Liquid Love buckwheat cyser

just finished my first batch of mead and it is partying hard right now.

3 cinnamon sticks
3 1/4 inch thick slices fresh ginger root
1/2 gallon martenellis gold medal apple juice
2.5 Lbs buckwheat honey
water to fill to just under neck of one gallon carboy
1 tblsp yeast nutrient

mix all ingredients (except nutrient) in big pot, bring to 160 degrees and keep it there for 15 minutes, puting nutreant in once you turn off heat. pour into one gallon carboy cinnamon and ginger too and shake alot. pitch a full packet of activated yeast and top off with sterile water. put your airlock on and wait.starting gravity was 1.13 i will keep a running update

Looks really cool. Keep us up to date & remember.... No pics and it didn't happen.

just finished my first batch of mead and it is partying hard right now.

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Hahaha, I think that'll be my new catch phrase for a while. Thanks for making me laugh.
P.S. Mead looks great.

Nevermind, wrong thread.

lawpaw, what was the right thread?

Bugeaud said:

lawpaw, what was the right thread?

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Lol, there was a show pictures of your mead thread. Couldnt figure out how to delete my post here or the pics, only change text.

i dont mind, in fact i wanna know what that red one is, looks good

Might have a crack at that one, though there's a couple of points......

1. heating the brew ? Why ? It's a mead, not a beer. Honey can lose a fair amount of the aromatics if heated (and some of the more subtle flavouring elements - a bit like when you use a champagne yeast).

2. because of the heating, did you use any pectic enzyme, as you may find that it's a bugger to clear. Apples are a good source of pectin... And if you make the brew before you hit it with pectolase, you have to use twice the amount.

I doubt that mine will come out quite the same, as the AJ will be different and the bucket of buckwheat I've got is Polish buckwheat honey, a lot lighter in colour to the pics of it that I've seen here and at gotmead, but it's still got a really mad, almost malty taste...... Oh and I'm not sure I'd use 3 cinnamon sticks, I'll start, probably, with one and if there's not enough cinnamon taste, I'll just chuck another one in and let the alcohol pull out the flavour.

What yeast did you use ?

bodhi86 said:

i dont mind, in fact i wanna know what that red one is, looks good

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It's a raspberry Mel, .5 lb. added in primary, .6 lb. added in secondary.

1. heating the brew ? Why ? It's a mead, not a beer. Honey can lose a fair amount of the aromatics if heated (and some of the more subtle flavouring elements - a bit like when you use a champagne yeast).

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I mean yeah in general you don't heat mead but.... if it comes out good I'm not one to judge technique lol.

Bugeaud said:

I mean yeah in general you don't heat mead but.... if it comes out good I'm not one to judge technique lol.

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Equally, neither am I. Just that if you get some nice varietal honey and heat the hell out of it, you might as well just save the money and buy cheapo, store bought stuff, that's been processed to death, with just a bland honey flavour.

It's a bit like champagne yeasts. Yes, they have their place, if you're making a champagne like, light, dry, sparkling brew, but with honey/meads, more often than not, you'd not be wanting those sort of properties. Hence I keep a couple of packs of EC-1118 to hand for if I screw up and have problems, but for my traditionals, I routinely use D21 or K1V, 71B for fruit based recipes (except red fruit brews which get RC212).

I don't like D47 as you have to be too careful about fermenting on the cooler side i.e. below 70F, otherwise it can produce high levels of fusel - and I don't like the paint thinner taste.......

Hell, I don't even warm my honey to get it out the jar, I just cut/scoop it out, into a sanitised food processor or liquidiser, add some of the water that I'm gonna use and blitz the hell out of it. It incorporates the honey and aerates the must well - good for the yeast in the early stages.......

i heated it because it was raw honey, i dont want any wild yeast beasties, i realize it my detract from the flavor a little,but i only brought it to 160 and only for 15 minutes, it still smelled plenty like buckwhea honey. as for the yast id love to know whereto find a mead yeast, the only one that even remotely worked where i got mine was 1118, and a dry mead is okay, but not what im looking for with my mead.

Don't feel the need to heat raw honey. I'm pretty sure we're all using raw honey. It's naturally anti-spoilage enough that you'll be fine mixing it cold if you inoculate it with good yeast within a couple days (do it right away though). Especially true if you SG is high.

I disagree about heating high quality honey makes it equivalent to cheap store bought honey. It does drive off some aroma and more subtle flavors, but whole lot more is wrong with most store honey than heat. Ultra filtering probably has a bigger impact.

Many great mead makers still heat their honey. I believe Medsen actually posted a small unscientific experiment he did with friends where they preferred the heated honey (although they also liked the raw aroma better).

So still get good honey, even if you heat it.

Don't feel the need to heat raw honey. I'm pretty sure we're all using raw honey. It's naturally anti-spoilage enough that you'll be fine mixing it cold if you inoculate it with good yeast within a couple days (do it right away though). Especially true if you SG is high.

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True true, honey lasts almost forever (if not forever????) and yeah recently I read somewhere that a long time ago some honey was discovered in a 5000 year old egyptian tomb and the archeologists tried some and it was good except after they found out the honey was in an urn along with ashes....

10 days and counting, it was extremely active for the first 5 days or so, eating the cider and nutrient, we've gotten to the honey and my lil beasties cant chew through with quietthe same vigor, i cant add a picture yet, but im trying

Aha! Here it is 10 days down, bout 150 to go, hope you like it

bodhi86 said:

10 days and counting, it was extremely active for the first 5 days or so, eating the cider and nutrient, we've gotten to the honey and my lil beasties cant chew through with quietthe same vigor,

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It's all simple sugars. I don't think the yeast selectively eat the cider, and then the honey. I think it's more of an all-you-can-eat buffet.

bodhi86 said:

10 days and counting, it was extremely active for the first 5 days or so, eating the cider and nutrient, we've gotten to the honey and my lil beasties cant chew through with quietthe same vigor, i cant add a picture yet, but im trying

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Apperently I was... inaccurate, I just popped the top for the first time and took a gravity reading. After 11 days I'm at dryness, do I rack now or do I let it sit? This is the part I'm unclear on in the process, the proper racking time. What are the signs its ready to rack, what are estimated time intervels, if I'm satisfied with the flavor do I still add things to the 2 nd rack? Anything and everything you can give me on this subject would be much appreciated, I want to be good at this, and I know most of you have the experience I don't.

You rack now, and make sure not to suck up the lees/dead yeast/sediment or whatever you want to call it. Then, wait 'till it's cleared up considerably, rack again. Continue this process until you are at a satisfactory clearness level.

Just a 22 day update, gorgeous color clear as day, waiting for bubbles to subside before I super kleen and rack for age