sweaterman
Well-Known Member
I just brought home my first mead kit from Midwest Supplies. Customer appreciation day so I got that, a pumpkin ale kit, and two 16oz EZCaps for like $50. Not bad. Bottles were "free," one per purchased kit.
Anyway, I am reading many threads and trying to piece together what I am going to do with this kit.
I want to make a classic sweet mead with half of it and a rose-hip/lavender mead with the other half. Knowing I wanted to experiment I also picked up two 3-gal better bottles, bungs, and airlocks while at Midwest.
For the actual brew, my thoughts were to make everything according to the recipe and pitch the yeast into a full primary pale. I would let this ferment out and when it was ready to move to secondary - the recipe says approximately 1 month - I would split the batch into the two better bottles, racking one of these onto the rose-hips and lavender. I have added lavender to a honey wheat beer I made in the past at secondary and had great results.
How does the vox populi respond to this plan? Also, I have read a bit about degassing mead. From what I understand this should be done when transferring to the secondary. How have other people done this, and do they recommend it? Any other hints I should take into consideration before walking this path?
Mead details:
12 lbs Clove Honey
5 tsps Yeast Nutrient
Priming sugar-optional
WLP-720 Sweet Mead Yeast
Anticipated OG 1.082-1.086
Anticipated FG 1.006-1.010
Anyway, I am reading many threads and trying to piece together what I am going to do with this kit.
I want to make a classic sweet mead with half of it and a rose-hip/lavender mead with the other half. Knowing I wanted to experiment I also picked up two 3-gal better bottles, bungs, and airlocks while at Midwest.
For the actual brew, my thoughts were to make everything according to the recipe and pitch the yeast into a full primary pale. I would let this ferment out and when it was ready to move to secondary - the recipe says approximately 1 month - I would split the batch into the two better bottles, racking one of these onto the rose-hips and lavender. I have added lavender to a honey wheat beer I made in the past at secondary and had great results.
How does the vox populi respond to this plan? Also, I have read a bit about degassing mead. From what I understand this should be done when transferring to the secondary. How have other people done this, and do they recommend it? Any other hints I should take into consideration before walking this path?
Mead details:
12 lbs Clove Honey
5 tsps Yeast Nutrient
Priming sugar-optional
WLP-720 Sweet Mead Yeast
Anticipated OG 1.082-1.086
Anticipated FG 1.006-1.010