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Justintoxicated

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I just got 12lbs of local wildflower honey not sure if it is raw or not, but it looked like regular honey to me. Not sure whether to do a 5 gallon or 4 gallon batch with this amount. If I do a 4 gallon batch, can I just use a 5 gallon carboy?

I don't think I want to do anything fancy since this will be my first time. I'm looking now for those yeast nutrients in the sticky.

What should I use for yeast? I have some red star yeast, Premier Cuvee, Pasteur Champagne, Cote Des Blancs and Pasteur Red. Any of these good candidates?

I have read that some people pasteurize the mix, but I was thinking to just heat some sanitary RO water and mix it up?

Thanks in advance.
 
If you can scrounge up three pounds of honey you can do a five gallon batch at 3#/gallon. As a traditional mead you could knock it out in 5-gallon carboy. Of course you can do a five gallon batch with 12#, just depends on what ACV you are seeking.
If you do a four gallon batch you will need about 12# of glass, lead free marbles (or stainless) to account for that headspace.
If you want to start in a wide mouth foid grade bucket, even better...but that is just me.
I like Cotes de blanc, cuvee or 71B in mead, but the others have been used by countless others. I warm some of the water to help incorporate the honey.
 
If you can scrounge up three pounds of honey you can do a five gallon batch at 3#/gallon. As a traditional mead you could knock it out in 5-gallon carboy. Of course you can do a five gallon batch with 12#, just depends on what ACV you are seeking.
If you do a four gallon batch you will need about 12# of glass, lead free marbles (or stainless) to account for that headspace.
If you want to start in a wide mouth foid grade bucket, even better...but that is just me.
I like Cotes de blanc, cuvee or 71B in mead, but the others have been used by countless others. I warm some of the water to help incorporate the honey.

Should I pasteurize the honey / water mix? not sure if the honey would be sanitary otherwise. It was just poured into a 5g gallon bucket. I'll see if I can get anymore honey but it may be difficult. I don't have that much marbles so maybe 12 lbs into 5 gallons it will be.
 
Honey is natures anti fungle/bacterial agent. It is pointless to pasteurize honey. If this were a hydromel at 1 lb per gallon then I might drop a crushed Camden tablet per gallon in the must 24 hours before pitching yeast but with any decent amount of honey in there and it should be fine as long as you use normal cleaning practices on the carboy and your water is good.

12 lb in a 5 gallon batch is not bad at all. I have a Ginger mead with that ratio and it is awsome so far.
 
I do my primary of 5 gal with 12 pounds of honey. Let it ferment dry and add 3-6 pounds of honey after stablizing.

Nutrients: Doesn't need to be anything special. Some people boil bread yeast for it. Now that's important, if you are using yeast as nutrients and not the active yeast you should kill the yeast first by boiling it. That way it isn't yeast but yeast nutrients.

For Stablizing: Use potasium sorbate or potasium metasulfate.

For a good basic mead, you should be fine. I would at the end of it as it's clearing put in 1 oz of lightly toasted oak to help smooth it out. I put it in for 3-4 weeks if it's chips, a month if it's oak cubes you get.

And most importantly, let it age at least 6 months, best if a year, after it's settled and clear enough to read through.

For yeast: I like Lavin D47, 1-2 packets is good. Keep in mind not to let the temp go above 70 or you could get some off flavors with this yeast.

Matrix
 
1# of honey adds about 35-40 points/gallon. If you're doing 4 gal, your OG will be ~100 (@35) and 5 gal will be ~83@(@35).

Either is a respectable starting point.

FWIW I like to start with an OG around 50 and then add honey throughout the fermentation period. It's like giving your high-gravity mead a massive yeast starter. It seems to ferment out more cleanly.
 
I do my primary of 5 gal with 12 pounds of honey. Let it ferment dry and add 3-6 pounds of honey after stablizing.

Nutrients: Doesn't need to be anything special. Some people boil bread yeast for it. Now that's important, if you are using yeast as nutrients and not the active yeast you should kill the yeast first by boiling it. That way it isn't yeast but yeast nutrients.

