Starter for mead help

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Kmcogar

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 23, 2011
Messages
1,102
Reaction score
52
Location
Honolulu
A friend gave me 12 pounds of honey. I planned on 5 gallons of mead but I'm not sure 12 lbs is
Enough. So I ordered some stuff to make mead off of eBay.

How should I make the starter? I have dry yeast packets and nutrients and energizer.

Recipes and help is appreciated.
Ingredients:

12 lbs of honey
Energizer
Water
2 packets o yeast
Nutri
 
Here is the recipe I use for a starter and it works great!

2 cups warm water
1/2 cup of honey
1/4 tsp of yeast nutrients
10 fine chopped up raisins

Stir up real good and sprinkle yeast on top. Do no stir yeast into mix. Cover with paper towel and rubberband it there. Wait 8 hours lightly swirling every so often after the first couple hours.

Hope that helps.
 
Arpolis said:
Here is the recipe I use for a starter and it works great!

2 cups warm water
1/2 cup of honey
1/4 tsp of yeast nutrients
10 fine chopped up raisins

Stir up real good and sprinkle yeast on top. Do no stir yeast into mix. Cover with paper towel and rubberband it there. Wait 8 hours lightly swirling every so often after the first couple hours.

Hope that helps.

I have a stir plate. Should I use that? That way the yeast can sit while I'm at work.

Do I use 1 yeast packet or 2?

When do I add the yeast energizer?
 
What brand/kind of yeast did you get? The little dry packets usually say they're good up to 5 gallons, though I've used them in 6.5g batches without doing a starter and they work fine. With high gravity brews you might want to use extra since some of the yeasts have trouble getting going if there is a lot of sugar in the must. With a starter I'm assuming the yeast get to start multiplying a bit before going into the must.
 
porcupine73 said:
What brand/kind of yeast did you get? The little dry packets usually say they're good up to 5 gallons, though I've used them in 6.5g batches without doing a starter and they work fine. With high gravity brews you might want to use extra since some of the yeasts have trouble getting going if there is a lot of sugar in the must. With a starter I'm assuming the yeast get to start multiplying a bit before going into the must.

I got Alvin 71B-1122 ( http://www.lalvinyeast.com/71B.asp )

Is 12 lbs of honey enough for 5 gallons?
 
Oh ok, it says up to 14% alcohol tolerance. Usually I figure you get about 5% abv per pound of sweetener per gallon, though with honey it can vary a bit. So using those rough numbers 12 lbs honey to 5 gallons of water is 2.4 lb/gal which very roughly might give around 12% abv. Though the honey will take up some of the volume of the 5 gallons so it will be less than five gallons of water. So it may ferment to dryness, but if you like it sweet I believe you can stabilize it after the ferment is done and then backsweeten to taste.
 
Do you think it would be better if I got 3 more pounds? I would like it to be a sweet mead. Well not too sweet but sweet enough for my wife.
 
Possibly. What I hear others mention is that it can get a stronger 'alcohol' taste the higher the % abv. But if you want it sweet, I think the options are yes put in more sweetener so that the yeasts can't tolerate the alcohol level before eating all the sugar. And/or after it finishes fermenting, taste it, and if it is not sweet enough, stabilize it (I assume when people say that they are killing the yeasts somehow), then 'backsweeten', meaning add enough sweetener to make it taste the way you want.
 
Head space is not an issue at first with the primary fermentation but can be an issue after the main fermentation and oxygen gets a chance to sit on the mead. Personally I say go with the 12 lb with water topped up on the 5 gallon Carboy. It is very easy to back sweeten mead and it has many benefits.

Once fermentation is done and the mead is super clear to te point you can read a newspaper through it, add in Camden tablets crushed up at 1 per gallon and potassium sorbate per package directions. I think it is like 1tsp per gallon but don't quote that. Then add in honey to taste. For a semi sweet mead you may only need to add in 1.5 - 2 lb of honey.

Benefits:

1) The sulfites act as an anti oxidant and help with aging the mead for long periods of time as well as making sure you have no further fermentation or infections while aging.

2) adding honey after fermentation will add back lost delicate honey flavors from the fermentation process.

