First mead (Vanilla)

Hey everyone. I decided to get my brew journal up here finally.

On May 3rd 2012, I picked up 25 lbs of dark honey from my local apiary. I began working on the must later that night.

I found a good recipe that I've been wanting to work on for months now. http://www.gotmead.com/index.php?option=com_rapidrecipe&page=viewrecipe&recipe_id=19&Itemid=459

I followed the recipe almost perfectly. I changed the amount of cinnamon and added an extra vanilla bean. Other than that, nothing extra went in, and nothing was taken out.

25lbs dark honey ( ! ) in two stages
2 Madagascar vanilla beans
30 allspice
30 cloves
2 1/2 sticks of cinnamon (all spices crushed and free in the must)
6 oz frozen Orange Juide Concentrate (pulp free) for citric acid
6 oz frozen Apple Juice Concentrate for malic acid
5 gallons water (spring water)
Lalvin EC-1118 champagne yeast

I first sterilized everything in a potent bleach and water solution, the 6 gallon carboy, the coffee grinder, the jugs of water, carboy bung and airlock, everything. I washed the bleach out thoroughly, and dumped in two gallons of the water. I added half of my honey (12 1/2 lbs) and sloshed it around a little with another gallon of water. I separated all my spices then ground them all up in a coffee grinder before I dumped them into the must. I finished adding the rest of the water and yeast. Then I put the juice concentrates into the carboy and closed it up with the airlock at the top. It's been bubbling ever since!

This is my first mead, and certainly my largest brewing endeavor. I am very interested in getting thoughts on this. This is just an experiment that I hope to do very well so I'm laid back about it, please be kind. Here is a link to my pics. http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b29/The_Shadowfox/Vanilla mead/

I just saw my previous journal up. Sorry for the repost, it never popped up on the forums until a moment ago.

This looks really good mate.
A fine job on your first mead.
I'm not sure about how many cloves and allspice went in, but I have never used either so I cant offer much help there.

I only wish my first batch was as intersting as this.
Keep us posted

from everything i have read 3-4 lbs pf honey per gallon your mead is gonna be a super sack mead. those cloves you put 30 whole cloves?.. from what i have read 1-2 cloves per gallon as they will over power everything Fast keep in mind i have yet to brew a mead im just repeating stuff i have read i hope all turns out well for you

It is definitely an ambitious project for your first mead but definitely doable. The kind of echo zheol, watch out for the cloves the go from nice spice to holy crap lots of spice to overpowering bitter hot spice real fast especially in large quantities. Maybe taste a small amount of your mead after daily aeration/degassing if it starts becoming pronounced pull them out, the flavor from them will strengthen some over time even after they are removed or racked off of.

Hmm, why would the recipe call for 30 to be crushed and then free in the must? I took all of the seasonings and ran them through a coffee grinder. All 30 alspice, and all 30 cloves, all ground. o_o

did it say cracked or ground?

It could be the balance since it is already a proven recipe with a TON of honey and juices so perhaps its tested and just works, kind of like JAOM, the combination, while from the outside looks like it would be a make it and wait a few years to drink type of brew just mysteriously works out to be pretty quickly a decent glass of mead.

I've added a small handful of torn apart raisins to the mead for flavor and extra nutrients. It's bubbling a little more now, prolly needed some more nitrogen.

I have a question, I'm going to be leaving my home for a little over a week. Will it be ok without nutes for a bit? Perhaps if I add another small hand full before I go it will act as a time release supplement?

Oh, and it just says crushed, nothing else. :/ I was a little upset about the lack of specific instructions for this kind of mead. I'm thinking I will rack it when the time comes and just let it continue to ferment without any extra spices and then season to taste after all is said and done.

aerate and feed it just before you leave and it'll occupy itself while youre away for a week with no problem.....good call on not adding anything when you rack it, it'll probably have some strong flavors and if it doesn't just do as you say, steep some spices at the end to get it to the level that tastes best to you.

30 allspice AND 30 cloves?!?! Holy crap that's a $hitload of spice! Like 10 times more than needed, 2 or 3 of each would've been plenty & cracked, not ground. Since the spice is all ground, the only way to get it out (IF at all) is going to be filtration (unless you used a teabag to contain the spice); otherwise, the older this gets, the stronger the spice profile will get & the more undrinkable it will become.
Regards, GF.

gratus fermentatio said:

30 allspice AND 30 cloves?!?! Holy crap that's a $hitload of spice! Like 10 times more than needed, 2 or 3 of each would've been plenty & cracked, not ground. Since the spice is all ground, the only way to get it out (IF at all) is going to be filtration (unless you used a teabag to contain the spice); otherwise, the older this gets, the stronger the spice profile will get & the more undrinkable it will become.
Regards, GF.

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I think from now on I will be using teabags. That is a fantastic idea. Are there any non biodegradable bags out there?

I've used hop sacks with great results, but then when I use spices I always use whole/cracked/sliced spices, NEVER powdered. I suppose you could use a paper coffee filter to contain powdered spices.
Regards, GF.

I have put the paper filters in the primary and they break down by the time it is ready to rack. I thought I might try something like panty hose or something real fine mesh to use rather than the paper products but have not given that a go yet. Or just not use any powdered products at all and just use the muslin bag.

