ElCid79
Well-Known Member
Hello everyone,
I am just about to attempt my first mead. A little back ground. We have great water locally, its very clean and makes terrific beer! Which rocks! One of my buddies happens to have a couple of bee hives, and has lots of honey.
With that said, I am going to try my hand at mead making for the first time, and I want a nice SIMPLE recipe. I have several packages of lalvin d47 and some DAP.
What schedule should I follow for the DAP additions, and how many packs of lalvin should I pitch? Is hydrating that yeast an important step, or can I skip it with minimal impact?
As I understand it I will need about 12-16lbs of honey for a 5 gallon batch, and the process is pretty simple.
Since this is unregulated honey, I think that heating (sanitizing) it would probably be a good idea. Do you agree with this, or would I be wasting my time?
Basically, I need to bring water up to 170* Pour in my honey, make sure it is mixed well, and then bring the temp down to normal pitching temperatures.
I do have an immersion chiller, so I was considering using that to bring the temps down, but in order to sanitize that I would need to boil the water for a short while. Would adding the honey to water just off a boil cause any issues? I could simply boil the immersion chiller for a few minutes as normal. Kill the heat, add the honey wait a minute for it to kill any bugs, and then chill it.
As per fermentation, I will follow all of my traditional homebrew sanitation techniques. I will likely use a 7.5g bucket as a primary and then a glass carboy for a long secondary.
Thanks for the advice.
I am just about to attempt my first mead. A little back ground. We have great water locally, its very clean and makes terrific beer! Which rocks! One of my buddies happens to have a couple of bee hives, and has lots of honey.
With that said, I am going to try my hand at mead making for the first time, and I want a nice SIMPLE recipe. I have several packages of lalvin d47 and some DAP.
What schedule should I follow for the DAP additions, and how many packs of lalvin should I pitch? Is hydrating that yeast an important step, or can I skip it with minimal impact?
As I understand it I will need about 12-16lbs of honey for a 5 gallon batch, and the process is pretty simple.
Since this is unregulated honey, I think that heating (sanitizing) it would probably be a good idea. Do you agree with this, or would I be wasting my time?
Basically, I need to bring water up to 170* Pour in my honey, make sure it is mixed well, and then bring the temp down to normal pitching temperatures.
I do have an immersion chiller, so I was considering using that to bring the temps down, but in order to sanitize that I would need to boil the water for a short while. Would adding the honey to water just off a boil cause any issues? I could simply boil the immersion chiller for a few minutes as normal. Kill the heat, add the honey wait a minute for it to kill any bugs, and then chill it.
As per fermentation, I will follow all of my traditional homebrew sanitation techniques. I will likely use a 7.5g bucket as a primary and then a glass carboy for a long secondary.
Thanks for the advice.