Mead Brewing for Senior Thesis

[vekzero]

So I recently got into the hobby of home brewing & so far I like. I am currently about to begin the prep work for my senior thesis. Every other year some one does a beer company. But I feel like being different & brewing my own mead.

My question is the time it take for fermenting and aging. If I begin fermenting within the next month will it be ready and aged well enough to drink before May? I know it seems like a long time but like I said I am new to home brewing so any tips on beginning a good batch of mead let me know.

thanks for the help

 

[ashmgee]

it would be on the short side aging wise. dry meads seem to peak after a year from the experiments i've seen. if back sweetening for a sweeter mead i couldn't comment because i've never done it and friends of mine haven't either.

 

[mccann51]

If you brewed it within a month and managed the fermentation well, yes, May is a very reasonable goal to have a drinkable mead (aging longer will improve it, but it will be plenty drinkable within that time period).

Brewing a berry melomel (melomel is a fruit mead) is a good way to have a tasty mead fast. Melomels taste good quick (again, tho, it will still improve w age) and clears fast without having to use clearing agents.

Lalvin K1V is a great versatile yeast that tolerates less-than-deal conditions; rehydrate as per the instructions on the packet. Add two pounds of honey and two pounds of berries per gallon of mead. Freeze the berries and then thaw and mash before brewing w it (freezing breaks the cell walls and makes more of the sugar accessible to the yeast). Buy yeast nutrients and add double the recommended amount (the dosage is usually for grape wines which have more innate nutrients).

 

[huesmann]

Would this be college senior, or high school senior?

 

[vekzero]

college graphic design thesis

 

[CreamyGoodness]

Dare I suggest JAOM as a kick off point? I know Im an unrepentant bread-yeaster, but you are guarenteed something drinkable and lovely in that timeframe with that recipe...

 

[hippo8046]

Yup, I've had very good results with JAO. I think everyone has!

 

[biochemedic]

Further to mccann51's comment, I agree a semi-sweet or sweet melomel is a good place to start for a quick turn around mead. I would argue though that 71B is probably the best yeast for a quick-aging mead. I've seen others mention this, and I can say personally that a cherry melomel made with this yeast was very drinkable at 6 months.

I would not underestimate the following additional factors!:
1) temperature control
2) proper pitch rates (I use three 5 gram packets of dry yeast, or a 1/2 gallon yeast starter when I use liquid yeast, for all my meads)
3) Staggered Nutrient Additions

Edit: FWIW, JAOM is essentially a sweet melomel, so I can't disagree with the posters mentioning that

 

[calicojack]

if you don't want to jaom, you can use my recipe for 1 gallon of blueberry. at 6 months it was very drinkable and i placed 2nd at a local brew meeting for it.

2 bottles ocean spray (64oz) blueberry cocktail
1 quart honey
1 packet lavin ec-1118

i mix the juice and the honey in a separate bucket and stir it till it's all dissolved. then i make a starter for the yeast out of the must. i fill my gallon bottle up to the point that it's 2 cups shy (room for starter) and then put the rest back in the ocean spray bottle. that bottle goes in the fridge till it's time to rack to the secondary. once the starter is ready i pitch and cap w/an airlock.

when it comes time to rack, i back fill the head space with what's in the oceanspray bottle and pitch the rest. when it comes time to bottle, you should have a very solid 5 750ml bottles worth of mead.

i also did my last batch during the summer (indoor temp of 70-75)

ETA: contrary to popular belief, making mead is NOT rocket science. guarantee you that people in the 7th-11th centuries didn't do HALF the crap that modern people do to their meads. Which would make a good intro (the history of mead, references in modern film, etc)

 

[ExoticMeadMaker]

Would this be college senior, or high school senior?

I wish I knew about homebrew when I was in college/HS, I would have been the most popular kid in school