I know a while back I found some "make your own" tea bags at a specialty grocery by me (Whole Foods Market, not sure what would be similar). Anyways, it was an empty tea bag that had two of its edges unsealed. You put whatever you wanted to steep in the bag and then you sealed the two edges shut with a hot iron. Haven't looked for them for a while, so I'm not even sure it they still carry them, but it would definitely be a great way to steep spice in there.

It seems my fermentation has slowed down. It was furious during the last several days.

That is a lot of spice!!! Do you have a lot of trub on the bottom? I would think most of the spice would settle out in a few days as they arn't really water solable. I would racl off the trub ASAP. You can always add more later if you need it.

I just got done racking my wine. Well, not so much racking per say, as much as it was taking a reusable coffee filter and a funnel and pouring 6 gallons of mead into 6 one gallon containers to get my spices out, and then putting it all back into the carboy. I took a small glass of it and it is amazing. Still sweet and lightly spiced. I need to go and pick up some more vanilla beans to replace what I lost.

NOTE: All utensils used were sanitized in a potent bleach solution and rinsed heavily prior to and in between uses.

My fermentation has all but stopped now that it has been shaken up like it has. I added some more raisins to it in hopes of getting it back to where it was.

I have an interesting observation, at the very last gallon, I noticed a substance on top of the liquid that seemed to mimic an oil. I noticed this in a cider I made long ago. I thought it was either bacterial contamination (no nasty flavor to it), or oils from spices that had come out. I used waaaaay too much in that cider. But has anyone else seen this before? What is it?

Cloves & cinnamon both contain extractable oils, even in powdered form. My guess is that's what is floating on your mead. Also, if you have a campden tab, you should add it (crushed & mixed with a little boiled & cooled water) to protect against oxidation. All that pouring (instead of racking) might've introduced O2 to your must.
Regards, GF.

gratus fermentatio said:

Cloves & cinnamon both contain extractable oils, even in powdered form. My guess is that's what is floating on your mead. Also, if you have a campden tab, you should add it (crushed & mixed with a little boiled & cooled water) to protect against oxidation. All that pouring (instead of racking) might've introduced O2 to your must.
Regards, GF.

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But would it really matter? It's only been going for a week. I tasted it last night and I could barely taste any alcohol.

TheShadowfox said:

But would it really matter? It's only been going for a week. I tasted it last night and I could barely taste any alcohol.

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I would use campden on it to protect it from oxidation, but that's just me; it's your mead, you should make it the way you want.
You might want to pick up a copy of this:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0937381802/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
It'll really help to explain a lot of things, I have a copy on my shelf & IMHO, it's one of the best meadmaking books out there.
Regards, GF.

gratus fermentatio said:

I would use campden on it to protect it from oxidation, but that's just me; it's your mead, you should make it the way you want.
You might want to pick up a copy of this:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0937381802/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
It'll really help to explain a lot of things, I have a copy on my shelf & IMHO, it's one of the best meadmaking books out there.
Regards, GF.

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Definitely a good book to have as reference, maybe a bit dated as far as techniques. Great resource though especially for those making metheglins and melomels, the sections on spices and fruits have amazing information.

gratus fermentatio said:

I would use campden on it to protect it from oxidation, but that's just me; it's your mead, you should make it the way you want.
You might want to pick up a copy of this:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0937381802/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
It'll really help to explain a lot of things, I have a copy on my shelf & IMHO, it's one of the best meadmaking books out there.
Regards, GF.

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Oh no I was just trying to figure out the science behind it. 'tis all good. Thanks for the reference! I've been looking into getting that but I didn't know if it was worth it.

BTW, how many campdens should I add to a 6 gallon carboy without killing the yeast? It started furiously fermenting again when I fed it.

Well I just went ahead and added 5. I also added two vanilla beans to replace what I had to remove.

TheShadowfox said:

BTW, how many campdens should I add to a 6 gallon carboy without killing the yeast? It started furiously fermenting again when I fed it.

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Campden tablets are usually dosed at 1 per gallon every other racking. You're probably good with 5 at this point and I wouldn't disturb the batch just to add another.

Catch it up next time.

cyberlord said:

Campden tablets are usually dosed at 1 per gallon every other racking. You're probably good with 5 at this point and I wouldn't disturb the batch just to add another.

Catch it up next time.

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Now is that to slowly add preservative to wines? Does the campden slowly disappear from the must as it ages/oxides?

TheShadowfox said:

Now is that to slowly add preservative to wines? Does the campden slowly disappear from the must as it ages/oxides?

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It slowly dissipates as it combines with things in the wine and gasses off as SO2 gas.

Search for The Home Winemakers Manual by Lum Eisenman

There is a wonderful chapter about sulfite in wine. Chapters 6, 7, and 8 go hand in hand to under stand the whole process.

I must say I did not know that. I'll definitely read up on that. You guys have taught me so much. I'm glad I've got you all around.

I got back from Florida about a week ago now. When I came home my fermentation was nearly completely stopped. I racked my wine into 6 one gallon containers and collected my leese. I added bentonite and let it stay in the fridge to get as much as I could out of it. That stuff is magical, I have about a half gallon of top off mead for when I finish racking off the secondary.

Anyway, I added my other half of the 25 lbs of dark honey and then added the rest of the mead. Yesterday I put in some extra nutrients and raisins and it has been furiously bubbling ever since!