New to Mead - Plan for first batch

[ostey]

Hello meaders (is that a word?). Long time homebrewer here and I'm going all in for my first batch of blueberry vanilla melomel. Here is my plan. Please give me any advice before I attack my first batch of mead. I'm targeting a 4 -5 gallon batch.

Ingredients:

1. 13.5 lbs local honey
2. Two 3-lb cans of vintner's blueberry puree
3. Five whole vanilla beans
4. Apple juice (amount tbd, shooting for a SG of 1.150 for 16-17% abv)
5. ec-1118 yeast
6. Go-ferm
7. Fermaid-o
8. Fermaid-k
9. Potassium metabisulfite
10. Pectic enzyme

My plan:

1. Rehydrate yeast using go-ferm
2. Warm up honey and pour into fermentation bucket
3. Add 1 can of blueberry puree
4. Add apple juice and water to get target SG. (if I can't get there, I might add corn sugar not sure it that is a good idea or not)
5. Record Original Gravity
   
6. Add yeast and mix with paint stirrer and hand drill for several minutes to aerate.
7. Place into my fermentation chamber set to 60 degrees.
8. At 24-hour mark, add in Fermaid-O and stir again (I think right?), record gravity, increase temp to 65 degrees.
9. At 48-hour mark, add in Fermaid-O and stir again (Stir if SG is more than ~1.09), increase temp to 70 degrees.
10. At 72-hour mark, add Fermaid-K and Fermaid-O, (Stir if SG is more than ~1.09)
11. At 1 week, add Fermaid-K, check gravity and do not stir.
12. After complete fermentation, rack to secondary, add potassium metabisulfite and last can of blueberry puree, add 5 split and scraped vanilla beans. Decrease temperature to 50 degrees (maybe or leave it in the garage over winter)
13. Let it ride add Pectic enzyme
14. Keg after clear (~6 months?)

Any input is welcome and appreciated!

 

[piojo]

Welcome to being a mazer!

Note: I'm pretty surely less experienced than you with fermentation in general, so take this as food for thought rather than firm advice. (Personally, I think that's how all advice should be taken.)

Is that nutrition scheme tested? I haven't really heard of people switching from Fermaid O to K as the fermentation progresses. It would make a fun experiment to see what happens if the nitrogen is given as DAP early and organic nitrogen later, and also vice versa. I would suspect the other nutrients (besides nitrogen) in Fermaid K are more useful early than late. However, if you have thought this out, don't let me stop you!

How much do you care about being able to measure the exact OG rather than estimating and using calculators to figure it out? Because if you are okay adding sugars later (and I believe the GotMead calculator can help figure out what the OG would have been based on the measured OG, and the SG before and after adding new sugars), I would make 1-2 changes:

• Add some of the sugar after the gravity has dropped a bit, so the OG is at 1.100 or below. If the late addition is honey, you don't even need to mix it unless you want an exactly repeatable process. Remember to leave room for honey+water in the fermenter.
• I made a lovely plum mead that was no longer drinkable a year after bottling. Fruit oxidizes. I would delay the fruit puree until after the lag phase when the yeast is happily consuming all the oxygen you can add. Maybe even delay it until you stop aerating in a week.

Last, I'm currently trying to verify this, but I think 60°F is at the very coldest end of the recommended range for pitching. Be sure to atemporate carefully. This is how Scott Labs says to do it in their handbook:

Slowly (over a period of 5 minutes) combine an equal amount
of the must/juice to be fermented with the yeast suspen-
sion. This will help the yeast adjust to the cooler temperature
of the must/juice and will help avoid cold shock caused by a
rapid temperature drop exceeding 10°C(18°F). This atempera-
tion step may need repeating for very low temperature must/
juice. Each atemperation step should last about 15–20 minutes.
For every 10°C(18°F) temperature difference between the
must/juice and the yeast slurry, an atemperation step must
be performed.​

MeadMakr describes a simpler atemporation procedure:

Dissolve [amount 1] of Go-Ferm Protect in 250 mL hot water (the hotter the better). The warmer the water, the easier it will be to dissolve the Go-Ferm.​

When the water reaches 104 deg F (40 deg C), pour in [amount 2] yeast. Give the slurry a quick swirl. After 15 minutes, begin tempering yeast by adding 125 mL must to the yeast slurry every 5 minutes.When yeast slurry temperature is within 10 deg F of must temperature, pitch yeast into fermenter.​

Note: I dissolve Go-Ferm on a stir plate in water just off boiling. If you don't have that, it would be prudent to grind up any clumps before dissolving.

