Pineapple Mead 1st try

Recipe

1&1/2 pineapples juiced (about 1/4 gallon juice)

4# honey

About 2-3 quarts water to top off

I juiced the pineapples directly into the gallon jug after sanatizing everything. Then mixed the honey with warm water and added that on top. Got a lot of foam. Let it sit an get to room temp.

Pitched safale US-05 on top. Girlfriend doesnt want anything above %12-14.....

Now its bubbling at one every 1-3 secs this morning....

Is this normal/ok?

Heres the must

Lol why does it feel like you totally said FnCK it and winged this *****? Also no mead experience at all but it sounds cool.

Yeah i had an empty jug and decided to whip up some stuff!

Im used to beer though and the fermentation to really kick off. This seems so sloooooow

not sure, I was always under the impression that mead unless using some sort of yeast nutrients takes months. Maybe you could look up variants of hard lemonade and just use some pinapple juice instead? I've seen some really easy recipes.

You might want to add some yeast nutrient/energizer & DAP (diammonium phosphate). If you do, be sure to mixit with some boiled & cooled water (about 1/4 cup), if you add dry powder to an active fermentation it will erupt & make quite a mess. The rest of your recipe sounds good.
Regards, GF.

drunkEnough4U said:

not sure, I was always under the impression that mead unless using some sort of yeast nutrients takes months. Maybe you could look up variants of hard lemonade and just use some pinapple juice instead? I've seen some really easy recipes.

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Mead does take time. The initial fermentation does take time, then when the Mead is clear and you bottle, it will not taste too good. You will need to age it for 6 months to a year. Depending on the mead.

I did a Pineapple Lime Mint mead that was very good. But you do NEED to age it. Be patient.

Matrix4b

I've heard some folks make pretty good mead quickly. Like with staggered yeast nutrient additions or something.

A few quick warnings from my limited experience.
1. 4lbs of honey per gallon is a little much for some yeasts. You might stall out. If that happens you can fix it by watering it down a bit.
2. Pineapple is a MESSY fermentor. Be prepaired to rig up a blow off tube.

drunkEnough4U said:

I've heard some folks make pretty good mead quickly. Like with staggered yeast nutrient additions or something.

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Staggered Nutrient method can make smoother meads but if the mead is not aged then it just plain isn't done. Simply put, those "Quick Meads" are meads that are overloaded with sugar to make them good, earlier. It's simply residual sugar talking there. I am not convinced a good mead can be made that has aged less than 6 months.

Matrix4b said:

Staggered Nutrient method can make smoother meads but if the mead is not aged then it just plain isn't done. Simply put, those "Quick Meads" are meads that are overloaded with sugar to make them good, earlier. It's simply residual sugar talking there.

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While mead will always improve with age, that is not entirely true. A lot of this depends on fermentation management during primary (proper pitching rate, SNA's, pH buffering, degassing, oxygenation), and yeast selection. That's what makes the BOMM good after one month, and great after 3 or 4, even though it is completely dry. Granted, other yeasts will require different aging lengths, but as long as you use good practices, the age at which they are ready will always be younger than if you hadn't.

While sweetness can certainly hide fusels (and other off-flavors), good practices will minimize them, and in some cases prevent them altogether.

Matrix4b said:

Staggered Nutrient method can make smoother meads but if the mead is not aged then it just plain isn't done. Simply put, those "Quick Meads" are meads that are overloaded with sugar to make them good, earlier. It's simply residual sugar talking there. I am not convinced a good mead can be made that has aged less than 6 months.

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That is simply not true at all.

I went from 1.082 to 0.995 in 5 days with a mead I made earlier this month with staggered nutrient additions (an orange blossom mead). I hardly think anyone on this planet would consider that "overloaded with sugar" whether talking about the SG or the FG.

I plan to bulk age that mead for about 6 months, but the fermentation is 100% done and there is very little residual sugar left.

worlddivides said:

That is simply not true at all.

