Apple Mead on a budget...

Ok so am I crazy?

I'm working on a budget here. I could afford a bigger batch, but none of the specialty honey or other things because I invested in the equiptment. Here's what I did...

Followed this recipe: Basic Mead Recipe at Epicurious.com

But added one container of apple juice concentrate for each gallon of water (total of 5) and used walmart honey instead. Can't lie. Smelled like liquid apple pie before I put on the lid and the yeastees are bubbling rather merrily.

Am I being fooled and going to have it turn on me during the primary and become turpentine?

No, not turpentine but why don't you post the precise recipe and we can give you a better idea of what to expect?

9# Clover Honey (walmart)
5 Gallons of tap water
1 Pkt Red Star Champagne Yeast
5 Containers Apple Juice Concentrate (Walmart)
1tsp of each of Ground Nutmeg, Cinnamon & Allspice
3tsp Energizer
1 campden tablet (crushed)
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Dissolved the honey in 4 gallons hot (but not boiling) water.

Combined the concentrate, spices, energizer, campden, with 1 gallon of hot water.

Combined both solutions into brew bucket and took out 3/4 a mason jars worth to rehydrate the yeast. When the sample was at ~95 I rehydrated the yeast. It took another 3hrs for the brew bucket to come down to less then 100 (I don't have any fancy cooling devices just yet). Once the bucket was cool enough I pitched in the hydrated yeast put on the lid and airlock and it's been sitting pretty at 80 degrees for the past 3 days and has been bubbling quite happily ever since.
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The concentrate added about 25% more sugar to the solution compared to honey alone (3300g from honey 840g from concentrate).

This is my first big batch and I don't want to mess it up.

Pointers on when to start the second fermentation? Can I do that in another brew bucket or do I truly need a Carboy? How long do should the second fermentation last? How long should I let them age in the bottles?

Wow I'm such a novice But got to start somewhere.

I'm kinda durnk right now, this being July 4 and having just finished a 750ml and another 375ml of some excellent lightly oaked year-old cyser but I'll try to address your question/issues. Did you take an original gravity reading? If not, get a hydrometer asap - it's your best friend. Failing that I don't see any problems with your recipe, other than it might be a little light on honey, but maybe not (hydrometer reading is crucial - original gravity -1.085 to 1.110).

Leave your cyser in the primary for about two weeks, or until the gravity reading reaches about 1.020. Feed it nutrients and stir at each 1/3 sugar break, or every couple of days for a week or so.

Rack to a glass secondary and keep it there until it ferments to dryness, or about another 3-4 weeks. Rack to another glass carboy (or rack to a plastic primary, rinse the glass secondary and rack again immediately to that) on additional honey (one pint to one quart) if you want it sweeter and 1/4 teaspoon of potassium metabisulfite per five gallons and 1/2 teaspoon per gallon of potassium sorbate prior to bottling/bulk aging. You should leave your mead in the secondary for at least another month. I like to bulk age for several months to a year prior to bottling.

Good luck!

Sounds like a plan. Here's hoping.

Oh goodness!! I got up and went running errands today... when I got back and went into the room with the brew bucket... the room was FILLED with the smell of apples and Cinnamon and allspice. It was AMAZING!! mmmmmm!!

I'd give the batch at least two weeks before racking, but you'll need to wait to hit the final gravity. A cyser should be ready to bottle (and drink) sooner than a mead of similar gravity, though.

So two weeks AFTER it stops bubbling or two weeks total in the primary? And when I rack it should I rack into a secondary or straight into bottles? How long in the secondary and/or bottles?

Sorry for all the questions Still learning....

minimum of 2 weeks, but probably closer to a month in primary. then rack over to a secondary until it's pretty clear. if it accumulates about an inch of lees (yeastie sludge at the bottom of the fermenter), rack again.

Ok... 1 month-ish in the primary
Into the secondary until clear (rack again if lees are uber-thick)
Then into bottles to wait for Christmas?

if you can stay out of it that long...

Don't go for "guesstimates" like a week or two in primary, it's too easy to f**k it up that way.

Your hydrometer is your friend. Sanitise a sample jar and hydrometer, take a sample and test..... it's the safest and correct way of judging how it's progressing.

Yes, if you have a large enough container in the first place you can mix it up, get it in the fermenter, airlock it and just leave it. Between the nutrients in the energiser and the spices and apple juice there's probably enough to keep it going and not racking it until it's finished, but it's probably gonna be better if you do add a little extra nutrients at either the 1/3 break points or 1/2 way point. Either way you'll need a hydrometer to test it to get the right time......

Just my 2 cents worth....

regards

fatbloke

I like your thoughts... but two problems....

1) I have no hydrometer...

2) If I got one now would I be able to use it with no starting point to judge from?

You don't need to know your starting point to find your ending point. Don't bottle it until it reaches .996 or lower.

Oh well in that case I'll head to the shop first thing tomorrow. How do I know when the 1/3 and 1/2 breaks are?

Using hightest's excel sheet (link in the Mead FAQ sticky),

it says your gravity should have started at ~ 1.102. First addition would be ~1.092, and half would be 1.051.

You can certainly use that as a starting point to get close +/- 0.005 to 0.010 to do your additions.