For Stablizing: Use potasium sorbate or potasium metasulfate.

For a good basic mead, you should be fine. I would at the end of it as it's clearing put in 1 oz of lightly toasted oak to help smooth it out. I put it in for 3-4 weeks if it's chips, a month if it's oak cubes you get.

And most importantly, let it age at least 6 months, best if a year, after it's settled and clear enough to read through.

For yeast: I like Lavin D47, 1-2 packets is good. Keep in mind not to let the temp go above 70 or you could get some off flavors with this yeast.

Matrix

Whats this about stablizing, I didn't know I needed to do that? Won't I want the yeast to be able to carbonate my mead? Can I keg carbonate then bottle from the keg? Seems like it might introduce too much oxygen into the bottles if I do it that way?

1# of honey adds about 35-40 points/gallon. If you're doing 4 gal, your OG will be ~100 (@35) and 5 gal will be ~83@(@35).

Either is a respectable starting point.

FWIW I like to start with an OG around 50 and then add honey throughout the fermentation period. It's like giving your high-gravity mead a massive yeast starter. It seems to ferment out more cleanly.

Only a starting point?
 
I am getting ready to do my first meade. I have been brewing beer for a while and thought I would try a meade. I have the ingredients on hand for a very basic 2 gal recipe I found here and want try it. I want to use my 5 gal glass carboy but I'm not sure if all of that extra air space is a bad thing. I guess I could wait until two weeks from now and buy one at the homebrew store about three hours from here, but of course I don't want to wait. :)

Will it adversely affect the meade?

Thanks,
Chris
 
I do my primary of 5 gal with 12 pounds of honey. Let it ferment dry and add 3-6 pounds of honey after stablizing.

Nutrients: Doesn't need to be anything special. Some people boil bread yeast for it. Now that's important, if you are using yeast as nutrients and not the active yeast you should kill the yeast first by boiling it. That way it isn't yeast but yeast nutrients.

For Stablizing: Use potasium sorbate or potasium metasulfate.

For a good basic mead, you should be fine. I would at the end of it as it's clearing put in 1 oz of lightly toasted oak to help smooth it out. I put it in for 3-4 weeks if it's chips, a month if it's oak cubes you get.

And most importantly, let it age at least 6 months, best if a year, after it's settled and clear enough to read through.

For yeast: I like Lavin D47, 1-2 packets is good. Keep in mind not to let the temp go above 70 or you could get some off flavors with this yeast.

Matrix

Couple question here:

When you say you do your primary 5 gallons, do you mean you start off using a 5 gallon carboy?

Just confused whether or no I want to start it off in a larger carboy so it has more headspace, then transfer into a 5 gallon carboy for aging?

Do you recommend leaving it in a carboy for 6 months before botteling or just aging it in bottles after some time?

Also I would like this to be a sparkling mead, how will I achieve carbonation if I add something to stabilize it? Should I eventually keg it, force carb, then bottle?
 
Ok so I'm going to pickup some nutrients and get started today
Yeast Nutrient - Red Star's SuperFood (SF), or Lallemand's Fermaid-K
Yeast Energizer - Diammonium phosphate (DAP)

I have not been able to get any more honey though.

Plan is to add 3 gallons of water @ 115 degrees, mix with honey and add to primary, then top it off with cool water to 5.25 gallons.

Does this sound right? Then pitch some white labs sweet yeast (picked it up directly from white labs).

Edit: I can't find the nutrients listed above. or Diammonium phosphate :(
I do have some Wyeast Beer Nutrient Blend. Will that work?
 
Just for future info, DAP is considered the yeast nutrient usually and Red Star's SuperFood (SF), or Lallemand's Fermaid-K would be considered the energizer since they have sources of natural nitrogen sources.

If your beer nutrient blend is the same as :

http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_productdetail.cfm?ProductID=15

Then that will work. Just use it at 1.5 tsp per gallon stepping the nutrient additions throughout the firs 1/3 of the fermentation.
 
I ended up purchasing Fermaid-K and DAP online, but I haven't started the mead yet :(

Now I'm trying to figure out if I should use filtered tap water or reverse osmosis water?

