Bray's One Month Mead

[Stephonovich]

I'm still in testing with Fermaid O. Three additions seems fine with a 1.100 BOMM. When the gravity is higher, it starts to get dicey on fusel production. You can add more. It won't hurt anything as long as it is clear before you drink it.

Gotcha. Well, while I don't have an A/B test for you, I'm happy to pass on any results or opinions.

 

[Mxh5891]

Had my first mead explosion today when I added my first round of nutriants. For those newbies out there like me don't forget to degas and add them slowly. I was to excited and added them all fairly quickly. It was all good until a gave it a little swirl. Then I had a nice volcano of bubbles for a about a 30 seconds to a minute.

 

[andrewmaixner]

Had my first mead explosion today when I added my first round of nutriants. For those newbies out there like me don't forget to degas and add them slowly. I was to excited and added them all fairly quickly. It was all good until a gave it a little swirl. Then I had a nice volcano of bubbles for a about a 30 seconds to a minute.

Yup, also, you can dissolve the nutrients in water, or small portion of your fermenting mead, then add the solution back to the fermenter

 

[loveofrose]

Had my first mead explosion today when I added my first round of nutriants. For those newbies out there like me don't forget to degas and add them slowly. I was to excited and added them all fairly quickly. It was all good until a gave it a little swirl. Then I had a nice volcano of bubbles for a about a 30 seconds to a minute.

No worries. Until a MEA(mead explosion accident) cost you $5000, you are doing fine. No lie.

 

[Lefou]

I'm going to assume that's the voice of experience taken from a comparatively larger batch!

 

[andrewmaixner]

No worries. Until a MEA(mead explosion accident) cost you $5000, you are doing fine. No lie.

you can't just post that and walk away without telling the whole story....

 

[CanadianJesus]

+1 on last post! Please do tell!

Btw, I'm picking up bottling supplies to bottle the traditional mead I made over the winter on Tuesday. I have read through this entire thread and plan on giving this wonderful recipe a shot as soon as I can get some local honey! I plan on ordering the correct yeast on my next payday.

 

[loveofrose]

I had a 5 gallon batch of tupelo traditional going. I also had a brand new drill powered degasser. I was attempting to degas with the drill degasser and... nothing happen. No bubbles, no activity at all.

Ok. I decided to hit it hard and give full power.

You've seen what happens when you hit the top of a beer bottle with another beer bottle. Science fair volcano gushing, right?

Now imagine that same thing with a 5 gallon bucket WITHOUT THE LID! It just kept spewing like it would never end. Three rolls of paper towels wouldn't even touch it.

It saturated the carpet down to the concrete. Initially, the closet smelled like vanilla sheet cake, but then it started to sour.

No choice but to rip up the carpet. Thing is, it had permeated under the carpet into the living room. Re-carpet everything, right? No, no, no. The wife needed hardwood floors now as recompense.

Thousands of dollars later, I learned the true value of a $5 giant Tupperware secondary container to hold my fermenters. Now, my secondary containers can hold the full contents of any of my brews. Never again!

 

[Mxh5891]

Wow so glad I decided to have my mead fermenting in my basement shower stall. So when I had my small explosion it just went right down the drain.

 

[cozmogeek]

I went to start a couple gallons of this last night (first mead ever, woohoo!) when I realized that my LHBS sold me wyeast 3822 belgian dark strong ale instead of what I had ordered. Has anybody else used this yeast yet? I didn't see it on the Belgian yeast experiment list. I decided to just go for it anyway and see how it turns out.

 

[wkrawul2]

So, I'm planning on using the base bomm recipe to make a cherry melomel. This might be a open question, but, what would be best to use? Real fruit, concentrate, or puree?

 

[cozmogeek]

I just got a small carton of really good blackberries I plan to smash and rack a gallon of this stuff on top of them in a week or two. Is there any general guidelines when is a good time to do that? Prior to this I've only made fruit wines where the fruit is the source of the sugar for the yeast so it goes in at the beginning. I just added my last round of nutrients yesterday so it's 2/3 done.

 

[loveofrose]

I went to start a couple gallons of this last night (first mead ever, woohoo!) when I realized that my LHBS sold me wyeast 3822 belgian dark strong ale instead of what I had ordered. Has anybody else used this yeast yet? I didn't see it on the Belgian yeast experiment list. I decided to just go for it anyway and see how it turns out.

Nope, never tried it. Let us know how it turns out.

 

[loveofrose]

So, I'm planning on using the base bomm recipe to make a cherry melomel. This might be a open question, but, what would be best to use? Real fruit, concentrate, or puree?

