Question about mead in fermenter, and about yeast nutrients

[dbBrewMonster]

Hello,

I made a mead yesterday, first time for me for mead though I've been brewing beer for a long time. Anyway, I have 2 questions for the smart folks around here:

First, my mead (based on "Malkore's (not so) Ancient Mead" recipe) is in a 3 gallon carboy. I've read several people talking about skimming stuff off the top of their meads... then I look at my carboy... then I think, well, how am I going to do that? And is it necessary?

Second, by the time I got to the end of the brew day (did a stout first, then did my mead) I completely forgot about adding the yeast nutrients. There was a little in the yeast starter I did so I'm not completely worried about their absence yet, but I'm wondering how best to add them now. My thought is to mix them in some clean water and just add them in and shake my carboy up again. Quite irritated with myself for forgetting.

Thanks for any advice. The raw mead sure tasted good when I "accidentally" tried some before putting it in my fermenter, hehehe.

-dave

 

[Tusch]

Don't worry about skimming anything. Some people boil the honey/water mix prior to adding it to the carboy. This creates a film that they then skim off the top, before adding the mix to the carboy.

However, having said that, don't boil honey ever.

Timing wise you should be fine adding nutrient now or up to the 1/3 sugar break I believe, but I will let someone more experienced and wiser to add their more informed advice.

 

[dbBrewMonster]

Hey Tusch, thanks for the quick reply. Yeah... ack! I did not boil. I wouldn't mistreat my 20 bucks worth of honey in that fashion, hehehe. I did 160 degrees for 20 minutes.

 

[FabilaJ]

What would be the effect of not using any yeast nutrient?