Mead day 2010

[biochemedic]

Anyone having any local celebrations? My LHBS has a nice thing every year, and I'm thinking I might actually brew at the event on Saturday. The collective "group brew" recipe is a traditional melomel. I'm leaning towards a cherry melomel, but I'm thinking of using Lalvin 71B instead of liquid yeast.

Whether or not you go to a special event, Happy Mead Day everyone!

 

[pipapat]

no event here.
i work saterday so im brewing a batch of cactus honey atm.

at 58per 12 lbs im a bit over budget for my 4 gallon batch.

 

[LightningInABottle]

Wow 2010 and still some homebrewing sites are reccomending boiling the honey and using irish moss! I'm glad I found HBT before I started most of my batches. It cut out a lot of steps and decreased my fermentation times. I will be doing a SNA addition to my blueberry melomel tomorrow so I will be participating in a limited way.

 

[MedsenFey]

I'm already feeling the pain of those poor souls with stuck fermentations due the the Wyeast sweet mead strain. Hopefully the instructions to increase the biomass of the pitch will help, but my heart goes out to them.

Medsen

 

[Mischief_Brewing]

I'm throwing together a 3-gal batch with what's left of my 09 NJ Wildflower Honey. Haven't weighed it and will just add water, nutrient, and yeast and maybe take a gravity reading...

 

[GTG]

Transferring some mead onto some fruit. Racking some traditional mead onto some huckleberries. Bottling an braggot and apfelwein. Maybe cooking some prickly pears down for a batch as well.

GTG

 

[bob1852]

your mead will be much happier if you use 71B over the liquid yeasts (and follow hightests SNA in the mead FAQ.

Did anyone else find this step disturbing?

When the mead has cleared and airlock activity has slowed to about one bubble per minute, it is time to bottle. Take a specific gravity reading at this time.

 

[LightningInABottle]

Bottling

If the gravity reading is close to the expected reading (1.030-1.045), there will be a lot of residual sugar in the mead. If you like how it tastes, you may want to use a stabilizer such as potassium sorbate to stop any further fermentation. To do this, add 2½ teaspoons (12.5 g) of potassium sorbate to the mead and gently stir it in. Wait a day or two before bottling the mead.

If you prefer not to use potassium sorbate, you can slow further fermentation by refrigerating the mead. Be aware that inadequately refrigerated sweet meads can become carbonated over time.

With that much sugar they are asking for bottle bombs. Happy blowed up mead maker day!

 

[biochemedic]

Yeah, there were a couple of things I thought were rather unusual, including using Irish Moss. Boiling though, isn't *necessarily* as much of a problem as some make it out to be. I boil a couple of my recipes out of necessity for the process (my two versions of hop metheglin), and they're some of my best meads.

BTW, I've used the Wyeast sweet strain (with a starter) and had fine results. I think the recommendation to use 2 packs will compensate for no starter

 

[malkore]

The local brew club is having a picnic/meeting/brew mead day on Sunday. Should be a good time.

 

[weirdboy]

Wow 2010 and still some homebrewing sites are reccomending boiling the honey and using irish moss! I'm glad I found HBT before I started most of my batches.

You need to re-read the recipe more carefully. It says to boil the water and then cool it to 160F before adding the honey.



Anyway I had forgotten about Mead Day but maybe I will make a small batch if I can find an appropriate fermenter.

 

[KCWortHog]

BTW, I've used the Wyeast sweet strain (with a starter) and had fine results. I think the recommendation to use 2 packs will compensate for no starter

Yeah, a guy in our homebrew club won best of show with a melomel made with Wyeast sweet mead yeast. I have yet to use it (and have no plans to do so), but clearly some people have success with it. That said, I've read nothing but bad things about it here.

ETA - no mead day plans here, but am definitely making some mead next week

 

[2ndGenBrewer]

Wow. I guess I have good timing. Didn't even know about mead day. - I'll be racking a braggot and a heather mead. Also, I will be cooking some prickly pears, doing a Hibiscus, rasberry cyser, and maybe doing a batch of elderflower. A very happy (and busy) mead day!

I hope everyone esle has a good day too!!

 

[LightningInABottle]

You need to re-read the recipe more carefully. It says to boil the water and then cool it to 160F before adding the honey.

Sorry that is pasteurizing your honey not boiling to skim off wax. Pasteurizing still destroys some of the flavor characteristics of your honey. It is an uneeded step and results in an inferior end product. Why do it? Very few organizism can live in a solution of 20% water 80% sugar with few nutrients

 

[biochemedic]

Pasteurizing still destroys some of the flavor characteristics of your honey. It is an uneeded step and results in an inferior end product.

I used to believe this too, but there are two sides to any coin. Boiling or heating may change the product, but I would hesitate to call it "inferior." As I've mentioned before, my hop metheglin has to be boiled as part of the process, and it's pretty damn good, and was extremely well received at Mead Day yesterday. (At risk of sounding cocky, which isn't my intent, I was *strongly* encouraged by a BJCP judge to submit it at the soonest available contest. Again, not being cocky, but I thought it was a very nice complement, and illustrates that a boiled mead can be great too.)

I challenge all of you to check out this link where the author actually did the experiment challenging this notion, and put a boiled mead vs a no-boil mead up against each other head to head.

These links (#1 & #2) reference the double blind taste test results...

