Ambitious Mead

[gkman705]

Hey Guys,

I brewed a curious mead the other day and just kinda wanted to stir up a discussion on what it may be like. I've never made a mead before, so I'm sure I committed some no-no's, but oh well, it's all in the past... right?
I kinda formulated my own recipe after reading some of the ones in Charlie Papazian's "Joy of Home Brewing" and couldn't quite find any recipe similar enough to the one I made online, so I thought I would ask input from all of you!

My "recipe" is as follows:

13 lbs. Buckwheat Honey (very barnyard)
6 lbs. Light Honey (Sumac I believe)
2 tbsp. Acid Blend
1 tbsp. Gypsum
1/4 tsp. Irish Moss
1 Packet Lalvin EC-1118
1/2 tsp. Yeast Nutrient

Boiled honey for 10 min, with acid blend, gypsum, and Irish moss. Added to carboy with nice splashing for oxidation. Filled up remainder of carboy with filtered water. Reconstituted yeast by letting sit in warm water for 30 min. Pitched at ~70 degrees F. Added in yeast nutrient after pitching yeast.

OG:1.148

It's now sitting in a nice warm dark place bubbling away happily. Waiting to be racked, bottled, and aged for years to come.

 

[malkore]

1. don't boil honey. If you feel the need to heat it, only do a pasteurizing on it.
2. acid blend, gypsum...you should only add these if you know you need them, and acid for mead can really be added after fermentation, so you can taste and see if it needs it (assuming its not an existing recipe being followed) Irish moss isn't really needed in mead since you shouldn't boil the honey.
3. You 'aerate' not 'oxidize' by splashing/stirring just before adding the yeast. Aerate is good, oxidize is bad because it makes your mead go stale.

Yeast is fine, nutrient is good. You really should add energizer though too since honey has no free nitrogen and yeast need it to live. The happier the yeast, the better the fermentation, and the less aging needed.

Buckwheat honey is supposed to be pretty strong/pungent, so with 66% buckwheat honey this mead might have some twang to it...might need to age a long time for that to mellow. That's a lot of honey/high OG to start off...it would have been better to feed more honey, but that can't be changed now

my only other suggestion is to degas the wine daily for the first week. CO2 isn't good for yeast health, and it lowers the pH a bit (also not good for yeasties).