Clarity

My roommate suggested crash cooling my mead to get all the yeast to fall out of suspension. Is this possible or is this even advisable?

Absolutely. If you can, put it in the garage or if its in small enough containers, in the fridge for a week or two. The yeast will drop much quicker in colder climates. When you want to rack off of it though, make sure you keep the mead in the fridge or outside until right before you rack, or some of that yeast might come back into suspension as it warms.

mike

Would this drastic drop in temp ruin the yeast? meaning, Im planning on using the yeast again in the next batch of mead. so would this still be possible or with the yeast be effectively dead?

tooomanycolors said:

Would this drastic drop in temp ruin the yeast? meaning, Im planning on using the yeast again in the next batch of mead. so would this still be possible or with the yeast be effectively dead?

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Well, you would only crash cool the secondary, after racking a few times and after fermentation is done. So, you wouldn't be reusing this yeast. You would take the earlier yeast from the primary or secondary.

I only crash cool after fermentation is completely done, and has been done for quite a while. I rack every 30-45 days as long as there are lees. You wouldn't want the yeast after that length of time.

YooperBrew said:

I rack every 30-45 days as long as there are lees. You wouldn't want the yeast after that length of time.

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Thank you... I had not thought to do this multiple times. I have a dunkleweizen that I threw into the beer fridge for about 24 hours, and then put it into the basement, and it is looking very clear, but I had not thought to transfer it to another secondary and try again.

The mead Im considering doing this to is still in the primary, but only because I dont have honey for another batch yet, the gravity has been the same for close to 2 weeks now, and I wont have honey until mid January at the earliest, so at that point if I rack to a secondary and then Immediatly put new honey on the original yeast would it be good to go? And at that point I would put the original mead now in a secondary outside, covered to protect from sunlight, to crash cool?

rabidgerbil said:

Thank you... I had not thought to do this multiple times. I have a dunkleweizen that I threw into the beer fridge for about 24 hours, and then put it into the basement, and it is looking very clear, but I had not thought to transfer it to another secondary and try again.

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We're talking mead here. Beer is done quickly and doesn't actually have a secondary fermentation period. Mead does, and mead can be in a carboy a year or more before being bottled. That's why you rack at regular intervals if it's needed, to get it off the lees.

tooomanycolors said:

The mead Im considering doing this to is still in the primary, but only because I dont have honey for another batch yet, the gravity has been the same for close to 2 weeks now, and I wont have honey until mid January at the earliest, so at that point if I rack to a secondary and then Immediatly put new honey on the original yeast would it be good to go? And at that point I would put the original mead now in a secondary outside, covered to protect from sunlight, to crash cool?

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I'm no mead expert, but that's not what I would do. I wouldn't crash cool the mead for at least 3-4 months or more.

tooomanycolors said:

The mead Im considering doing this to is still in the primary, but only because I dont have honey for another batch yet, the gravity has been the same for close to 2 weeks now, and I wont have honey until mid January at the earliest, so at that point if I rack to a secondary and then Immediatly put new honey on the original yeast would it be good to go? And at that point I would put the original mead now in a secondary outside, covered to protect from sunlight, to crash cool?

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I would go ahead and move to the secondary as soon as possible, and you can always dump the yeast slurry into a sanitized container and throw it in the fridge, and it should last just fine until you are ready to use it in mid January. On top of that, you could go ahead and read up, here on the site, or in other sources, on Yeast Washing, and you will find that you could split up that yeast batch and get many more meads out of it.

tooomanycolors said:

The mead Im considering doing this to is still in the primary, but only because I dont have honey for another batch yet, the gravity has been the same for close to 2 weeks now, and I wont have honey until mid January at the earliest, so at that point if I rack to a secondary and then Immediatly put new honey on the original yeast would it be good to go? And at that point I would put the original mead now in a secondary outside, covered to protect from sunlight, to crash cool?

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No reason you can't move the carboy (or bucket) to a cooler place and wait for a few more weeks till you have all your ingredients gathered up for the next batch. By then a lot of the yeast will have dropped out of suspention, and then you'll have a clearer mead to rack to secondary.

Or you could just spend $2 and get some fresh yeast in January.

true to the new yeast, but I used the Wyeast sweet mead yeast at $7 a pack so I kinda want more than 1 use, poor college guy syndrome

Unfortunately, unlike beer yeast, mead and wine yeast isn't particularly suited to re-using. By the time the fermentation is done, you usually end up with a very high alcohol by volume batch, and that yeast is pretty much dead, or stressed to the point that, if more fermentables were introduced, they would throw off flavors and not taste very good.

Beer yeast usually can ferment up fairly high, around the 10% range, but we usually only use it to about 5%. Therefore it's still very viable and not stressed at all, and we can reuse it in another batch (even then theres a limit). Beer yeast is also a different kind of yeast, suited to reuse. its a top fermentor, so when the krauzen is formed, we can scoop some of that off and have extreamly viable yeast. Wine yeast is bottom fermenting, and behaves slightly differently. In wine yeast, we're pushing it almost as far as it can go, and once it does it usually doesn't want to go any further.

Long story short, spend the two bucks on the dry yeast (i've had really good results with the dry, the liquid yeast doesn't have much advantage in winemaking). College guy or not, just go without that mocha latte tomarrow and pick up another pack of red star

mike

ouch, haha the coffee comment, my money tends to swing between mead making and cigars (lately very lopsided towards cigars).

I racked to a secondary tonight so I will be using all new yeast for my next batch. planning
1)same goldenrod mead
2)Semi-Dry Blackberry
3)JAOM
4) Ginger and Grapefruit mead

all batches will be between 5 and 6 gallons

Take some of your basic mead after it has cleared and add some oak chips. Depending on how long you leave them you get a bourbon flavor very nice compliment to a nice cigar. Maybe dip the tip in a snifter of oak aged mead for a woody, sweet flavor.

mike

oh no party foul on dipping a cigar in a liquid, they cost toooooo much for that, yeah i buy the expensive ones $7 is usually the cheapest. Also not a huge bourbon fan so I may have to decline the oak chip idea.

Happy Fermenting/Brewing

I was always under the impression that dipping a cigar in liquid is far from party foul. My father ocassionally will soak his in amaretto, perhaps disarona to gain a sweet profile in the taste and scent. Works well with certain cigars, he also often does this to rehydrate a dry cigar he hadn't finished on a previous night.

maybe, but in my opinion the stick should never be dipped in any liquid. It could be the cigars that the individual enjoys.