Leap Year Mead 2 - Page 3

BuffaloSabresBrewer · 02-10-2008, 04:02 AM

my yeast vote is the Pasteur
i hate white zinfandel and dont want my mead to have that characteristic

beala · 02-10-2008, 08:15 AM

How on earth can we choose a yeast without a recipe, or even a style decided? At this rate, people will just recommend a yeast because they have it on hand. A better idea would be for people to post recipes, including a recommended yeast, and we'll vote on those. It seems backwards to choose a yeast, then try to design a recipe around that.

EDIT: And I'm actually voting for the vanilla. I decided I'll be making a citrus braggot for a different project, so a vanilla mead would be a good change.

**BigKahuna** · 02-10-2008, 09:19 AM

Here is my vote for a recipe. Please feel free to correct the math, because this is theoretical, and based on a 1 gallon batch size (Makes things easy)

3# of Honey (Best Local Variety you can get)
Yeast Nutrient (Follow your directions)
Water
1 Gram RED STAR Pasteur Champagne Yeast. (Whole pack for a 5 gallon batch)

Rack onto 2 vanilla beans (Split and scraped) for the entirety of secondary ferment.

This should give us a Beginning gravity of about 1.130 and the Pasteur will ferment it Dry.
By not cooking the crap out of the vanilla, it will maintain more of it's delicate flavor, and by adding it at the secondary stage, it will add a crisp clean vanilla taste, and not overpower our drink.

I suppose that the timing of primary ferment needs to be worked out, but we have plenty of time, and secondary ferment could go many moons.

With this we get what we all have talked about, #1. Simplicity, #2 Short shopping list, #3 Dry, #4 Modestly High ABV, #5 Not overly flavored.

**Nurmey** · 02-10-2008, 02:47 PM

The recipe gets my vote.

Three pounds honey per gallon, Red Star Champagne yeast, two vanilla beans per gallon (secondary), and nutrient per directions.

Any other yays or nays?

BuffaloSabresBrewer · 02-10-2008, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigKahuna

Here is my vote for a recipe. Please feel free to correct the math, because this is theoretical, and based on a 1 gallon batch size (Makes things easy)

3# of Honey (Best Local Variety you can get)
Yeast Nutrient (Follow your directions)
Water
1 Gram RED STAR Pasteur Champagne Yeast. (Whole pack for a 5 gallon batch)

Rack onto 2 vanilla beans (Split and scraped) for the entirety of secondary ferment.

This should give us a Beginning gravity of about 1.130 and the Pasteur will ferment it Dry.
By not cooking the crap out of the vanilla, it will maintain more of it's delicate flavor, and by adding it at the secondary stage, it will add a crisp clean vanilla taste, and not overpower our drink.

I suppose that the timing of primary ferment needs to be worked out, but we have plenty of time, and secondary ferment could go many moons.

With this we get what we all have talked about, #1. Simplicity, #2 Short shopping list, #3 Dry, #4 Modestly High ABV, #5 Not overly flavored.

antother yay

Gavzilla · 02-10-2008, 09:08 PM

Yea for me too, recipe sounds great.

**rabidgerbil** · 02-10-2008, 09:53 PM

hey, I want to jump in on this...
that recipe sounds good to me...

BuffaloSabresBrewer · 02-11-2008, 02:11 AM

So any preferred type of honey for this?

Tusch · 02-11-2008, 03:21 AM

Yay from my camp as well, though I may go for 3.5 lbs. I like the idea of this mead and will start looking at health food stores and ethnic groceries for quality vanilla bean sources.

**rabidgerbil** · 02-11-2008, 03:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BuffaloSabresBrewer

So any preferred type of honey for this?

Since this is my very first mead, I am just going to stick with the 5# containers of honey that I can get at Sams Club, and get enough of them to do a 5 gallon batch.