I went from 1.082 to 0.995 in 5 days with a mead I made earlier this month with staggered nutrient additions (an orange blossom mead). I hardly think anyone on this planet would consider that "overloaded with sugar" whether talking about the SG or the FG.

I plan to bulk age that mead for about 6 months, but the fermentation is 100% done and there is very little residual sugar left.

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Some commercial meaderies, I won't name names, mostly cause it's still good mead, even their dryest meads are "sweet" to me.

I'm for one excited about this pineapple mead business. I know it's a tough fruit to pull off.

MarshmallowBlue said:

Some commercial meaderies, I won't name names, mostly cause it's still good mead, even their dryest meads are "sweet" to me.

I'm for one excited about this pineapple mead business. I know it's a tough fruit to pull off.

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Oh, I'm not going to deny that commercial meads are mostly sweet or at least semi-sweet. I actually went to a local meadery a couple weeks ago to buy one of their dry meads and they didn't have it because they very rarely make the dry mead since no one buys it. They said they make primarily sweet meads because they're the most popular product they have.

I think the real issue is not how fast you can ferment sugar - after all, yeast CAN ferment a boat load of sugar in a blink of the eye if the temperature is high enough (high enough but not so high that it kills the cells) but fast fermentation simply creates fusels and a host of other off flavors and unpleasant yeast bi-products. Slow low temperature fermentation produces a far better mead and does not blow off volatile aromatics.

Didn't know pineapple was supposed to be tough when I did my gallon of pineapple mead early this year, and maybe that's a good thing! At 6 months I bottled and it definitely came out great, used lalvin EC-1118.

What does the issue with pineapple tend to be, acidity?

bernardsmith said:

I think the real issue is not how fast you can ferment sugar - after all, yeast CAN ferment a boat load of sugar in a blink of the eye if the temperature is high enough (high enough but not so high that it kills the cells) but fast fermentation simply creates fusels and a host of other off flavors and unpleasant yeast bi-products. Slow low temperature fermentation produces a far better mead and does not blow off volatile aromatics.

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1.082 to 0.995 in 5 days with a fermentation temperature of 66 to 69 degrees, primarily around 68. Zero fusel alcohol, very few esters, and zero off-flavors.

Regardless of whether we're talking beer, mead, cider, wine, or whatever, you can ferment quickly within the yeast's optimal range without any unpleasant flavors.

It basically just comes down to pitching enough yeast, giving the yeast enough to work with, and encouraging a healthy fermentation. In my case, that involved: Fermaid K, Go-Ferm Protect, DAP, Servomyces, and yeast nutrient, as well as a VERY healthy pitching of yeast. I also used some potassium carbonate.

kaCHUNK said:

Didn't know pineapple was supposed to be tough when I did my gallon of pineapple mead early this year, and maybe that's a good thing! At 6 months I bottled and it definitely came out great, used lalvin EC-1118.

What does the issue with pineapple tend to be, acidity?

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Yeah, it and fruits like lemons get a little wonky when their sugars go out. How much pineapple did you use? Did you use it in the beginning, end, or both?

MarshmallowBlue said:

Yeah, it and fruits like lemons get a little wonky when their sugars go out. How much pineapple did you use? Did you use it in the beginning, end, or both?

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I used one pineapple cut into small cubes, just tossed it in the jug and then added the honey dissolved in water and topped it off. Do you mean the fruit tends to break down in odd ways once the sugar is fermented? Cuz I'd been wondering about that and figured longer than 6 months in the jug might start making it an issue. The pineapple definitely looked pretty funky by that point despite great clarity in the fluid. Also, aside from the layer of yeast on the fruit (which was pretty ugly looking) there was a good bit of stringiness to the sediment when disturbed, I'm guessing protein or unfermentable carbohydrates, maybe both. But the mead tastes clean, very well mannered stuff, easy to drink.