My first mead: A tutorial of Mistakes.

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Jarik

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So after years of procrastination, I finally scratched the itch to start making mead. Like many people here, I ran into the guides by 'StormTheCastle' on youtube first, and decided to give it a go. Here's what I did:

Mead Batch #1 11-17-16.
most of 1 gallon Ozarka spring water.
48 oz of Berlsons Honey. (3 lbs)
1 teaspoon of yeast nutrient. (LD Carlson Urea and Diammonium Phosphate)
approx 1/2 packet of Red Star Premier Blanc active dry yeast (champaign yeast).
These where selected from STC's get started making mead item list.

all my equipment was sanitized using star-san solution, and the Nutrient dissolved in a cup of water as well. Must aerated for 5 minutes with manual shaking. The yeast activated for 15 minutes in the Ozarka water. I messed up my volume estimations, and some must was lost to over-fill when yeast was added, so I was worried that the fermentation may suffer due to lost yeast, but it bubbled right along, so I decided to forget about it.

I didn't have my hydrometer yet, so I didn't get a OG reading, but since then, I've read here that 1 lb of honey is worth around 35 points, so with 3 lbs in the mix, I estimate its between 1.095 and 1.105 calling it 1.100 for simplicity sake.

so today, 12-8-16, bubble activity finally slowed to nothing (I know now thats not an indicator, but again, started with STC's guide, and thats what he tells people to watch)
and the must looked clearer than before, so today I racked into new carboy (buying a racking cane for the next batch, using a hose and turkey baster is a bastard)
tested with hydrometer, reading is at 1.000 at 67F
according to the paper that came with my hydrometer, that gives it a potential alcohol of 13.20% assuming initial OG estimate of 1.100

topped up my headspace with a little more of the spring water, and put a new airlock in place.

it tastes like rocket fuel, mixed with a little yeasty flavor and the ghost of honeys past.

So i've been reading up on the subject here after I got started, and have learned that my yeast is not the *best* choice, and that this particular route is probably going to take quite a bit of age to get anywhere good. I've sort of decided that the STC methods, while technically functional, are not the best, especially for newbies who want something drinkable soonish.

I'm thinking of trying the BOMM route for my second, third, and dozenth go while this ages, but I don't fully understand the instructions, So i've got some learning to do before I jump into that.

anyways, Any thoughts, criticisms, and guidance on what I've done so far?
 
So i've been reading up on the subject here after I got started, and have learned that my yeast is not the *best* choice, and that this particular route is probably going to take quite a bit of age to get anywhere good.

Yeah, the yeast choice is definitely going to affect the final outcome. I prefer my mead to be sweet, so I like to use the Wyeast 4184 Sweet Mead Yeast, but we also have the dry version if you don't like your mead terribly sweet (although I will say the sweet version is one of our best sellers).

Sounds like you followed a solid process! Keep on trucking, and relax, don't worry, have a homebrew :mug:
 
So this is probably going to end up on the dry end if I understand what i've been reading correct?
 
Ha ha! You're lucky you've found these forums, Jarik--I was trying my hand at mead for a decade and produced enough Listerine to give Johnson & Johnson a run for their money! Some of the stuff I made turned out drinkable, but more didn't. See, I'd come into this via homebrew, where ale yeasts like warm fermentation temperatures. Wine yeasts don't. And I didn't know about degassing. Once I learned about temperature control and degassing, my mead quality dramatically increased.

Now, there's the BOMM method, which uses Belgian ale yeast that's generally unfazed by warmer temperatures. I started my first batch a week ago Friday, and already it's far and away the best-tasting mead I've ever made, and it's not even finished yet. You'll benefit a lot from the accumulated wisdom here, and waste significantly less honey than I did! :tank:
 
I still don't quite understand how degassing works, need to spend some quality time with the search function.
 
Degassing is VERY simple. When the yeast converts sugar to alcohol, CO2 is the waste product. The CO2 dissolves in the must as it is created, increasing the acidity of the must and making it inhospitable for the yeast. Stressed yeast produces fusel alcohols, which are harsh tasting, giving mead a "Listerine" or "rocket fuel" flavor and can produce headaches in those who drink.