 

[Maylar]

Is that nutrition scheme tested? I haven't really heard of people switching from Fermaid O to K as the fermentation progresses. It would make a fun experiment to see what happens if the nitrogen is given as DAP early and organic nitrogen later, and also vice versa. I would suspect the other nutrients (besides nitrogen) in Fermaid K are more useful early than late.

You are correct. Fermaid K up front, then Fermaid O. The K has DAP that the yeast can't use after about 9% alcohol.

Last, I'm currently trying to verify this, but I think 60°F is at the very coldest end of the recommended range for pitching. Be sure to atemporate carefully. This is how Scott Labs says to do it in their handbook:

Good advice. It's OK to drop temperature once the lag phase is done, but pitching yeast should be at room temp and atemporated as you said.

 

[piojo]

Additional note: I think I found out why many instructions say to dump the yeast into the cup but "do not stir". It's because they need to come up to 35-40°C before they get wet, otherwise it will actually be rehydrated in cool water instead of hot. So the clumping action will protect the yeast for that crucial first minute. So let it float or clump to warm up before you stir it.

 

[RPh_Guy]

I have some suggestions

1. Make the must before rehydrating the yeast. Trust me, mixing honey etc will take longer than the time needed for rehydration.

2. I like to measure and calculate to hit particular numbers. If that's not your style, just ignore the rest of #2. Using multiple sugar sources will make it more complicated to hit a particular OG. Pick a batch size, let's say 4 gal. Dissolve 0.25 lb of honey in enough water to make 0.25 gallon (1 qt) and measure the gravity. That tells you the ppg of the honey (should be around 1.036 = 36ppg). Then calculate the gravity points for your total honey in 4 gal. Measure the gravity of your apple juice. Calculate how much apple juice is needed to hit your target OG ... This: [Batch size] * [points needed] / [juice gravity points]. Add the apple juice. Then you can either top up with water to the target batch size or calculate a blend with your current must and juice to hit your desired OG and not use additional water.

3. I suggest TOSNA 2.0 as a nutrition regimen (reduce nutrients by 50% since you are using fruit juice). It works well.

4. I would not ramp up the temperature, especially not so fast. 1118 is very aggressive. 50-60°F is perfectly fine for the entire fermentation (after pitching).

5. I'd save all the blueberry puree til after the primary fermentation. Once the blueberry fermentation finishes, add sulfite and vanilla beans. Protect the flavors of your more volatile ingredients.
FYI, adding blueberry will effectively lower the OG. If you want it to stay the same, thoroughly mix the blueberry puree in enough water so you can get a hydrometer/refractometer reading. Add sugar or honey to get the mixture up to your target OG.

6. Before 1/3 sugar depletion, degas at least once a day, twice is better. You will need to degas before taking a hydrometer reading, and definitely before adding nutrient. Avoid "mead explosion accidents".

7. Add pectic enzyme at the very beginning. Maybe some with the blueberry as well. Alcohol inhibits its performance.

Cheers

Additional note: I think I found out why many instructions say to dump the yeast into the cup but "do not stir". It's because they need to come up to 35-40°C before they get wet, otherwise it will actually be rehydrated in cool water instead of hot. So the clumping action will protect the yeast for that crucial first minute. So let it float or clump to warm up before you stir it.

Interesting. I've seen evidence suggesting that rehydration temp isn't that critical so I just rehydrate about 10°F above ambient, give it a quick stir, wait 15 mins, and then begin tempering -- which then only takes one step. I don't stress about it too much because dry yeast seem to be able to handle a lot of abuse.

Edit: I don't know what I saw before, but this experiment does suggest warm water is best (the experts were right; who would have guessed?): https://bkyeast.wordpress.com/2013/03/13/more-on-yeast-rehydration/