first attempt at vanilla mead

[Benvolio]

I decided to try a vanilla mead yesterday. I have some brown stuff floating on the top after fermenting for 24 hours. I have not seen this on any other mead. Is this normal, or has something gone wrong? Also the black stuff in the picture is the vanilla bean and seeds.

The Recipe I used:

3 pounds honey
1 gallon spring water
D47 yeast
1 vanilla bean

 

[Vex3521]

Looks pretty normal. I will be racking a mead to secondary over vanilla beans so I'll let you know if I see similar =) won't be until this coming weekend though.

 

[JJack887]

If your sanitation was solid, it'd be irrational to worry. I think it'll be fine.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Looks like yeast & vanilla bean bits to me, no worries.
Regards, GF.

 

[Benvolio]

Thanks for the information, it is definitely reassuring. I didn't think there was a problem but i haven't seen the yeast that color before in my short time of brewing.

 

[Vex3521]

Yep totally normal! I added that vanilla bean I was waiting on to see how the vanilla note was progressing and I've got the darker tone and black bits like you pictured!

 

[Deafmeadmaker]

Racked my traditional to secondary this weekend (5 gal.) On sheer impulse I threw in two vanilla beans. How long should I keep them in there? My original plan was to sample it in a week and see how it tastes. Should I let it go longer? shorter?

 

[Brauer]

You might want some yeast nurient in there. If you don't have any on hand a few raisins will suffice.

 

[Vex3521]

At a week my batch just had a light hint of vanilla so I opted to keep it longer. I like where it is now at the 2 week mark since it's a little more assertive than I wanted so I'm comfortable that it's going to land right where I want as it ages. I'm running a 1 gallon with 1 bean so the 5 with 2 might need a little longer or it could be stellar when you sample =)

 

[Benvolio]

Racked my traditional to secondary this weekend (5 gal.) On sheer impulse I threw in two vanilla beans. How long should I keep them in there? My original plan was to sample it in a week and see how it tastes. Should I let it go longer? shorter?

A week is not very long. Might need to add more beans or let it sit longer. In the research I did for the most part 1 bean per gallon is the norm. Or it might be perfect.

Personally i like vanilla so for my batch I plan on transferring the beans still floating in my primary into the secondary once fermentation is done.

depending on how busy I am I may
-- rack again 1 month later to check flavor, again transferring seeds/bean floating at the top
-- let it bulk age in secondary the rest of the year.
-- rack into 3rd after a month split the gallon in half and age 1/2 with the seeds/bean and the other 1/2 without.

I am curious to see how everyone's will turn out.

 

[Frognostic]

Yes it's vanilla seeds, like the ones you get in real vanilla icecream lol.

I put vanilla in a coffee wine, that had honey as part of its fermentable sugars, but one of my friends said it smelled awful.

I don't think it smelled great but it wasn't as bad to my senses as he made out. I think the odd smell may have been the coffee going stale but I think the vanilla may have gone stale too.

Makes me concerned that if I use it for meads in the future that it'll smell like rancid vanilla pods.