I have been reading through some of the threads here and there seems to be two ways of looking at how to make mead, as a winemaker or a beer brewer. I just learned about Boche on here this week and started one today, thanks for the info. As a winemaker we use winemaking methods for our meads such as:
Acid blend at the begining - I see most recipes dont add acid.
Tannin - we use wine tannin or if making a melomel my favorite tannin source is elderberries. They make tannins now for both white and red wines or meads.
Oak - Meads do go really well with oak, oak sawdust in the primary, cubes, chips or staves in carboys.
Topping off - leaving very little space under the airlock.
Nutrients - I usually add half up front and half before midway.
Degassing - for a still mead a vacum pump reallly makes degassing easy.
Initial Gravity - I see a lot of recipies start with a very high gravity hoping the yeast will give up somewhere before all the honey is eaten up, its so much easier to start around 1.1 - 1.2 and let it go low, feeding in steps if you want more alcohol and later backsweetening.
Backsweetening - If the mead fermented dry its much easier to put the sweetness exactly where you want it rather than hoping it will get to where you want it if the yeast gives up on a high gravity must.
Fining - Especially after backsweetening some protein comes in with the honey, SuperKleer or Bentonite do a good job in degassed mead of removing protein hazes and making the mead stable.
Sulphites - Used in wine all the time, helps keep meads stable, slows oxidation, kills bad bugs in the mead, but I dont see much mention of such a basic step that will help you keep your meads fresh for years.
Sorbate - I dont see this mentioned much, but if you add sorbate to your mead before bottling it shouldnt start to ferment again if you want a still mead.
Melomels - They taste so much better with more fruit (even 4 gallons of fruit juice and starting at 15 pounds of honey).
Heating Honey - Dont do it, you might as well just use HFCS if you are going to boil up your honey, finings can remove and protein before bottling.
We just got our own bees this year and I am looking forward to having lots more honey to experiment with. Our best meads for the last couple of years have been black raspberry mels, blackberry mels, fresh elderberry and really interesting dried elderberry mels. I havent made a carbonated mead yet on purpose, have made some early on accidentally and need to learn a little about doing it the right way.
WVMJ
Acid blend at the begining - I see most recipes dont add acid.
Tannin - we use wine tannin or if making a melomel my favorite tannin source is elderberries. They make tannins now for both white and red wines or meads.
Oak - Meads do go really well with oak, oak sawdust in the primary, cubes, chips or staves in carboys.
Topping off - leaving very little space under the airlock.
Nutrients - I usually add half up front and half before midway.
Degassing - for a still mead a vacum pump reallly makes degassing easy.
Initial Gravity - I see a lot of recipies start with a very high gravity hoping the yeast will give up somewhere before all the honey is eaten up, its so much easier to start around 1.1 - 1.2 and let it go low, feeding in steps if you want more alcohol and later backsweetening.
Backsweetening - If the mead fermented dry its much easier to put the sweetness exactly where you want it rather than hoping it will get to where you want it if the yeast gives up on a high gravity must.
Fining - Especially after backsweetening some protein comes in with the honey, SuperKleer or Bentonite do a good job in degassed mead of removing protein hazes and making the mead stable.
Sulphites - Used in wine all the time, helps keep meads stable, slows oxidation, kills bad bugs in the mead, but I dont see much mention of such a basic step that will help you keep your meads fresh for years.
Sorbate - I dont see this mentioned much, but if you add sorbate to your mead before bottling it shouldnt start to ferment again if you want a still mead.
Melomels - They taste so much better with more fruit (even 4 gallons of fruit juice and starting at 15 pounds of honey).
Heating Honey - Dont do it, you might as well just use HFCS if you are going to boil up your honey, finings can remove and protein before bottling.
We just got our own bees this year and I am looking forward to having lots more honey to experiment with. Our best meads for the last couple of years have been black raspberry mels, blackberry mels, fresh elderberry and really interesting dried elderberry mels. I havent made a carbonated mead yet on purpose, have made some early on accidentally and need to learn a little about doing it the right way.
WVMJ