Started a new Sweet Mead

[meading_of_minds]

And, used my hydrometer for the first time. I hope I read it right.
Sweet Mead
1 c water
3 Jasmine Green Tea Bags
Boil water, add tea bags, steep. Measured off 1 cup tea.
4 c water
5 lbs. clover honey
Heated water, dissolved the honey.
acid blend = 1 oz. lemon juice, 2 oz. white grape juice
1 tsp pectic enzyme
1 campden tablet
1 tsp yeast nutrient
I put all this in the gallon jar and shook it up. Thinking about this, I should have left this sit for a while before adding yeast.
I measured at this point. 1.168 if I read it right.
Between making tea and dissolving honey I rehydrated Lalvin D47 in warm water. I put this in after everything else and topped up with some water, put in my airlock.
Well, now we'll tuck this in a quiet spot and keep an eye on it.
The hope is for a good basic sweet mead recipe without too many extras (fruit, spices, etc.). This one is for my hubby who likes sweet mead. I'm going to put together an apfelwine later and then order some more airlocks for the next group. My hubby bought me some plastic 5-gal carboys, and I can't wait to get them full. I started a caramel mead at the beginning on the month and the taste I took from the measuring tube was amazing. If this works good, I'm definitely going to make a 5 gal. batch!
I also bottled a batch of No Age Sweet Mead, which I am not as happy with. I am going to put this downstairs with my JAOM to age. It was just too yeasty tasting and is still not crystal clear. I'll maybe make an adjustment in the recipe and try again.

 

[Emerald]

Your mead sounds very interesting.. The only question I have is---is only three tea bags enuf for flavor? many of the tea mead recipes and tea wine recipes that I have scoped out on here use boxes of tea not just a few bags. I haven't made any tea mead but I was thinking about making green/jasmine tea in a gallon batch myself-- Jasmine tea is a favorite of mine. I hope that the nice floral notes of the jasmine come thru well. And then on to maybe some chocolate mead! not to forget this coming summer with all the fresh fruits and berries that I have in the garden-- mead dreams.

On the matter of mead not clearing up and dropping sediment out quickly- I have a sneaky feeling that it is a mead thing- I have made the apfelwein, which clears quite quickly for me and a couple of cysers and now have a white grape/peach mead brewing and they are quite cloudy and taking forever to drop sediment and clear-- but all ya read about in meads is that they take at least a year to be good so maybe the long clearing is part of the process.

I look forward to hearing more of your mead-ventures. EM

 

[MedsenFey]

Does he like it syrupy sweet? This batch is going to end very, very sweet. Starting with a gravity of 1.168 is tough for any yeast, and at really high gravity, yeast tend to stall short of their alcohol tolerance. You'll be lucky if this batch gets to 1.065 as a final gravity. If that is the level of sweetness you're shooting for, then it is no problem.

Sometimes it is better to start at a more modest gravity knowing that you can add more honey at the end to get the level of sweetness where you want it.

The tea will help speed the clearing as the tannins provides help precipitate the protein material out. If you don't find that it has enough tea aroma/flavor, you can add more later.

I hope it turns out really good.

Medsen

 

[meading_of_minds]

He likes very sweet, and we both prefer sweeter or dessert wines to more dry finishes. My JAOM were both actually pretty dry. The No Age Sweet Mead I just bottled finished up at 1.068 (if I read it right) and was still rather yeasty tasting. But the sweetness was better. My honey is just Sam's clover honey, and I know my DH likes Jasmine tea, so it seemed a good choice. I am really hopping for more of a merging, kind of like hinting, rather than strength. If this one comes out too sweet, I can add it to my notes and make adjustments later. I am still learning how all the numbers work in relation to how things taste.

 

[MedsenFey]

Unfortunately, the numbers aren't consistent when it come to sweetness. You can have two meads with the same final gravity and have one taste sweet and the other not due to amounts of acids, tannins, and other flavor compounds. I've made batches from lemons and sour oranges that didn't taste sweet at 1.050 and I've made traditional batches with little acidity that tasted cloyingly sweet at 1.020, so it depends on what else is in there with the sugar.

Joe's pyment has a lot of grape juice, and that has a lot of acidity to balance. If you find this mead is too sweet (or just right ), keep that in mind.

I would still suggest that you try to avoid starting batches at such high gravity in the future. It puts the yeast under stress, increases the risk of stuck fermentation, and cause production of increased volatile acidity (think vinegar) from the yeast. The osmotic stress can cause the yeast to produce odors, and harsh flavors. There are other ways to get to the same end that don't stress the yeast.

I hope this one goes well.

Medsen

 

[flyweed]

5 pounds of honey in less than a gallon of water???? holy smokes....IF this ferments.(I will be very surpised if it doesn't get stuck)..will ferment down to something you could put on your pancakes or waffles I think. very very sweet...it will be cloyingly sweet.

Also..from the way you typed it, it looks like you took your S.G. reading after you pitched your yeast..which will be inaccurate. Also, do you do a tempurature compensation for your SG reading as well? what temp was your must, when you took that gravity reading?

Dan

 

[meading_of_minds]

AAh. I think I did measure after the yeast was pitched. It never occurred to me to do it before. I'm still pretty new with that hydrometer and I still forget half the time. I don't have anything measuring temperature either. I only usually heat the water, to dissolve the honey, until I just see a little steam coming up from the water, then remove it from the heat and stir in the honey. If I feel it's a little warm, I've got plenty of other projects to fill the time while the honey gets to room temp.
It took me way too long to learn about the virtues of patience.
I'll add that to my mental notes and try to get better readings on the next mead. I seem to learn something new with each batch.