Honey/mead version of a strike temp calculator?

[ARittner]

I'm about to start my first batch of mead, after brewing beer for a couple years. Because of the time it'll take before I know if it's any good I'm trying to collect all the advice I can starting out, since a year is a long time to wait to find out I made a headslap mistake.

One thing I've decided to do, at least on this first batch, is pasteurize the honey. When I'm more brave, I'll try the no heat method.

However, I'd like to avoid exposing the honey to direct heat. Is there a calculator out there, similar to what I'd use to calculate my strike water temp for doing a beer mash?

In other words, I want a target of 160*F, how hot does x volume of water need to be to come to the target temp when y volume of honey is added at z temp.

Does anything like that exist?

Thanks!

-Andy

 

[bubbachunk]

No heat, have faith!

I have done every single one of my meads (12) with no heat and no problems. Now that is not supposed to be convincing evidence on its own but it helps right?

 

[ARittner]

No heat, have faith!

I have done every single one of my meads (12) with no heat and no problems. Now that is not supposed to be convincing evidence on its own but it helps right?

I've heard/read from a lot of people I trust that the no-heat method is fine. I know that it probably is. I'd just hate to be in that minority that gets some bug in the mead, and not really be able to find out for a year if it was infected or not. Does it hurt anything to pasteurize it, as long as it doesn't get over-heated? It seems like a simple enough thing to do, to put my mind at ease for the time I'm going to be sitting and watching it age.

Coming from brewing, where I'm used to boiling boiling boiling, just heating a few gallons of water up is no big deal to me.

-A

 

[bubbachunk]

I've heard/read from a lot of people I trust that the no-heat method is fine. I know that it probably is. I'd just hate to be in that minority that gets some bug in the mead, and not really be able to find out for a year if it was infected or not. Does it hurt anything to pasteurize it, as long as it doesn't get over-heated? It seems like a simple enough thing to do, to put my mind at ease for the time I'm going to be sitting and watching it age.

Coming from brewing, where I'm used to boiling boiling boiling, just heating a few gallons of water up is no big deal to me.

-A

You risk losing some of the more delicate aromas/flavors when you heat it, otherwise there is not harm that I can think of at the moment.