New to mead - couple of questions

jbanta · 12-03-2009, 02:12 AM

I am wanting to try to make some mead however the only container that I had that would work (other than a plastic jug) for the amount of spare cash i had to spend on honey.. is a 1/2 gallon glass growler.

My main question is how much yeast should i put in. I have the Red Star Champaigne yeast that is new but not used from doing homebrew sodas.

I was planning on doing Joe's Ancient Orange Cinnamon Mean with 2#'s of honey. I figured I would do 1/2 of everything in the recipe - but wasn't sure if 1/2 teaspoon of my yeast would be equal to 1/2 teasponn of the Fleismann's (since the recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of Fleismann's.)

Any help will be greatly appreaciated - as I will probably be attempting this in about 2 hours

Thanks!

**AZ_IPA** · 12-03-2009, 02:13 AM

it shouldn't really matter - you could get away with either the 1/2 tsp or the full tsp.

jbanta · 12-03-2009, 02:16 AM

Thanks for the quick reply - i will do the full tsp just to be safe - since i will be fermenting it at the low temp range of the yeast...

**fatbloke** · 12-03-2009, 09:18 AM

For yeast quantities..........

If you think about the size of the yeast packs from the home brew shops, well they're usually 5 grammes.

that's normally enough for batches up to 5 gallons.

Of course, you could easily use that amount for 10 gallons, but you'd find that the ferment (even in the presence of the correct amount of nutrients etc) would probably "lag" for a long time as the yeast would have to have a long time multiplying.

Hence I understand that's why "they" have calculated the pack size at 5 grammes and recommended that it's enough for 5 gallons, as it starts the ferment in a respectably quick amount of time.

Does 5grammes equate to 1 tsp ? I don't remember..... but 1 tsp is the same as 5 ml's for liquid measurements......