I would place it in this order:
1. Real fruit, seeds removed.
2. Purée: Vinters Harvest is great.
3. Concentrate, but make sure there are no preservatives.

 

[loveofrose]

I just got a small carton of really good blackberries I plan to smash and rack a gallon of this stuff on top of them in a week or two. Is there any general guidelines when is a good time to do that? Prior to this I've only made fruit wines where the fruit is the source of the sugar for the yeast so it goes in at the beginning. I just added my last round of nutrients yesterday so it's 2/3 done.

When you add fruit determines the type of flavor you get in your mead. Add to primary for a wine like effect. Add to secondary to preserve the natural fruit flavor. When is best depends on your goals!

 

[cozmogeek]

Secondary it is! I got some rainier cherries and macadamia nuts today that I think I'm going to use for the 2nd gallon. There's a rum made in Maui that has cherry and macadamia and it is my favorite so I figured I'd try something similar with the mead. The lady at the distillery said they put it in a bag and let it steep like a giant tea bag. I am going to try the same thing (crush the nuts and smash up the cherries and let them hang in the mesh bag for a week or two). This is going to be a very expensive gallon.

I decided since I didn't get the right yeast maybe I'll flavor these 2 gallons and try to make some plain mead next time with the proper yeast. There's a bee keeper supply shop a couple miles up the road from me that actually has orange blossom honey (from California) so i'll go refill my jar when these 2 gallons are done and start 2 more.

 

[cozmogeek]

My fermentation seems to have slowed WAY down at 1.030. Even after adding my 3rd dose of nutrients it didn't seem to help. Things are already settling and clearing up. I tried shaking it all up last night and it was all settled out already this morning and it's barely bubbling at all. In the past 4 days or so it's only gone from 1.030 to 1.027. I don't think this yeast of mine is gonna do the job in a month.

 

[loveofrose]

My fermentation seems to have slowed WAY down at 1.030. Even after adding my 3rd dose of nutrients it didn't seem to help. Things are already settling and clearing up. I tried shaking it all up last night and it was all settled out already this morning and it's barely bubbling at all. In the past 4 days or so it's only gone from 1.030 to 1.027. I don't think this yeast of mine is gonna do the job in a month.

Two questions. Is it Wyeast 1388? What is your temperature?

 

[cozmogeek]

Two questions. Is it Wyeast 1388? What is your temperature?

No unfortunately I ordered 1388 and they gave me something else and I didn't realize it until I got home. It is wyeast 3822 belgian dark strong ale.
My house has been about 73 degrees pretty consistently during the time this has been fermenting.

I'm probably going to end up going and ordering the yeast again and starting another batch as soon as this is done... or maybe sooner if this is going to take a while. I just hope it doesn't stop completely.

 

[Stephonovich]

Chiming in with this: I'm also having a slow ferment. I found out that my initial reading 3 days in was way off. I did use 1388, and the temp is about 70 degrees. I started out at 1.132, and depending on whether you believe BeerSmith or Sean Terrill, I'm at either 1.036, or 1.052. Judging by the sweetness, I'm tempted to say it's closer to the former, but still - pretty low, and it hasn't been dropping much every day.

Should I add more nutrients? I rouse it every day. I could also pitch more yeast; I'd just have to build it up.

 

[cozmogeek]

I just realized that it might not be stalled, it might be done. The calculator says it's at ~11.2% ABV. I'm not sure why I didn't think about that earlier.
I picked up some of the Forbidden Fruit yeast today since my local shop had it in stock and will start a couple more gallons to use as my sweet mead with the fruits I've picked up.

 

[loveofrose]

How many days in are you? How many lbs of honey did you use? 1388 tolerance in mead is 15.7% ABV.

 

[andrewmaixner]

He mentioned order 1388, but receiving and using "wyeast 3822 belgian dark strong ale"

One option, if the batch is stalled too sweet to enjoy, could be making a healthy starter of high tolerance yeast (CBC, 1388, etc.), pour the starter into a new empty carboy at high activity, and step feed the stalled batch into the new carboy. you start with a very small amount, and I think you double the addition or the total volume every time, so the yeast doesn't get shocked/killed by the sudden change. Adding too little won't hurt it, just will take longer.

 

[cozmogeek]

I used about 2.5-2.75lbs of honey.. the SG wasn't as high as the recipe calls for so I think it's just finished already. I wasn't thinking about the fact that I need to use the refractometer calculator to figure out the actual gravity.. which it says is 0.993.