To get the dissolved CO2 out, one degasses. This can be as simple as shaking the fermentation vessel, or stirring with a sterilized spoon, or even using a specially designed electric drill-mounted stirrer. Think of it as a giant, carbonated soft drink--shake it up, and the CO2 will foam out as bubbles. Only this drink continuously self-carbonates, so degassing (shaking) needs to be done regularly through the first half of fermentation. The difference in flavor is very apparent, I can assure you.
 
You can degas in other ways too - when you rack, for example, allow the mead to flow down the inside wall of the target carboy rather than allow the mead to flow into the bottom of the carboy. The large surface area with very little depth forces the CO2 out of suspension. Additionally, if you have a vacuum pump and you can pull about 22 inches of vacuum you can pull the CO2 from the mead (or wine)
 
Thanks for the explanations, that'll help me going forward.
 
Hi Cozmod123 - and welcome. Many wine and mead makers stir their wine a couple of times a day during active fermentation. Comes from a habit of ensuring that any fruit in the primary is constantly kept wet and the yeast is constantly kept in contact with the fruit - That's an issue because the CO2 will lift the fruit and the fruit will form a cap.

That means that typically, wine makers will ferment in buckets loosely covered with a towel or something. Makes stirring very easy - though you do want to make sure that the stirrer is sanitized. When the gravity drops to about 1.010 or 1.005 they will rack to a carboy and at that point they will secure their mead or wine from contact with air.
 
I'm brewing my 4th batch of mead using the TOSNA method (meadmaderight.com)

My fermentation has been extremely active and while it still has a while to go, the flavor has been great so far. Going to wait until finished then knock out the yeast (probably with heat-pasteurization) and back-sweeten with more, local honey. Excited for this batch - the last 2 were rocket fuel (the first was actually not too bad - must've gotten lucky.)
 
What variety was the honey? I've found that certain honeys can give bad tastes in a mead, while being great as a honey (a honeydew honey based mead was my worst, tasted like turpentine!).
I always fermented out to dry for my meads and discovered that without having sweetness to hide behind, the characters of the base flowers came through. e.g. clover gives a very mild flavour, blue borage is very floral, honeydew is horrible. If your honey was a blend, then you've got no idea what the contents is, and it could be anything.
 
I've been making mead for a few years, and I haven't had any issues with the off tastes or rocket fuel flavor y'all are talking about. I use unfiltered organic honey, and Lalvin EC-1118 yeast. I rack mine every two weeks and allow the mead to splash on the bottom of the carboy each time to de-gas my mead. I'm currently making a blackberry melomel, and eventually I'm going to start distilling my meads and fruit wines into brandy.
 
My first batch of mead took nearly a year. At that rate, I was not going to become a Mead Master by the age of 80. Yeast really don't like honey, which is mostly glucose and anti-fungal bee spit. Bees and yeast have been fighting each other for a very long time.

One solution is to 'buff' your yeast (pack them with nutrients) before pitching. I use Step Nutrient Feeding as described by Kristen England and Curt Stock. Briefly, the yeast (I use K1V-1116 or D-47) are re-hydrated with GoFerm per Lallemand instructions. Then the must is de-gassed daily, while nutrients (DAP and Fermaid-K) are added every other day. pH is adjusted to >3.7 with .1M KOH as needed.

Fermentation is done in five (!) days, and FG is around .990.

The resulting "jet fuel" can be back-sweetened after the usual sulfate and sorbate additions. If I'm making a mel, the fruit goes in after the yeast frenzy has subsided (~1.025). That keeps more fruit esters in the bucket, rather than making the brewery smell nice.

Usual brew time is about two weeks. :mug:
 
Degassing is a new one for me. I just started my first batch of mead last night. It's in a carboy... so stirring is out. Give it a shake daily? I've made plenty of beer but this is my first romp with the bees.

I know for beer, shaking once the yeast has been introduced is a no-no. It seems counter-intuitive to me to do so with Mead. Can someone help me understand the difference and how essential this process is?

Also, one correction I want to point out is that the yeast don't automatically determine "sweet" vs "dry" anything. Sugar does. If you have lots of sugar and are using yeast with a low tolerance to high alcohol levels, they will stop early and leave you with a sweeter beverage but if you were to use that same yeast in something with a lower OG it could finish dry as a bone. Also, nutrients and care to the fermentation play into this. If you are nice to your yeast and take precautions (nutrients, temperature care, and apparently degassing, etc) you can get yeast even with a lower alcohol tolerance to ferment a higher OG dry. Pay attention to what kind of yeast you are using and plan your batch accordingly. I imagine you could make dry mead with a lightweight lager yeast if you had a proper plan.


