Recipe question...

[Sudsy1979]

In a weeks time or so I am going to try my first batch of mead. I am going to try Joes ancient orange recipe but I have a question or two first. (Im sure many more questions to come soon to ; P )
Anyways, do I still require yeast energizer &/or nutrient even though I am adding an orange and some raisins?
Also I have read so much about different types of yeast and am confused on wether I should go with an ale, wine or bread yeast. My lhbs said wine or ale yeast will do, ale having a smoother finish while wine yeast has a dryer finish. I am thinking of using an ale yeast as I do have a pckg of Coopers yeast in the fridge.

 

[sweetsdream]

I'm not claiming to be an expert but I follow the recipe exactly and it always turns out good. If you run a search on this forum, you'll find people changing the yeast all the time and they usually run into problems with it not clearing. You also void the warranty by not following to a T.

 

[Sudsy1979]

lol why fix something that isn't broke I guess.


Cheers!!

 

[fatbloke]

In a weeks time or so I am going to try my first batch of mead. I am going to try Joes ancient orange recipe but I have a question or two first. (Im sure many more questions to come soon to ; P )
Anyways, do I still require yeast energizer &/or nutrient even though I am adding an orange and some raisins?
Also I have read so much about different types of yeast and am confused on wether I should go with an ale, wine or bread yeast. My lhbs said wine or ale yeast will do, ale having a smoother finish while wine yeast has a dryer finish. I am thinking of using an ale yeast as I do have a pckg of Coopers yeast in the fridge.

Brewing yeast will probably take it dry, and it doesn't make for a good dry mead.

As the other poster says, just stick to the recipe as is......

The only slight variations that have come good with my experiments, is that I automatically take "gallon" as imperial, not US (4.55 litres total, not 3.87/3.78 litres whichever it is). Not quite as sweet, but still comes out very well (I understand that some of the EU mainland chappies get 5 litre jugs and that also works out well).

Oh and the yeast in Joes original recipe isn't available here, so I just use a local equivalent, which also seems to do the trick i.e. makes a good ferment but doesn't take it dry, leaving enough residual sugars to make it a nice drink.

regards

fatbloke