Brewing first mead, Questions and Advice.

[govain]

I've been brewing beer for a little while and recently decided to expand to mead and cider. I plan to eventually go commercial but for now am staying small scale with home brewing.

So, I'm looking to brew my first batch(es) of mead and just wanted to check for some last minute information.

Rather than buy kits from my LHBS I opted to save money since I intend to brew many batches and bought a 'bulk' batch of wildflower honey (was informed that it's 'white' quality, or table quality) from a local honey supplier. I have a 5 gallon bucket (just over 60#) of said honey.
I intend to use aprox. 12# per batch.

I intend to use the following yeasts:
Lalvin 71B-1122 (2 packets)
Lalvin D-47 (2 packets)
White Labs WLP715 Champagne (doing a starter)

*I'm going with 2 packets of the Lalvins at the suggestion of my LHBS. They suggested that I just pitch 2 packets rather than make a starter, and that 1 packet may not be enough.

As far as procedure goes, I plan to follow these instructions which my LHBS includes with their kits.

I have just a couple questions:

1) Can I use a sanitized soup ladle and a sanitized pyrex bowl with my scale to get the proper amount of honey for each batch, rather than just eyeballing it and trying to pour out of the 65# bucket?

2) I'm using used wine bottles for bottling -clear, green, and brown- (I work as a bartender so I'm getting them on-the-cheap from work). Will that be fine? and what size corks should I use to seal them? (I've been told #8 is relatively universal)

3) Any other thoughts and advice?

 

[BryanThompson]

1) Yes, that method will be fine although some of the honey will stay in the bowl and will throw off your measurements.

2) I use a number nine although eight will be a little easier to get into the bottle, and yes those bottles will be fine.

3) Time will be your best friend. Never be afraid that you waited too long to rack.

 

[huesmann]

1) Yes, that method will be fine although some of the honey will stay in the bowl and will throw off your measurements.

Honey retainage is not a problem. You're gonna be adding a non-sticky fluid of some sort to your must, whether it's water or juice of some sort. All you gotta do is flush any remaining honey and dissolve it in some fluid before adding all the fluid to the must. Presumably the scale will have a tare function so he can calculate how much honey he has actually added.

In simple terms:

1) If using a pyrex bowl that holds smaller than 12 lb of honey, tare the bowl to zero on the scale, add honey (e.g. 4.1 lb of honey).
Dump the honey into the mixing vessel, whether you do it in a pail or a stock pot.
Put the bowl back on the scale and weigh.
Say it says 0.2 lb--you just added 3.9 lb of honey to the must.
Fill it up again to 4.1 lb, empty and re-weigh to 0.2 lb. You just added 3.9 lb, for a total of 7.8 lb.
Do this again. You just added 3.9 lb, for a total of 11.7 lb, and have 0.2 lb remaining in the bowl. You need 0.3 lb to make up your 12 lb.
So add enough honey to your bowl so that the scale reads 0.3 lb, dump what you can into the mixing vessel, then slosh some water or juice around the bowl until you dissolve all the remaining honey, and dump it into the vessel.

2) If your pyrex bowl holds 12 lb of honey, it's no problem--just weigh out 12 lb of honey, dump what you can into the vessel, slosh some water/juice around the bowl to dissolve the remainder and add it to the must.

 

[govain]

2) If your pyrex bowl holds 12 lb of honey, it's no problem--just weigh out 12 lb of honey, dump what you can into the vessel, slosh some water/juice around the bowl to dissolve the remainder and add it to the must.

That's pretty much what I had in mind.

 

[cmuzz]

Here is a synopsis of what I posted on another forum. I started making mead again after a 15 year hiatus. Maybe it will give you a feel for the process:

**Saturday evening, I rehydrated my yeast in Go-Ferm (25 minutes). I dissolved 15 lbs of honey in warm water, no sulfites. Pitched the yeast, aerated the 5 gallons and made sure all was fully mixed.

By next AM there was some slight bubbling. I added DAP & Fermaid-K and oxygenated the must. Within a few hours, I have been getting the most vigorous fermentation, I have ever seen in a mead. In fact, it rivals the most vigorous fermentations I have seen in many of my batches of beer. I will continue with another nutrient addition and another oxygen blast when I see that 30% drop in the SG.

When I think back to the week or so that it took to get a slow and steady fermentation going with my original recipe (from 20 years ago), I am amazed that I had the patience to do that 3 times. No wonder we relied so much on the sulfites. Who knows what could have taken hold in that must without them.

**I’m amazed at how this is progressing. I started the fermentation on 2/12. Yesterday 2/27 I took the final of 3 gravity readings and fermentation has ceased. Original Gravity 1.11 & Final at 1.00. So, I racked to the secondary and put it away in a dark corner to sit for a bit. It is still a hazy golden color. I’ll look at it in a month or so to monitor how it is clearing.

It's quite interesting that the flavor is no way near the old rocket fuel taste of years gone by, just thinly winey and very much in need of adjustments with some tannins and acid. I’ll hold off on that until bottling time in maybe 6-9 months.

Meanwhile, I’m going to follow the old procedure of racking every 2 months or so.

**Racked again after 2 months. There was quite a bit of sediment and we are clearing nicely. Still a bit of a golden haze.

But the flavor is lovely. Not as full and round as I am used to, but I have not added the acids and tannins yet. However, I am very satisfied with the flavor and aroma.

I'll be patient and wait another month or so before splitting the batch and trying the additions. I feel the urge to get another batch going. I don't want to be without a bottle of this in my cellar. And I'm not good at laying down bottles for too long.

**OK, decided that my old additions were what I wanted for final flavor. It just gave the roundness and mouthfeel that I remembered. Just toned it down a notch for the 5 gallon batch:
1.5 oz Tartaric
3.0 oz Malic
.8 oz Tannin

Just so you know, this batch is quite drinkable, but I rushed and bottled before it cleared all the way. I was working with a totally raw and unfiltered honey and figured that the haze was going to stick. It has now settled to be very clear in the bottles, but I do have sediment and need to decant before serving.

Hope some of this brew session is of help to you.

 

[govain]

Thanks for the input, and thanks for the repost cmuzz. Should give me a bit of an idea of what to expect.

Oh, also, my honey is not pasteurized. Will this be a problem with the no-heat process? or should I heat it to 160 for ~10 minutes to pasteurize it?

 

[cmuzz]

I'm a firm believer in no heat other than what it takes to make the honey flow.

 

[fatbloke]

-----%<-----
Oh, also, my honey is not pasteurized. Will this be a problem with the no-heat process? or should I heat it to 160 for ~10 minutes to pasteurize it?

No, no, no!

Honey is one of natures most anti-septic substances. It can be used on open wounds very successfully without infection of any type.

Even if it's raw and has bits of hive debris, wax, dead bee's etc etc, still don't boil it. Just measure it out and mix it with water to dissolve it. All the debris etc, will come out naturally during fermentation and racking.

The whole idea of pasteurisation is to kill off bacteria etc, well if there's no bacteria in something, then why would it need to be treated/processed ???

regards

fatbloke

p.s. apart from that, heat treatment of honey will drive off a lot of the more volatile aromatics and even some of the more subtle flavouring elements..... again, so why would you want to treat/process it eh ?........