 

[cozmogeek]

I used a 1 gallon carboy and marked off the lines based on taking out the amount of liquid suggested but I need to move my water line down a bit before I do another batch. I think I'm going to etch it onto the bottle so I can just reuse it for this recipe without having to measure at all next time.

 

[loveofrose]

I used about 2.5-2.75lbs of honey.. the SG wasn't as high as the recipe calls for so I think it's just finished already. I wasn't thinking about the fact that I need to use the refractometer calculator to figure out the actual gravity.. which it says is 0.993.

This is completely done. Yeah, refractometers are nice, but you gotta remember the conversion.

 

[cozmogeek]

I started 2 more gallons today using the Forbidden Fruit yeast. I will use these 2 batches for my fruit flavored meads and leave the orange blossom stuff plain. I decided to not even wait to see how the first gallons turned out before starting some more.

 

[cozmogeek]

I bottled my first 2 gallons today (got 9 bottles). I think that Belgian dark strong ale yeast worked out fine. This stuff is pretty tasty. I probably go a bit overboard with my labels and whatnot for a guy just making this for himself

 

[cozmogeek]

One of the bottles in my 2nd batch seems to have stalled at 1.029 (~8%ABV). It never did bubble nearly as much as the other 3 gallons I have done. I'm not sure if it's the honey or what. That was using the forbidden fruit yeast. The other gallon using that same yeast (but different honey) is still fermenting away.

 

[cozmogeek]

The 2nd bottle ended up stalling too in almost the same place. I just split a pouch of 1388 between the 2 gallons and added some more nutrients. We'll see if that gets it going.

 

[cozmogeek]

Both bottles are happily chugging away again. I also started a new bottle with 1388 and some local blueberry honey that I got today.

 

[rjolin01]

I just ordered 6lbs wildflower honey from northern brewer hope that's enough for at least 3 gallons if not 5 gallons

 

[Jupapabear]

12lbs got my 5 gallons to 1.085. 6 is not near enough. Although I am using Orange Blossom and not wf.

 

[andrewmaixner]

I just ordered 6lbs wildflower honey from northern brewer hope that's enough for at least 3 gallons if not 5 gallons

6lb will get you about 3 gallons at 1.074, 2.33 gallons at 1.095, or 2.5 gallons at 1.088. with "average" honey composition

see this: http://mcarterbrown.com/mead/mead2.html
check box current gravity = 1.000
check box Target Volume = 2.5
check box Additional Sugars #1 = honey, 6lb

 

[rjolin01]

If I do a 3 gallon batch, would be advisable to still do a started and pitch whole thing? If so would need to do the 5 gallon addition schedule due to so much yeast or is it based on sugar available?

 

[zimmerj81]

Did you check the pH? I've had issues due to low pH. Using some potassium bicarbonate to raise the pH did the trick for me.

Edit: Sorry, I was replying to cosmo's fermentation issues

 

[cozmogeek]

Adding the other yeast seemed to kickstart it just fine. It's almost done now finally. I just got my PH meter so I could actually check it next time if this happens.

 

[jradams76]

Hello, Just wanted to say that I kicked off my 1 gallon version of Bomm on Friday and its going along nicely. I degassed and added first round of nutrients on Sat. Degassed only on Sunday and will be adding degassing and adding nutrients today. Do people normally let it sit in the primary for a week and then rack over to secondary and let it sit and clear up? I'm using a 2 gal bucket for my primary. One other question if I wanted to make another batch I could re-use the yeast from the first by just dumping the lees into the next primary bucket with the must and nutrients? Thanks

 

[rjolin01]

I am having a difficult time trying to figure an appropriate starter cocktail for a 3 gallon batch and also the TOSNA amount since I using fermaid-o. How much dap:fermaid-o for each addition. Can anyone help?

 

[loveofrose]

Hello, Just wanted to say that I kicked off my 1 gallon version of Bomm on Friday and its going along nicely. I degassed and added first round of nutrients on Sat. Degassed only on Sunday and will be adding degassing and adding nutrients today. Do people normally let it sit in the primary for a week and then rack over to secondary and let it sit and clear up? I'm using a 2 gal bucket for my primary. One other question if I wanted to make another batch I could re-use the yeast from the first by just dumping the lees into the next primary bucket with the must and nutrients? Thanks

Let it stay in primary the full month. The yeast tend to clean up off flavors during that time. You can rack before, but only if it tastes good.

You can reuse yeast as long as you started at 1.120 or below AND the batch is 1 month old or less. It can be variable if your sanitation isn't perfect though.