Ok donwloaded and messed around with that... so lets say I wanted to keep it in the "medium" range. What's to keep my yeast from continuing to eat their way down to the "Dry" range? I lean towards the sweeter things. Can I sweeten it afterward with more honey without latent yeast activating and carbonating it?

2 choices:

1) kill the yeast when it hits the gravity you want. (potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulfate)

2) wait till it dries out and basically stops fermenting (under 1.000) then hit it with the 2 chems above and backsweeten with some additional honey.

I'd go #2.

Do some forum searches on backsweetening (#2 method) to see how it's done.

Ok how much of either of those per gallon?

Umm...follow dosing instructions on the package. I'm sure some of the other guys have that memorized, but I just use the label.

I think the potassium metabisulfate is something like 1/4 tsp/gallon and the sorbate is something like 1/2 tsp/gallon.

I think it's in hightest's various mead FAQ documents as well.

Download that stuff and read heavily. Hightest is the resident genius of meadmaking.

jezter6 said:

2 choices:

1) kill the yeast when it hits the gravity you want. (potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulfate)

2) wait till it dries out and basically stops fermenting (under 1.000) then hit it with the 2 chems above and backsweeten with some additional honey.

I'd go #2.

Do some forum searches on backsweetening (#2 method) to see how it's done.

Click to expand...

I'd also go with #2. I've tried #1 and trust me when I say it doesn't work. What it will do is slow down your fermentation to a crawl and drag it out forever.

You guys are amazing. Best forum ever.

I'll pop back when I have another crisis.

brazedowl said:

You guys are amazing. Best forum ever.

I'll pop back when I have another crisis.

Click to expand...

Based on your response rate today - sounds like we should hear back around...an hour from now??

j/k...welcome to the forum and welcome to mead making.

To keep yourself from stopping overanalyzing and worrying about your mead, take some time to read the forum and hightest's stuff...it really is amazing the work he's done to help out fellow meadmakers.

Ok team... I'm ready to put this into the secondary... In the end I want to back-sweeten it with some honey. How much potassium metabisulphite would I need for a 5 gallon batch so I don't get bottle bombs? And do I add that at the same time I rack the secondary or closer to bottling?

That strictly speaking depends on the pH of the finished mead, since the amount of free SO2 provided by the metabisulphite is a function of pH. If you want to wing it, then adding 1/4 to 1/2 tsp of potassium metabisulfite will give you anywhere from 75ppm to 150ppm of free SO2, for typical mead finish pH values. That, along with a sorbate dose, is generally enough to kill most of the remaining yeast cells, eliminate all of the mlf bacteria (that would otherwise metabolize the sorbate into something that you don't want in your mead), and the sorbate addition will keep any remaining straggling yeast cells from ever reproducing. And I would do the additions (both metabisulphite and sorbate) within 24 hrs of bottling. That will ensure there is enough free SO2 to keep spoilage organisms from getting a foothold, and will also provide some protection against oxidation from the handling when you rack into bottles.

AND...........

It's AWFUL. It's strong and tartly horrible... apple turpentine is the best way to describe it... Even went as far as to bottle it and hope... no help...

Now not wanting to waste of perfectly intoxicating (if atrocious) liquid...

I determined that about 3oz of coolade mix flavors one bottle. So after a little calculating and re-bottling... I ended up with...

three 16oz swingtop bottles full of flavored death-brew.

My question for the group...

with an average of 30g or about 1oz of sugar per bottle, will I end up with bottle bombs, carbed death-brew, or none of the above?

bummer. but i wonder if 3 months is long enough?

Time will tell I've got plenty more just sitting in bottles doing their thing.

Dude, 3 months in with 12-15 or more pounds of honey (or 2.5-3 pounds per gallon), of COURSE it's going to taste like turpentine or rubbing alcohol. Gotta have some patience with this -- was it even clear enough to bottle? This thing is probably 13-14% ABV and is very very young.

If you're going to try again, rack around ~1 month or about when it's finished or near finished, then every few weeks once the lees (fallout dead yeast) is around 3/4". Don't even consider bottling until around 6 months, it's clear, and doesn't taste like rocket fuel. The longer you wait, the better.

Stick whatever bottles you have in a closet somewhere and let them sit until summer next year, and you'll probably be VERY happy with your brew.

Hmm.... noted

I am notably impatient.

My house is smallish and we just had our first child so space is at a premium. What extremes of temperature can I store it? Attic? Crawlspace under the house? We're in NC so it does get cold in the winter and does get hot in the summer....

Crawlspace, bottles will not mind getting cold, but getting hot is not a good thing.
You did have a high ABV, and also fermented a little on the hot side so forget about the bottles for a year, really I think you will be surprised.

Well we tried one a while back... I'm going to move them to the furthest reaches of the crawlspace so the temperature doesn't fluctuate that much and just let them be forgotten... months/years from now maybe they'll be less death.

I have decided that "pale juice fruits" such as apples, pears, and blueberries should not be fermented with a super power like champagne yeast in a mead with a low starting gravity. For me, it's a recipe for paint stripper no matter how long it ages.

As it turns out they still taste like death. and remain under the house. I'll open one a year for the next 12 years. Sound like a good plan?