3) less ABV means less aging needed for the drink to be drinkable. Around 12% ABV is as much as I would go personally for a casual drink that you may want often.

Technically 1 5g package of Lalvin yeast rehydrated per the instructions on the package will start in a mead must just fine. I still like using starters because it reduces lag time. Keeps the yeast from being too stressed in a higher gravity must which helps reduce any off flavors. If you can do a starter without too much hassle I suggest that.

If you take gravity readings with a hydrometer then you can add energizer once 1/3 of the fermentation is complete. Or you can split it up and add smaller amounts every 12 - 24 hours until 1/3 of the fermentation is complete.
 
How long does fermentation take with mead? I have about 3 weeks before I leave for 6 months. I want to make sure I can put the mead in a secondary before I leave
 
With proper nutrients and probably using a finning agent you can get most of the yeast to drop out in 3 weeks. I have had some ferments go dry in 3 days and others took 26ish days. The longer ones had no commercial yeast nutrients.
 
I've got a question. I attempted at making my first mead starter last night. My recipe was

32 ounces of water
1/4 cup of honey
1 tspn dried malt extract
1/4 ounce wyeast brand yeast nutrient

I bioled/simmered for 15 to 20 minutes. Cooled it, shook vigorously and then pitched the yeast. It's been almost 24 hours and I'm not seeing any fermentation. Are starters similar to regular brews in that it can take up to 48 hours for action to occur? Or, did I go wrong in my formulation. I didn't check the gravity because it was one more thing to sanitize and I thought I was following pretty closely to what I've seen on this board. Any thoughts??
 
I've got a question. I attempted at making my first mead starter last night. My recipe was

32 ounces of water
1/4 cup of honey
1 tspn dried malt extract
1/4 ounce wyeast brand yeast nutrient

I bioled/simmered for 15 to 20 minutes. Cooled it, shook vigorously and then pitched the yeast. It's been almost 24 hours and I'm not seeing any fermentation. Are starters similar to regular brews in that it can take up to 48 hours for action to occur? Or, did I go wrong in my formulation. I didn't check the gravity because it was one more thing to sanitize and I thought I was following pretty closely to what I've seen on this board. Any thoughts??

That sounds pretty good. I use 2 cups water 1/4 - 1/2 cup honey 1/4 tsp nutrients and some raisins usually. My starters are noticably active within 2 hours. How old was your yeast?
 
Well, I bought the yeast a couple weeks ago. It came in a smack pack which I pulled out of the fridge the night before. It was fully inflated when I pitched it. I added a little more honey and 1/4 tspn of yeast energizer last night and tried to shake a little but the energizer got really fizzy. Still no action.
 
Is the starter really cloudy and have that yeasty smell? If putting in the energizer makes it "Fizzy" it sounds like there was some escaping CO2. There may be more activity there than you think. Honey Starters are not really violent with high krausen or anything unless you have fruits in the starter. Thats why I have a few raisins in mine.

Was the yeast the WYeast Sweet Mead Smack pack by chance? Wyeast sweet mead packs are really finiky and like to die out befor the job is done leaving you with a cloyingly sweet mead unless you do a few things just right. I say after 24 hours or more has passed go ahead and pitch this from the sounds of it. If it is the sweet mead yeast then double your nutrient additions. So for 5 gallon batch try like 4tsp yeast nutrient (DAP) along with 1tsp yeast energizer & add 1 more tsp of energizer every 24 hours for 3 more additions while shaking/stiring/allowing oxygen into the must at least twice a day for the first 3 - 4 days.
 
Cool, you might be right. As I said, this is my first starter and I'm using an old juice bottle and the stopper fits in but it isn't a super tight seal. Yes, it is cloudy and fizzes when I added more nutrient. I guess it smells like yeast, I have a bit of a cold. I'm doing a starter for a beer now too that one is bubbling (so no worries there) it also has a larger "yeast cake" at the bottom. At the bottom of the mead starter, I'm seeing something but it's not overly impressive.

I'm using wyeast champagne yeast, not the sweat mead yeast you mentioned.

Thanks though, I might going to go ahead and use it. I when I brew tomorrow.
 
Just an update, I brewed my mead and pitched the starter on Sunday. Everything appears to have gone right.
 
Back
Top