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FTG-05 · 10-25-2012, 06:54 PM

I got my gallon and a half (18 lbs) of honey today from a local beekeeper and I'll pick up the rest of the stuff tonight. My wife makes all our bread, so she has plenty of fresh yeast. Now, NB just has to deliver my third fermenter tomorrow and I'm all set for my first five gallon batch!

SpaDe · 10-27-2012, 08:51 PM

Just put together a 6 gal batch of this today, and can't wait to try it for the first time.
Stuck with the main recipe for the most part with the exception of I added 20lbs of honey, used 3 cloves, 3 cinnamon sticks and I had a sweet mead yeast so I used that instead of bread yeast.

*Edit*
My sweet mead yeast was DOA, so I did end up using the bread yeast as in the original recipe.

baseness · 10-27-2012, 09:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpaDe

Just put together a 6 gal batch of this today, and can't wait to try it for the first time.
Stuck with the main recipe for the most part with the exception of I added 20lbs of honey, used 3 cloves, 3 cinnamon sticks and I had a sweet mead yeast so I used that instead of bread yeast.

Cool.

I got impatient and decided to mix mine up for the heck of it, since it had only been closed a day I don't think re-aerating would hurt.

SpaDe · 10-28-2012, 02:41 AM

Once mine gets going I am going to just put it away and forget about it for a while. I don't generally mess with my wines until it's time to rack them off, so I will just do the same with this.

luda007 · 11-11-2012, 02:36 AM

Started this on August 29th.

1.154 OG
17 lbs honey
-10 wild flower
-7 clover
5 oranges (sliced in 1/8)
1lb raisins
4 cinnamon sticks
3 cloves
1/2 t energizer
5 t nutrient
5 t yeast

dohertyc9 · 11-13-2012, 03:17 PM

Something that would make this recipe even easier is using the wild yeast already available in honey. I have a running yeast starter going for a while now, per Sandor Katz's "The Art of Fermentation" and I've made some good short runs of freshly alcoholic juices and such, as well as ginger beer and root beer type drinks. The starter itself smells good, fizzes up EXPLOSIVELY, seems to 'flocculate' well at the bottom of the container, and the end products taste good - but I haven't tested anything like attenuation or alcohol tolerance. Only been doing this a few months so I haven't aged anything out. But it's nice because it's free, seems to work, and if it ever dies I'm pretty sure I could duplicate it using the same honey.

Has anyone tried this? Any thoughts? I know real homebrewers and most books are very skeptical about wild yeast fermentation but I haven't read many accounts of people actually giving it a shot.

What happens is that raw honey already contains yeast, but they're inhibited by the low water content of honey, like 19% I think? Increase that water content by any amount and they will initiate fermentation.

I imagine you could mix this up without the yeast and within 1-3 days you'd have a vigorous bubbly batch going. If you're really afraid of wild yeast you could mix up a honey and water starter (any proportion, but probably 1 part honey to 3 or 4 parts water) and let that sit for a couple days, and when it's fizzy smell it and see what you think.

Anyhow, I have two batches going, one with my wild yeast and one with bread yeast. They both bubbled vigorously, and now everything except the oranges have settled to the bottom. The bread yeast seems to stir up much easier, but whatever. I don't even really care that much about cloudiness at this point. They both smell the same, very good. I'm curious if there will be a taste difference at the end.

By the way you have to use raw honey, but I'm not sure normal storebought honey is pasteurized or not. The little jars at Target here don't say, and honey preserves itself so well, so I'm curious if all honey is raw or not.

Chris

CKL958 · 11-17-2012, 12:58 AM

After seeing the post of the person that pitched late August, I'm wondering why I haven't hit that point yet.

I made a 1 gal of JAOM. Pitched the first weekend in August. Fruit fell after about 9 weeks, however, my JAOM hasn't cleared yet.

I know the directions say not to touch, and various posts I've seen say just leave it - would it be worth trying to use some gelatin or equivalent to get things cleared up?

**billslaw1024** · 11-17-2012, 09:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dohertyc9

Something that would make this recipe even easier is using the wild yeast already available in honey. I have a running yeast starter going for a while now, per Sandor Katz's "The Art of Fermentation" and I've made some good short runs of freshly alcoholic juices and such, as well as ginger beer and root beer type drinks. The starter itself smells good, fizzes up EXPLOSIVELY, seems to 'flocculate' well at the bottom of the container, and the end products taste good - but I haven't tested anything like attenuation or alcohol tolerance. Only been doing this a few months so I haven't aged anything out. But it's nice because it's free, seems to work, and if it ever dies I'm pretty sure I could duplicate it using the same honey.

Has anyone tried this? Any thoughts? I know real homebrewers and most books are very skeptical about wild yeast fermentation but I haven't read many accounts of people actually giving it a shot.

What happens is that raw honey already contains yeast, but they're inhibited by the low water content of honey, like 19% I think? Increase that water content by any amount and they will initiate fermentation.

I imagine you could mix this up without the yeast and within 1-3 days you'd have a vigorous bubbly batch going. If you're really afraid of wild yeast you could mix up a honey and water starter (any proportion, but probably 1 part honey to 3 or 4 parts water) and let that sit for a couple days, and when it's fizzy smell it and see what you think.

Anyhow, I have two batches going, one with my wild yeast and one with bread yeast. They both bubbled vigorously, and now everything except the oranges have settled to the bottom. The bread yeast seems to stir up much easier, but whatever. I don't even really care that much about cloudiness at this point. They both smell the same, very good. I'm curious if there will be a taste difference at the end.

By the way you have to use raw honey, but I'm not sure normal storebought honey is pasteurized or not. The little jars at Target here don't say, and honey preserves itself so well, so I'm curious if all honey is raw or not.

Chris

Let us know how the batches come out. I've read Wild Fermentation and have wanted to try a wild fermented mead since reading it. But I can't get past the thought of wasting precious honey if it comes out bad. Especially when dry yeast is so cheap. Hope the wild ferment comes out good for you.

huesmann · 11-17-2012, 02:05 PM

Anyone know what the operating temperature is supposed to be for Fleishmann's yeast?

**CsaintG** · 11-18-2012, 04:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by knipknup

I did a champagne yeast mead. It finished at 17% abv but was like turpentine for the first two years. It has been around four years now and is reasonably good. I expect in another 5 years, it will be great.

It's been nearly 4 years now, how's it tasting?