**UPDATE** for the record, I was using this well written article https://www.homebrewtalk.com/current-mead-making-techniques.html as my guide and after re-reading it again I do see that it instructs some swirling to degas. I'll give it a go!

20170117_095029 (1).jpg
 
I made Mead for the first time this year. I used Apple Juice from my own Apples and Honey from my own bees. I live in South Scatch so it is grain fed honey. I did not aerate beyond the initial aeration. I used Turbo Yeast which comes with the nutrient mixed right into it. Also the ABV was low at 8%. It still took about twice as long to ferment as Turbo usually takes but the end product is nice and sweet. I wasn't pleased with how little kick there is to it so I am Freezer Jacking it once to bring it up to around 15%. It is however nice and sweet and tasty.
 
it tastes like rocket fuel, mixed with a little yeasty flavor and the ghost of honeys past.

I´ll have to check my records (at work now) to see what yeasts I used for my batches, but I wanted to chime and and say don´t worry about the rocket fuel character... I was pretty worried early in my first batches. I described my 2011 batch as rocket fuel for a couple years... Then it finally started to mellow and now anyone with a taste for mead (dry) seem to think it´s great stuff, including myself... You have a pretty high ABV, so be patient... 3 years... 4 years... 5 years... mine got better for a long time and has probably plateaued at this point... Don´t think it is getting any worse (it was a 6 gallon batch and is about 17% :tank:... I used crown caps... I am not fancy).

I plan to read the rest of the thread.... but have not yet. please forgive. :mug:

EDITS:
I still don't quite understand how degassing works, need to spend some quality time with the search function.

Some people use fancy stuff... I just took the top off and sloshed it around to get the CO2 out... left if open to breath for just a country minute and then repeated the process at intervals I cannot recall without my records, but it worked... I am curios to try this BOMM belgian yeast thing people are mentioning though... Sounds like you had the right idea for your mead, and you should be fine.

The fusel alcohols some are mentioning do breakdown over time so the negative taste, effect, (and carcinogenic properties?) are reduced... It is an important factor though... I would tell you how much yeast nutrient I added too, but I will have to check my records... I don´t even remember what guidelines I was following back then, but pretty sure it had a lot to do with this site, gotmead forums, and maybe some other free guide(s) online?

What variety was the honey? I've found that certain honeys can give bad tastes in a mead, while being great as a honey (a honeydew honey based mead was my worst, tasted like turpentine!).

Clover worked great for me (no big batches of just clover)... Most my big batch was Orange Blossom (from Williams Brewing in CA) and a little clover (this was my best one, but it bulk aged for a long time), and my wildflower mead was, well, a little wilder (but not bad, esp. as my first batch ever)... From what I have read, the darker the honey the more unpredictable the outcome... It can be good, but it can also be really bad...

I've been making mead for a few years, and I haven't had any issues with the off tastes or rocket fuel flavor y'all are talking about. I use unfiltered organic honey, and Lalvin EC-1118 yeast. I rack mine every two weeks and allow the mead to splash on the bottom of the carboy each time to de-gas my mead. I'm currently making a blackberry melomel, and eventually I'm going to start distilling my meads and fruit wines into brandy.

Maybe you never made it strong enough! lol... I think I used that yeast in a small clover batch... trying hard to remember what I used in the big batch.

Degassing is a new one for me. I just started my first batch of mead last night. It's in a carboy... so stirring is out. Give it a shake daily? I've made plenty of beer but this is my first romp with the bees.

I know for beer, shaking once the yeast has been introduced is a no-no. It seems counter-intuitive to me to do so with Mead. Can someone help me understand the difference and how essential this process is?

Thanks for that link... I have not started any batches in a few years, but when I do I will consult that link... good stuff!

CO2 is toxic to yeast, and because mead tends to be much stronger and lack the same nutrients as beer (malt) it means mead is a much more temperamental beast. As others stated, fusel alcohols will result if you fail to keep your yeast happy, and a quick google search will convince you that you don´t want that!
 