My Plan is to heat up 2 gallons of water, to 115, pour the honey into the brew pot and mix it up.

Add my nutrients top it off to 5 gallons and let it cool then pitch the sweat mead yest.

I still don't know weather to use a 5 gallon or 6.5 gallon carboy either...
 
I ended up purchasing Fermaid-K and DAP online, but I haven't started the mead yet :(

Now I'm trying to figure out if I should use filtered tap water or reverse osmosis water?

My Plan is to heat up 2 gallons of water, to 115, pour the honey into the brew pot and mix it up.

Add my nutrients top it off to 5 gallons and let it cool then pitch the sweat mead yest.

I still don't know weather to use a 5 gallon or 6.5 gallon carboy either...

Start with a 5.5 gallon batch, then rack into a 5 gallon secondary that's nice and full, take your remainder and put in a small bottle with airlock and use that to top up at next racking.
 
Your water choice can go either way. My tap water is not very hard but I simply run it through a brita filter for my mead. If your water tastes like anything else except water then that will transfer over into the final taste of your mead. So filter your tap or RO water will work.

Some may say don't use RO water because mead has little nutrient content and you need the minerals in tap for a healthy ferment but as long as you have a good nutrient regiment then you are fine.

If using Wyeast sweet mead yeast rather than what you originally posted then you may need to change this up a little. Wyeast sweet mead yeast is often a pita to use and stalls or will not ferment. So normally I use 1tsp per gallon yeast nutrient and 1/2 tsp per gallon energizer. You may need to multiply your numbers by 1.5 to give the yeast that added help to keep it running so if you choose to run 5 gallons you are looking at about 7.5 tsp nutrient and 3.75 tsp energizer. Front load all the nutrient up front and use stagard nutrient additions on the energizer.

To make things easier your originally stated Cote de Blanc would work out to just as tasty mead if not better and will not need to up the nutrients.
 
Your water choice can go either way. My tap water is not very hard but I simply run it through a brita filter for my mead. If your water tastes like anything else except water then that will transfer over into the final taste of your mead. So filter your tap or RO water will work.

Some may say don't use RO water because mead has little nutrient content and you need the minerals in tap for a healthy ferment but as long as you have a good nutrient regiment then you are fine.

If using Wyeast sweet mead yeast rather than what you originally posted then you may need to change this up a little. Wyeast sweet mead yeast is often a pita to use and stalls or will not ferment. So normally I use 1tsp per gallon yeast nutrient and 1/2 tsp per gallon energizer. You may need to multiply your numbers by 1.5 to give the yeast that added help to keep it running so if you choose to run 5 gallons you are looking at about 7.5 tsp nutrient and 3.75 tsp energizer. Front load all the nutrient up front and use stagard nutrient additions on the energizer.

To make things easier your originally stated Cote de Blanc would work out to just as tasty mead if not better and will not need to up the nutrients.

Sounds like I should have stuck with cote de blanc, I still have both, but I have no idea what I would use this sweet mead yeast for then. White labs talked me into it while sampling. The yeast is at least fairly fresh since I purchased directly from the lab, minus the 3 weeks it has been in my refrigerator. I was thinking the White labs was the way to go since I'm a little short on the amount of honey.
 
Ok there are two "sweet mead yeasts" on the market. One from white lab and the other from Wyeast. The white lab's yeast is a better product and not what I was referencing above. I have never used yeast from white lab so can not give personal experience but I do know from second and knowledge that it should do fine for you. Sorry to throw a scare at you but when most say sweet mead yeast they are referencing the Wyeast version.

Carry on!
 
Well I waited too long I guess. I just checked the gravity and it was down 10 brix and I haven't added the second stage nutrients.
Is it too late to add them down? I tasted my reading and it is definately getting there. Still cloudy though, and a 3" floating ring of yeast towards the bottom.

Should I rouse them?

Transfer the mead to a secondary?

Add more nutrients? or is it already too late for that?

Thanks,
 
Just boil a bit of bread yeast and dump it in. It won't affect the taste like some commercial nutrients will when added too late
 
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