First mead help - Sweet strawberry

[mcfire12]

Well guys, I have years of beer brews under my belt but want to try a mead. I thought I saw some simple recipes before I ordered some things but can't find them back. Looking this evening, some people get pretty wild with some of this mead making. I suppose kind of the extract to all grain kind of thing. Anyway...

What I have is
2 - one gallon glass vessels.
6 - pounds of local made honey from a friend.
Spring water
Yeast nutrient
8 pounds of frozen strawberries
A few packs of lalvin ec-1118

Originally I thought I could just dump 3-4 pounds of honey into a gallon jug, add some berries, top with water, shake the hell out of it, then pitch in some yeast (do I even have to hydrate it. I never do with beer) cap it with an airlock and wait it out a few weeks.

Then the plan was to rack to a secondary and add more strawberries to that. Then just rack that off a few times until it was semi clear at least.

I want a sweet result. Sweet to semi sweet.

Really wanted to toss it together tomorrow, should I be doing some more research or should I give it a go?

 

[madscientist451]

I'll say do more research. Also, how long do you want to wait to drink your mead? If you make a low ABV "beer strength" mead, you can drink it pretty soon. If you make a wine strength mead its going to take some aging.
I would definitely use the strawberries in secondary.
Check out Basic Brewing radio, they did a podcast about using bread yeast in mead and it left some sweetness.

 

[mcfire12]

I'm not patient. I'd like to drink something within a few months. I definitely want a low ABV mead. Is the process I described going to produce an undrinkable final product? Isn't traditional mead just honey water and yeast?

 

[CKuhns]

Give it a go... It should work.

You can research and refine later as your experience and preferences are better understood. Remember your first brew? I bet your technique and practices have changed considerably since you bottled or kegged your first beer.

You are absolutely correct - There are as many ways of making Mead as there are Mead makers. As far as i am concerned none are wrong, just different and different is not necessarily bad just different. My first mead was water honey and yeast pitched and stirred in fermented too warm and after 2 years was amazing.

What I found through my experience, reading and research is that there are literally hundreds of ways and thousands of techniques folks use to make Mead. Some rather quickly and some that literally take a year (or many) to be considered anything but drinkable. For a first time Mead Maker this vast amount of information can be very confusing and a bit overwhelming.

When it comes to creating your Mead, the following statement is probably the wisest words spoken by anyone delving into the practice of turning honey into “The drink of the god’s”. As such, I believe it is the best advice anyone new to the craft should hear.

When making Mead: “If you were successful, which I am 99% certain you will be, then enjoy your mead. When you get ready to make different mead you will probably have to unlearn some of these practices I have taught you, but hey--- This recipe and procedure works with these ingredients so don't knock it. It was your first mead. It was my tenth. Sometimes, even the experts can forget all they know and make good ancient mead.” - Excerpt from Joes Ancient Orange Mead recipe. (JAOM) – Attributed to Joe Mattioli

The recipes that were perfected by Joe and by others most often work pretty repeatable for them. They will only work for you as described when your technique, conditions and ingredients match the recipe. What you must understand is that your ingredients and conditions may or may not exactly match the persons who have perfected the recipe and as such your Mead could turn out slightly too significantly different.

In general Mead is pretty forgiving and endlessly variable. Our personal preferences, pallet and tastes all vary and what might taste good to you or I may not taste good to someone else.

Experiment, have fun and enjoy the journey...

 

[AkTom]

If you want to low ABV mead. Then use one and a half pounds of honey per gallon. That should give you about a 5 to 7% alcohol. And it won't take near as long to age out. You should be drinking that 6 to 8 weeks or so. I'd also get a less aggressive used to use. 118 is a monster.

 

[mcfire12]

If you want to low ABV mead. Then use one and a half pounds of honey per gallon. That should give you about a 5 to 7% alcohol. And it won't take near as long to age out. You should be drinking that 6 to 8 weeks or so. I'd also get a less aggressive used to use. 118 is a monster.

Won't that little of honey result in a very dry product at the end? Not what I am going for. I really have no idea though.

 

[growlrr]

It will...at first. What you'll want to do is let is ferment out to dry. 1.000 or less, then stabilize it with K Sorbate, and K metabisulphate to put the yeast into a permanent coma. At that point you can back-sweeten with more honey to the FG that suits your taste. If you do not want to stabilize, you can use non-fermentable sugars like pure Stevia or lactose. I've never tried that approach, but I've seen others have success.

 

[AkTom]

If you want to drink it quick, low abv mead is your fast friend. Check out Groencell meadery.

 

[mcfire12]

Well there it is...
What we did was sanitize, add 3 pounds of honey, a gallon of water, stirred, added yeast nutrient, then wrapped up 4 pounds of strawberries into a cheesecloth sack and crashed the berries while in the carboy. OG is 1.074 with my refractometer. Hydrated and pitched the yeast. Now sitting in a closet hoping to see airlock action in the morning.

So now my question is, how do I know when to rack this off the trub into a secondary? I want to put 4 pounds of strawberries into the secondary and crush them just like before.

How do I ever stop fermentation? Im assuming that if I allow it to continue I will work and the mead will just get dryer?

Can I just cold crash it when I think it's ready? Any idea on a time line for me?

I obviously didn't do enough research to begin with, can someone help guide me?

 

[mcfire12]

Anyone?

 

[CKuhns]

You rack when Primary is done. Check your gravity and if two succesive readings for a week or so you are done and should rack. You can stop the ferment but I understand only after it slows considerably. Search for the chemicals to do so. I would suggest timeline is more of a guide and has many variables. i.e. 20-30 days in primary and 30+ days in secondary. Others will have differing opinions. Yes you can cold crash, I do to clarify never to try to stop a ferment. Consider doing some research.... I would also suggest when you go to secondary you should put it in a container that it will nearly fill.