 

[MeadWitch]

I used to believe this too, but there are two sides to any coin. Boiling or heating may change the product, but I would hesitate to call it "inferior." As I've mentioned before, my hop metheglin has to be boiled as part of the process, and it's pretty damn good, and was extremely well received at Mead Day yesterday. (At risk of sounding cocky, which isn't my intent, I was *strongly* encouraged by a BJCP judge to submit it at the soonest available contest. Again, not being cocky, but I thought it was a very nice complement, and illustrates that a boiled mead can be great too.)

.

Nice compliment?? Damn straight high top compliment!! Can we get a rock on from the gallery???:rockin: Way to go biochemedic!

 

[LightningInABottle]

I guess it depends on what type of honey you use. My friend and I made identical batches of cyser using US-05. We both used orange blossom honey orded from miller's. He insisted on pastuerizing and I didn't. We used the same cider, nutrients, jug water and yeast. His batch came out great, but you don't detect the orange blossom notes that you do in my batch. We did our own blind taste test and the results were the opposite of what the blog you linked to said. All prefered my aroma, I got higher ranking in fore taste and after taste, body and mid taste came out even. We poored glasses of mead before people entered the room and both of us were not involved in the judging. We actually left the room and someone came out to notify us that the cards had been collected.

I have never worked with heather honey. I will have to arrange another blind taste test with a batch made from darker honey. Actually this was such a hit we may try doing this with other batches testing different characteristics.

Congrats on your hop metheglin! There are recepies I have had to heat, such as the carmel apple recipe by summer solstice. In the future I hope to get a burnt mead in the bucket.

 

[MedsenFey]

The question of boiling is certainly not settled. In Errol's test, the non-boiled batch had the better aroma, but the boiled batch had better body/flavor. I have previously outlined some issues with the testing methodology, however, Heather honey is one that tends to be very bitter. The boiling which removes proteinaceous material that may give more bitterness and astringency might be beneficial for such a mead.

About a year ago, several folks on GotMead started a series of brews to try to accumulate some more data for comparison. I heartily invite anyone else interested in trying it for themselves to post up brewlogs to show the results. It just may be that some honey does work better if boiled, but I'd like to know which ones.

Lightning, I'd love to see the full details of the recipe and processes you and your buddy used for your batches if you would be willing to post them up. I'll be glad to include it in the tally of results.

Medsen

 

[biochemedic]

Lightning...It certainly may vary by honey varietals. Overall, I still err on the side of not heating, or heating minimally just to help with dissolution of the honey, but I'm far less afraid to boil it than I had been when I first started learning how to make mead.

I also hope to do a bochet sometime, but will probably get some inexpensive clover honey from Sam's or Costco for that one, rather than use my good local wildflower honey.

Thanks all for the congrats on feedback to my metheglin!

 

[LightningInABottle]

Hey Medsen, I will post up full brew logs when I get them all together. There was one major difference. Mine took 2 months to fully ferment out to .094 his only took 3 weeks. The basement temp in my house was 59-58 degrees farenheit, his was at 68 dergees. My basement was below just below the reccomended range for US-05. We did the taste test shortly after I racked into the secondary.

I am lining up a more detailed brew where hopefully we can brew and store it all in the same location to eliminate that variable. I have one brewer lined up and am trying to add a second experienced mead maker. We will do a show mead to eliminate variables like the cider/fruit making a difference. Also we are planning on getting a bucket of honey that we will all be brewing from. Once we kick it off I will be creating a thread and encouraging others to try the same experiment.

 

[Mischief_Brewing]

3 gallons of 1.094 NJ Wildflower Mead is bubbling away in my basement. Hope everybody had a great national mead day!

 

[biochemedic]

I am lining up a more detailed brew where hopefully we can brew and store it all in the same location to eliminate that variable. I have one brewer lined up and am trying to add a second experienced mead maker. We will do a show mead to eliminate variables like the cider/fruit making a difference. Also we are planning on getting a bucket of honey that we will all be brewing from. Once we kick it off I will be creating a thread and encouraging others to try the same experiment.

This does sound like a neat group brew experiment...I could probably get 2 one gallon experimental batches with wildflower going for this.

 

[Kauai_Kahuna]

Wow, talk about a global psychic connection, I did not even hear about mead day.
But I got home on the 7th, and had a strong urge to make a mead.
15 lbs of clover honey, and empty bucket had been calling me for a while.
Here is what I threw together after drinking too much beer and feeling the urge to make some mead. It has been so long since I used fruit I forgot the peptic enzyme, so I added just a little once fermentation started.

15 lbs Clover honey, Sam's Suebee.
1.5 gal Motts Apple Juice.
2.1 gal water.
1 lbs blueberries. (.5 lb at start), maybe add more to taste.

OG 1.120
FG 1.000
ABV 15.7% ??

Re-hydrated yeast. Added Apple juice, 15 lbs honey. DAP, FermK.
Pitched EC-1118 Champagne Wine Yeast 1 lb blueberries.
In fridge at 65F.
20100807 21:00 In fridge, estimated 24 hour lag time.
20100808 23:00 Stirred, Fermentation started.
20100809 22:30 Stirred, lots of foam, Added DAP, FermK,
a little Peptic Enz, SG 1.110

I'm just blown away somehow I started a mead on mead day. I usually only make around 4 a year so it's not that common. :rockin: