Advice

[Brewski01]

Hey all! I’m new to home brewing as you c plus tell from the title, I’ve got 2 meads brewing right now, one I’ve already racked and the other is fermenting still. The one that I’ve racked is an orange mango with a bit of cinnamon. The other one is a pumpkin spice that I’ve added actual pumpkin chunks to. I’m excited to try both in about 2 months! I’m am very excited to be apart of the home brew forum and I look forward to new ways to improve my home brewing. Also I would be grateful for any advice to improve myself and if there are any new vocabulary terms I should know please note them below

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Brewski01 - and welcome. Very hard to offer any advice when you don't provide any significant details. What is your recipe? What protocol did you follow (your method) ? The devil is always in the detail.

 

[Brewski01]

Hi Brewski01 - and welcome. Very hard to offer any advice when you don't provide any significant details. What is your recipe? What protocol did you follow (your method) ? The devil is always in the detail.

I should’ve been more specific, my bad. My first mead recipe is a mango orange cinnamon 1 gallon batch. I used 2 naval oranges, 1 mango and 2 cinnamon sticks with wine yeast and 3 lbs of clover honey and the rest distilled water. I stuck raisins in there as well for the yeast to gobble up. My second batch is a pumpkin spice mead, I used 3 lbs of clover honey with raisins again and about 3 tablespoons of pumpkins spice and a teaspoon of all spice. I also added a little bit of pumpkin chunks( it smells like pumpkin pie). Thank you for replying

 

[Brewski01]

Hi Brewski01 - and welcome. Very hard to offer any advice when you don't provide any significant details. What is your recipe? What protocol did you follow (your method) ? The devil is always in the detail.

Also in both batches I sanitized everything of course and I heated the distilled water and honey or the must to about 100 degrees, it did not boil. I then poured the must into my carboy after I saw the proteins rise to the top in the pot. I then waited for the must to reach room temp and I then proceeded to add my ingredients. While the must was close to room temp I activated the yeast on the side with distilled water and waited more than 10 minutes to pour the yeast into the mix. Lastly I topped off the brew with the co2 cap

 

[CKuhns]

Welcome - You are definitely on the right track and your first two will likely turn out pretty well, the Mango Orange sounds great.

Couple of suggestions
- Distilled water is OK for Mead, however i would suggest you use spring water. The key here is that Distilled water although acceptable does not carry any of the micro-nutrients many consider good for Mead.
- Taste is important, taste the difference between good quality spring water and distilled water. Water makes a difference and the better it tastes the better your final Mead will be.
-Consider a staggered nutrient addition along with the raisins and an aeration strategy. Something like Dimonium Phosphate and Fermaid-K and stirring early in the process to release CO2 and incorporate air for the yeast early on. Search for the various protocols. It seams we all have slightly differing practices.
- CO2 cap is a good idea but really not needed for primary (That's what your yeast produce). I do blanket my carboys with CO2 for secondary and tertiary.
- In my opinion there is no reason to heat the water or honey. Even at 100 deg f you will lose some aromatics in your honey.
- Finally a good Mead at 6 - 9 months will be GREAT at 18 - 24 months. Consider setting a bottle or two aside to see the difference.

Keep experimenting and perfecting your practices, learn from each attempt and keep asking the smart folks on the forums and consider searching the forums for answers as well.

Have fun and enjoy the journey!

 

[Brewski01]

Thank you! Also is there anywhere I can read up about how certain ingredients affect mead and it’s flavors? And with aeration, I thought we aren’t supposed to open up the airlock once you start cause it can risk contamination, do I really need to worry about that?

 

[bernardsmith]

What contamination are you concerned about? Mead ain't beer and honey ain't grain. You have to do a great deal of work to make a sour mead.. whereas with beer you simply look at the wort the wrong way and lactobacteria produce all kinds of souring agents. During active fermentation there is really no fear of oxidation as a) the yeast will gobble up every molecule of air you might introduce (leaving none for the must or fruit) and b) the amount of CO2 the yeast are producing will blanket the liquid with enough gas to prevent any accidental exposure to air. That said, I am not certain that "aeration" is what people are in fact doing when they stir their must during the first week or so of active fermentation. Sure, many mead makers SAY that that is what they are doing, but I think a more accurate characterization of their action is degassing - In other words , they are removing CO2 and not in fact really adding O2 unless, of course, they are pumping O2 into the must via an oxygen tank.

Bottom line? There is really no need to be concerned about "contamination" during active fermentation - especially, if your sanitation of equipment is good.

 

[Brewski01]

Thank you! I’ll start stirring in more nutrients in my next batch then! I also have yeast energizer, do I stir that in too or only put that in at the very start of primary fermentation? I really appreciate all the help

 

[Brewski01]

Thank you! I’ll start stirring in more nutrients in my next batch then! I also have yeast energizer, do I stir that in too or only put that in at the very start of primary fermentation? I really appreciate all the help and tips

 

[bernardsmith]

Cannot answer that question. I don't use the energizer as I tend to use White Labs wine/beer nutrient (they are the same thing only labelled differently).

 

[timeasterday]

Thank you! I’ll start stirring in more nutrients in my next batch then! I also have yeast energizer, do I stir that in too or only put that in at the very start of primary fermentation? I really appreciate all the help and tips

I'm pretty new at this and in a recent class given by two experienced mead makers, they said add some energizer & nutrient at the beginning, then add more & stir (de-gas) at 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours. My first batch turned out tasting pretty good at just 3 weeks old. I just started a second batch while the local honey is still around.

 

[Brewski01]

I'm pretty new at this and in a recent class given by two experienced mead makers, they said add some energizer & nutrient at the beginning, then add more & stir (de-gas) at 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours. My first batch turned out tasting pretty good at just 3 weeks old. I just started a second batch while the local honey is still around.

Thank you! It’s hard for me to get local honey around where I live, although I was able to get my hands on 3 lbs of buckwheat honey at a farmers market. I’m going to use that in my next batch if anyone has any recipes, I was thinking about making a gingerbread mead or cranberry vanilla with Braeburn apples

 

[Brewski01]

I'm pretty new at this and in a recent class given by two experienced mead makers, they said add some energizer & nutrient at the beginning, then add more & stir (de-gas) at 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours. My first batch turned out tasting pretty good at just 3 weeks old. I just started a second batch while the local honey is still around.

Was also thinking about hibiscus tea or caramel apple cyser if anyone has any thoughts on those

 

[bernardsmith]

West Coast buckwheat honey is supposed to taste much more pleasant than the earthy notes of East Coast buckwheat. Unless you have worked with buckwheat honey before this would not be my honey of choice. Of course if you love buckwheat honey then ignore my point... Just sayin'.

 

[Brewski01]

West Coast buckwheat honey is supposed to taste much more pleasant than the earthy notes of East Coast buckwheat. Unless you have worked with buckwheat honey before this would not be my honey of choice. Of course if you love buckwheat honey then ignore my point... Just sayin'.

I meant to only put a little bit of the buckwheat in, I’m mostly going to stick with clover honey as that is the easiest for me to get, unless you have any other flavor suggestions that I should try to get

 

[stamasd]

While not a mead, I did add some honey from Trader Joe, specifically their Turkish honey, to a cider I'm currently making. That was because the apple juice's OG was too low. And since the amount of honey I added makes about 1/3 of the fermentables in the batch I guess that technically that makes it more of a cyser.

That was about a month ago; I tasted it this past Saturday and while the apple taste is dominant, the honey definitely can be felt in the background. I'm pleased with this honey from TJ.

 

[Baabaad00]

I stuck raisins in there as well for the yeast to gobble up.

If you are referring to using raisins as nutrients (or any fruit), they are not sufficient. Read this

I'm pretty new at this and in a recent class given by two experienced mead makers, they said add some energizer & nutrient at the beginning, then add more & stir (de-gas) at 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours. My first batch turned out tasting pretty good at just 3 weeks old. I just started a second batch while the local honey is still around.

This is a vague way of looking at TONSA-SNA (step nutrient addition). The most modern and optimal way to make mead is with SNA based on where the fermentation (specific gravity) is at, not at pre-assigned time intervals. I typically leave a sanitized hydrometer in my mead and watch it drop and add it at in 3 steps (beginning, 1/3 and 2/3 sugar break, as noted in article).

Avoid distilled water, as was already stated. It's void of micro nutrients.

Thank you! Also is there anywhere I can read up about how certain ingredients affect mead and it’s flavors?

Go nuts

 

[ike8228]

If you are referring to using raisins as nutrients (or any fruit), they are not sufficient. Read this



This is a vague way of looking at TONSA-SNA (step nutrient addition). The most modern and optimal way to make mead is with SNA based on where the fermentation (specific gravity) is at, not at pre-assigned time intervals. I typically leave a sanitized hydrometer in my mead and watch it drop and add it at in 3 steps (beginning, 1/3 and 2/3 sugar break, as noted in article).

Avoid distilled water, as was already stated. It's void of micro nutrients.


Go nuts

You keep the hydrometer in the bottle? Doesn’t Krusen buildup a ring around where you want to read?

 

[bernardsmith]

Technically, krausen is only associated with beer. You might have froth and foam in wine and mead making but there is no protein to cause krausen. And wine makers don't refer to "high krausen". Brewers do but brewing ain't wine making, and beer ain't wine. http://howtobrew.com/book/section-1/fermentation/primary-or-attenuative-phase Foam and froth can be removed or if you wait long enough the froth dissipates and even when present it is not really difficult to read through. .