prickly pear cactus that had fruit on it a few blocks away... might raid that somtime soon too.

got a phone # for this Hombrew buddy of yours? maybe I get him to sell me a Hydrometer over the phone and send it in a small USPS flatrate box...

Maholo!

on another note - you ever try making anything interesting with Pineapple?
I'm thinking of making a "civilized" Pineapple Swipe

Homebrew in Paradise
2646B Kilihau Street.
Honolulu, HI 96819
808-834-2739
You might want to buy 2, and grab some yeast nutrients, peptic enzyme, etc to make the UPS cost worth while.
I just bought a backup hydrometer last time I picked up a recipe, I tend to break them often.

Kauai_Kahuna said:

Homebrew in Paradise
2646B Kilihau Street.
Honolulu, HI 96819
808-834-2739
You might want to buy 2, and grab some yeast nutrients, peptic enzyme, etc to make the UPS cost worth while.
I just bought a backup hydrometer last time I picked up a recipe, I tend to break them often.

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THX...

If you ever get to the south side of maui - let me know I'll toss a pint of Apfelwein in the freezer and get it cold for for ya' it'll knock you on your Okole!

Thanks, I have a few bottles of Apfelwein and "brain dead" ciders also. Matter of fact I got strong cider on tap right now and time for a refill. (working nights now so drinking at 8 AM is kind of new to me.)
I don't get to Maui often, I grew up the only blonde, blue eyed kid on the west side of Kauai, so if I'm island hopping it is back there to see family.
Smithy is good guy, his only problem is still getting hops in quantities needed, so he is still restricting their selling only when someone buys supplies for a full batch. IE, extract or grains.
He has a good supply of white labs yeast, and he just got some safale (sp?) in. I got to try those.
Best of luck.

racked this to secondary this evening.
the EC-1118 went like hell as usual - the mead had started to clear quite a bit, so I racked to secondary to get it off the fruit I took the opertunity to sample about 2 ounces. For a young (and far from finished) product - it's pretty dang tasty as is - needs a bit of time to mellow the citrus bite of the Kumquats, and the heat from the alchohol (it's up there) surprised at how much residual sweetness was left behind by the EC-1118 it's still pretty dry, but not as dry as apple beverages I've made with it.

so mead misters - what do you do to take up headspace in a mead after racking? (I lost I would guess a pint and a half)

it's not urgent as i put in a Co2 blanket into the bottle prior to racking and again after - but I don't like the headspace I've got.

Water, must, a "similar" wine (hard for this one), or if its only a pint, you could use sanitize marbles since the glass is inert.

update:


it's looking good and clearing nicely

still a long way from bottling day on this... Think I'll do a couple carbed 750 mls
and a couple still 750 mls

anyone know what i need for sugar to carb a 750 ml champangne bottle in terms of teaspoons (or fractions thereof) of priming sugar?

I use 1 tsp per 355 ml or 3/4 of a tsp for beer. So...2 tsp or 1 1/2 tsp.

Ive also done 1/2 a tsp per 355(1tsp per 750ml) but the lighter beers need more carbonation. Might be ok with a mead though.



-Nick

nallanrex said:

I use 1 tsp per 355 ml or 3/4 of a tsp for beer. So...2 tsp or 1 1/2 tsp.

Ive also done 1/2 a tsp per 355(1tsp per 750ml) but the lighter beers need more carbonation. Might be ok with a mead though.



-Nick

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I Thank you, sir

update:

after racking I topped up with 1.5 pints of spring water.
the mead cleared to the point of being able to read fine print through it.

so I bottled it on the 26th.

yeild for the one gallon batch:
2 750ml wine bottles bottled still.
2 750ml swing top champange bottles primed for carbonation.
2 350 champange splits bottled still.
and 2 four ounce "test" glasses consumed while bottling for quality assurance reasons.

It's really good!! a few more months of age should really bring it out into it's own. I've gone and created a recipie I will definitely reccomend to anyone looking for an easy, basic fruit mead. and I managed to do it first time out for a mead it's off dry - a beautiful pale straw color (kinda like a Savion blanc) and full of interesting flavors - the kumquat flavor is very subtle, as I put them in primary - I wouldn't want any more kumquat in this, so I'd avoid adding more fruit at racking if you follow in my footsteps.
the ABV is pretty good - caught a bit of a buzz from the 8 ounces I drank while it was bottled. SWMBO says "it should be served lightly chilled" and I agree - IMHO it would make an excellent accompanyment to Thai or Japanese food I think.

I'm definitely thinking of doing a 5 gallon batch of this in the near future...

How bout showing off a pic?!

travestyofnature said:

How bout showing off a pic?!

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maybe after I crack a bottle after a little more age...

In retrospect I should have taken a pic of one of the full test glasses.

I want to let it sleep for a while before I open one of the 750s
maybe next month I'll do one of the splits.

Sounds like you have a winner here, I think I need to check out some of the farmers markets if I ever get some free time. Glad it came out well, may I just recommend using some smaller bottles with meads. I do almost half of the batch with standard 12oz bottles, and a few large wine bottles. One 12oz is pretty strong, a whole bottle of a high ABV mead will make for a pretty hard morning by myself.
I also find it easier to "loose" or properly age a six pack of 12oz bottles, my brother seems to track down and distroy the larger bottles after two years or so.

Kauai_Kahuna said:

Sounds like you have a winner here, I think I need to check out some of the farmers markets if I ever get some free time. Glad it came out well, may I just recommend using some smaller bottles with meads. I do almost half of the batch with standard 12oz bottles, and a few large wine bottles. One 12oz is pretty strong, a whole bottle of a high ABV mead will make for a pretty hard morning by myself.
I also find it easier to "loose" or properly age a six pack of 12oz bottles, my brother seems to track down and distroy the larger bottles after two years or so.

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may just do some of that with a 5 gallon batch - though... I don't think I'll be drinking this stuff alone... Ever probably bring em' out for special occasions when I have a dinner party or BBQ - so the 750s would get split between 4 or so people (and you know how quick a 750 goes when 4 people share it...) I'm thinking Next big Ono or Mahi Mahi I catch I'm gonna call some friends grill him with some Thai inspired spices, serve him along side some sticky rice and asparagus and break out one of these suckers...

I'm new here.....
I googled pineapple swipe and found this thread.....
I'm trying to find some sort of recipe.
I am trying a batch that I made just like apple cider but its not really kicking.....
Any one got a good, quick Swipe recipe?

Thanks!
Keith

sorry to hit up an old thread but kumquats are in the same genus as loquats and we have plenty in the SE. I planted an orchard so I am looking for feedback. They'll be ripe in about one month. Was planning a wine but this has started my brain gears. How did it turn out?