First Mead

On March 4, 2012 I made up my first Mead, hoping will be done for X-mas 2012.

Today Looking at this at 6am today it is steady small bubbles like a champagne glass with the bubbles rising all over the fermentor.

With this much action you would think the Krausen would be huge and maybe even blow over. but it is not even 1/8" on the top, the bubbles seem to just pop and the air lock is pretty much no pause bubbling.

Looks almost like river of bubbles covering the keg going up.

Never seen this much action without a blow out or huge Krausen, the Lalvin 71B-1122 is really active and seems to be a nice yeast so far.



Blueberry Pomegranate Mead
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Brewer: Trollby
Style: Mead
Batch: 1.50 galExtract

Characteristics
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Recipe Gravity: 1.140 OG
Recipe Bitterness: 0 IBU
Recipe Color: 11° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.035
Alcohol by Volume: 13.6%
Alcohol by Weight: 10.7%

Ingredients
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Frozen BB-Pom Juice (6.13oz sugar)0.77 lb, Extract, Other
Honey 5.00 lb, Sugar, Other


Lalvin 71B-1122 1.00 unit, Yeast, Flocculation – medium; Temperature Range: 59°-86° F; 5.0 GRAMS ; Alcohol tolerance up to 14%
Raisins 25.00 unit, Additive, Used in Meads for yeast food (Yeast Nutrients)
Yeast Nutrients 0.25 unit, Additive, 1/2 tsp per 5 gallons

Notes
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Recipe Notes:
1.5 quarts bottled or filtered water in a 5 quart pot bring to a boil, remove from heat.
Add honey and mix well.
Add both Nutrients and cool to 80*F

Rehydrate Yeast in 2 oz (50ml) water between 104 - 109*F, wait 15 min then stir.
blend in some must slowly to temper and bring yeast up to gravity (about 5min)

Take OG sample

Aerate the Must and add the yeast, mix well and aerate again.

Maintain temp between 65-75*F for approx 30 days.

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Taste was very good from the hydro sample the BB-Pom but very sweet, which I hope it keeps the fruit flavors through the fermentation process.

OG = 1.140 @ 71*F

You won't necessarily get much of a krauzen when making mead. The airlock bubbling is a good sign that fermentation is still ongoing. Let the yeasties do their thing.

Ya, when I made hard Lemonade and hard cider using champagne yeast I got blow-out in my air lock. This yeast seems to me just as active but lower in the fermentor so the Krausen is not there like champagne yeast did.

I didn't wind up with any Krausen in my mead, I just kept an eye on the hydrometer readings and transfered to secondary once I hit 11% alcohol.

If you make a melomel with a bunch of fruit I have noticed a little more krausen like activity but have yet to need a blow off tube with any mead and have used multiple strains of yeast. i'ts a gentler "boil" it's actually kinda pretty to watch the bubble cascade up the sides if youre using a glass fermenter

So I was debating about adding puree of Blue-berry and Pomegranate fruit to the Mead when I made it.

Do you think it will loose the fruitiness?

I know the Raspberry Lemonade I made lost all the raspberry flavor, I should of added more fruit.

*should have or should've

with mead adding fruit in primary can wind up with the fruitiness drowned out once the yeast finishes eating the fruit. From what I've gathered the usual thing to do is add the fruit in secondary once the yeast have stopped and died off.

One issue I may have is my Primary is a 1.75 gallon fermentor (1.5 gallon for use with .25 for head room)

So I have to use a 1 gallon and a half gallon for secondary since I only have one of the 1.75 jug

Anyone know were you can find more of the 2 gallon ones of years ago that were cider jug?

You do realize, I hope, that a target FG of 1.035 is going to be insanely [or at least really, really, really] sweet... I have some that finished in the 1.024-1.026 range and it's sweet enough to be close to the edge of what I would consider good drinking. The following is a good guide to keep in mind when trying to target a FG in mead...

Dry: 0.990 – 1.006
Medium: 1.006 – 1.015
Sweet: 1.012 – 1.020
Dessert: 1.020+

This is for my wife who has Celiac and loves sweet booze drinks

Trollby said:

One issue I may have is my Primary is a 1.75 gallon fermentor (1.5 gallon for use with .25 for head room)

So I have to use a 1 gallon and a half gallon for secondary since I only have one of the 1.75 jug

Anyone know were you can find more of the 2 gallon ones of years ago that were cider jug?

Click to expand...

Only thing I've seen around for sale are the 2g plastic bucket fermentors

Trollby said:

This is for my wife who has Celiac and loves sweet booze drinks

Click to expand...

Woo, bummer for the wife. That can be a b*****d of a condition too manage.

If she can manage meads, then get her too taste it, we all have different ideas of "sweet". The numbers for the "official reckoning" give you a guide to follow to compare her idea of sweet.

Sure she'll know its likely to age/mature over time, just that knowing her level/liking, you'll know what to concentrate on.....