Checking my records... my big batch was only on the high side of 15% ABV and fairly dry, using 2/3 orange blossom (12lb) and 1/3 clover honey (6lb) with Lalvin 71B-1122... this too forever to age... I used recommendations, from somewhere around here back in 2011, for yeast nutrient and energizer (starting with 3tsp of each, and then one smaller addition later with apparently 4tsp of boiled bread yeast... don´t recall how/why I decided to do that). Looks like I off gassed a couple times a day until it slowed, racked it first at about 5-6 weeks, and only once more about 4 months later... At one year I was scared, at 2 I was hopeful, and now it gets great responses. Last check on the gravity was .997

My favorite mead was my Sourwood, but it was just a gallon and over 16% ABV, with more residual sweetness... finished about 1.000 I used Cote Des Blancs yeast from Red Star... same with the Wildflower (~12%) @ .996 (I think I still have a bottle of it hiding in the back of the fridge... it was my first attempt, in early 2011... both basically followed the same protocol as the big batch (proportionally)... That is all the records I have dredged up for now, and I am probably boring some people! I did some small cover batches too... nothing special, but good... Need to get back into it again after a hiatus (been just brewing beer and a little cider for a few years).
 
Thanks for the info, I'll just keep this first batch around for a good long while, see what happens to it. I was thinking of stabilizing, back sweetening a tad, clarifying and bottling it in the coming days, but I need to do a little learning as to the order of operations there. I *think* the order I listed there would be correct?
 
Sounds about right I would think, I have never back-sweetened any so far... Just secondary, rack again, maybe once more if I don't need the carboy for beer, then bottle. I have a friend who wants some mead for his wedding. I thought it would be a lost cause to have it done in time, but then read about Bray's BOMM recipe... If I was a beginner again I'd probably try that to get a quicker result and get the feel for it. There's a good thread about it here on the forum and some info about nutrient levels here:

http://www.meadmakr.com/mm027-making-of-the-bomm-with-bray-denard/

Good luck and enjoy. Share a lot, people are generally really appreciative!

Cheers!
 
Thanks for the info, I'll just keep this first batch around for a good long while, see what happens to it. I was thinking of stabilizing, back sweetening a tad, clarifying and bottling it in the coming days, but I need to do a little learning as to the order of operations there. I *think* the order I listed there would be correct?

The steps are in the correct order.

Need a little more info - what is the current gravity/ABV, and what do you want to do with it? Mead is infinitely bendable.

I stabilize, back-sweeten, then clarify with bentonite followed by sparkolloid. Mead has both plus and minus ions. Honey is such a mess of chemicals.

My last strawberry mel was perfectly clear before back-sweetening. After back-sweetening, it took a couple months at 64F to settle the honey guk. Just emptied a bottle, and it had only a little wisp of sediment on the bottom.
 
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SG at last test about a week ago was around .99, so it dropped .01 from 1.00 in the 6 weeks between tests. I mainly want to to be drinkable at some point in the future, and there is little to no flavor to it right now beyond hot alcohol. my ABV is around 13.27, but thats a bit of a rough estimate, because I didn't have a hydrometer when I started, and have to base my OG off the math and not a real reading (3 lbs of honey to a gallon batch).
I did some experiments with a gallon of water and some honey, and I'm thinking of adding about 5 points of gravity to it with back sweetening, because I've read that aging will mild out the rough spots and let any sweetness come through, and from my experiments, 10 points of gravity in water is plenty sweet for my tastes, and I don't want to overshoot into cloyingly sweet territory after aging.
 
SG at last test about a week ago was around .99, so it dropped .01 from 1.00 in the 6 weeks between tests. I mainly want to to be drinkable at some point in the future, and there is little to no flavor to it right now beyond hot alcohol. my ABV is around 13.27

Most of brewing is knowing what you like, and bending the ingredients toward that. ABV 13.3 is a bit hot for my taste.

If you're good at math, try back-sweetening one small glassful (8 oz) out of the batch. I suggest aiming for enough honey/water for 12% and 1.024. Your mouth will tell you where to go from there. Once you know what %ABV and FG you like, then stabilize and back sweeten/dilute. Enlist the taste buds of friends and family - ask if it's too sweet or too hot.

One warning - unstabilized mead can be a bottle bomb. My first batch took forever to reach 1.020, and kept fermenting even after I bottled it. Sparkling mead can be a lot of fun, but I now use a keg.

Cheers! :tank:
 
one small glassful (8 oz)

Just looked at the OP, and it's a 1-gallon batch. Try a 4 oz. test.

The concept is the same - experiment with a sample of the batch, then up-scale to the entire batch.
 
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