Making mead tonight

[brewmedic43]

Ok, I am still VERY new at this whole brewing/mead making thing and I still have some basic NOOB questions. I am going to attempt to make a blueberry melomel for SWMBO and am a little unsure on temps. I know with beer making there needs to be certain temps for steeping and all that.
I have approx 6 pounds of honey (for a 1 gallon batch), do I just use hot tap water or does it have to be at a certain temp? What is a good SG? Do I add the blueberries frozen or at room temp? How much for a 1 gallon batch? Would yall recommend a specific yeast or I have heard about using bread yeast? Thank you all for the info and patience.

 

[Bhunter87]

First off... 6lb is WAY TO MUCH for a 1 gal batch!!!!!

3lb honey/1gal will be good

1 lb thawed berries in the secondary.

The yeast is dependent on what kind of end product you want. Dry or sweet

 

[TheBrewingMedic]

6 pounds is alot for a one gallon batch, might want to cut that in half or maybe even a hair under a half or your OG will be real high and may overwhelm your yeast no matter the strain and you'll stall before it starts.

As for temp, there are a lot of different opinions about this some just pour into room temp water (no heat method) and mix like crazy.

Some (shudders) boil their water and honey together ....Don't do this please, it'll kill your flavor and aroma profiles.

Some mix honey and water and heat to around 150 degrees I think (I don't use this method so forgot the exact temp) and hold it there for like 10 min to sterilize. This too lets a lot of your honeys aroma and some flavor compounds go away in the steam.

Personally, I heat my water up to 90-100 degrees as I usually use a bottled water that is already santized (my tap water tastes funky). if using tap water I would boil for about ten min. then cool to about 100 degrees, add my honey thats been sitting in a warm water bath just to thin it out and I use a sanitized stainless wire wisk and whip the heck out of it, gets frothy and starts the oxygenation process.


For the fruit additions there are just as many schools of thought some like to add to primary, some to secondary.

I like adding about a pound of fruit to the primary, tasting when I rack and if needed add another pound to the secondary, I add at room temp so it doesn't cause a real temp variation in your mead.

For yeast, the popular ones are lalvin D-47 (seems the choice for a mid sweetness) lalvin 1116 or 1118 for a more aggresive drier mead (also helps stuck fermentations). Below I'll post a link for a yeast chart, good info you can look over and make your picks.

http://www.winemakermag.com/guide/yeast

Whichever methods, temps, rehydration practices and yeasts you choose....Good Luck and enjoy.

 

[Bhunter87]

What he said /\

 

[brewmedic43]

Thanks all, I should have been more clear in that I won't use all the honey I just have plenty, lol guess that was an oopsident. Anyway thanks for all the info, I will post more on here to let y'all know what I decide.

 

[brewmedic43]

Ok, so I made my attempt. I used 3 pounds honey, with a SG of 1.102, a package of lalvin 1118 (per LHBS advice), no yeast nutrient (also per LHBS advice), about 20 whole blueberries, had to have a make shift blow off tube due to my plug not fitting correctly (should have dry fit it first), I believe I sanitized everything sufficiently so we shall see what happens. Thank yall for the advice and will continue to update the progress

 

[brewmedic43]

Fermentation is starting, Krausen has begun to form on the top, my blow off is working correctly , (bubbling once every 2 seconds, and I know that is not the tell all sign of fermentation). So now I will just continue to check on it and make sure the blow off doesn't blow out! Question though, any ideas on when fermentation may slow so the threat of blowing the blow off tube is less?

 

[fatbloke]

How long is a piece of string ?
Depends on nutrition, pH, temperature, aeration, etc etc.
EC-1118 is the usual poor suggestion from HBS who don't know much about meads....you'll likely blow most of the aromatics straight out, and possibly some of the more subtle flavour elements.

Still, it sounds like the ferment has commenced ok, so aerate daily, some nutrition at the 1/3rd sugar break, etc. Ferment it dry and back sweeten.

 

[brewmedic43]

Ok so I got my mind blown on that. Aerate daily? As in plug the bung and shake or what? And back sweeten? How would that go if I feel the need to do it? What is the 1/3 rd sugar break? My LHBS is not a mead maker so he is only going off others that have told him what they did. I guess I should have done a little more research before I began, but from what I learned so far, it will still be mead and I made it lol just may not be the best it can be

 

[Insomniac]

From what I can tell (I've not used it myself yet) there is nothing wrong with 1118, there are just better choices out there.
As for aerating I wouldn't bung it and shake, it will probably just blow itself everywhere. I tend to just swirl the carboy a bit at first, with the air lock still on. Once it stops reacting as heavily i start shaking it a little, taking the top off each time to let a little air in.

 

[bluebrew1]

Insomniac wouldn't swirling the carboy with airlock in place simply push CO2 back into solution since it is heavier than the O2 and in theory would displace it (O2) in the head space of the carboy?

 

[Blackbox_Brewing]

Nutrient at 1/3 sugar means add some nutrient after 2/3 sugar has fermented out (usually when bubbling slows in your blowoff/airlock - 3 days or so, depending on OG and yeast)

 

[Goblet]

The stickies at the top of the forum (What I Learned.... Mead Making Basics... or something such for titles) should tell you what you need to know about aerating, nutrients, backsweetening, etc. They contain some really really useful information. And yeah, start aerating slowly or you'll have a mini-volcano Been there, done that, for sure.