Bray's One Month Mead

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The best way is lots of excess carboy space... barring that, you could attach a wine degassing vacuum, stir very slowly, and you can also use a de-foaming agent like simethicone (5-star defoamer / fermcap, same chemical as baby anti-gas drops).
 
Of course I *try* to keep it ALL. Who wants to lose mead? But in the end, you always lose some...

Nucleation chemistry is a bastard sometimes.
 
So I've been letting my cherry puree/bomm mead sit for over a month. The specific gravity is a little above 1.000. I'm assuming that I can bottle it off in a month if it stays the same? The sp gr is going to stay higher, due to the cherry puree?
 
Ok, so this thread is VERY long and I've read about 25-30 pages worth. But I have a question that might seem noobish to people who make mead often, but I'm a brewer. So...

Can I just use a regular airlock on my fermenter or do I have to "De-gas" in a sealed chamber? I have a 2 gallon fermenter I use for splitting up my beer batches when I want to test yeast varietals, or age on fruit small parts of a batch, etc. I planned to make a 3lb honey, 1 gallon BOMM in this 2 gallon contain so it would have tons of head space and then just vent through the airlock.
 
So I started the Faux Bochet BOMM!

This is a mead with half the honey burnt in a slow cooker for 12 hours. The other half was added just per the instructions.

Also included an ounce and a half currants, 2 ounces sultan raisin, 5 3 inch cinnamon sticks and a Banana to the primary. Started a wyeast 1388 3 days ago to pitch in.

Reason I added the fruit is I couldn't get my hands on the Fermat do k or O so am making due with yeast energizer. My hope is if the energizer is lacking something that the raisins and currants will compensate. Also read somewhere that banana adds good mouth feel.

OG 1.1 on the nose.

Any helpful hints or suggestions

As an aside it is darker than my black IPA.

IMG_0336.jpg
 
What you too good for Catan?

Bochet looks good. I've heard bad things about bananas in mead but never tried so I can't judge. I did a slow cooker bochet as well in the past, I think my idea since then is to keep a close eye on it because it actually carmelized incredibly dark and so is going to take forever to age.. would prefer something lighter so I can actually drink it before Trump blows up the planet.

Curious to hear how it goes, though, especially with half and half.
 
Haha wife doesn't like catan. So nope no catan. Well I will keep people informed how it goes. I wasn't sure how dark to caramelize so just let it go. Next time think I would stop at 6 hours as it was just a nice brown not this intense black.
 
So I've made a few gallons of BOMM so far. I'm curious how well these age. After one month they taste a lot like beer to me rather than any mead I've ever bought at a store. Will this change if I let them age for 6-12 months?
 
So my Faux Bochet has just hit the final 1/3 sugar mark and i pitched my last nutrient addition. Not sure if it is because of the use of nutrient and energizer as opposed to the instructed Fermaid and DAP but the ferment has slowed greatly thinking it will take another week for it to hit 1.00 or longer. Could it be the caramelized sugars slowing the fermet. the temp is right around 20C for ferment so it could be temp as well but it was chugging great till the last day or so.

As a taste profile it has changed a great deal. It has a hidden sweetness still throughout the test, you get a touch of banana at the start of your sip that moves to the heat of cinnamon and ends with an acrid smokey burnt taste that I can't say if I like for a finish or not. Not sure if this will have better finish with drying out some more. Thorough out the underlying toffee caramel taste lingers. Hoping that once it finishes and I move to secondary with a couple vanilla beans this will really round out to something special and won't require a lot of ageing. Don't feel it will be ready in the one month time frame I was aiming for though.

Will keep everyone updated.:tank:
 
@loveofrose

I know this voids the warranty, but would it be alright to use a generic yeast nutrient (I'm assuming mostly DAP in their proprietary blend), instead of DAP + Fermaid K? Perhaps a combination of generic nutrient and raisins?
 
cozmogeek said:
So I've made a few gallons of BOMM so far. I'm curious how well these age. After one month they taste a lot like beer to me rather than any mead I've ever bought at a store. Will this change if I let them age for 6-12 months?
Click to expand...


Is it completely clear? I would bet not. Cold crash it to remove off flavors.
 
Shortbeard said:
So my Faux Bochet has just hit the final 1/3 sugar mark and i pitched my last nutrient addition. Not sure if it is because of the use of nutrient and energizer as opposed to the instructed Fermaid and DAP but the ferment has slowed greatly thinking it will take another week for it to hit 1.00 or longer. Could it be the caramelized sugars slowing the fermet. the temp is right around 20C for ferment so it could be temp as well but it was chugging great till the last day or so.



As a taste profile it has changed a great deal. It has a hidden sweetness still throughout the test, you get a touch of banana at the start of your sip that moves to the heat of cinnamon and ends with an acrid smokey burnt taste that I can't say if I like for a finish or not. Not sure if this will have better finish with drying out some more. Thorough out the underlying toffee caramel taste lingers. Hoping that once it finishes and I move to secondary with a couple vanilla beans this will really round out to something special and won't require a lot of ageing. Don't feel it will be ready in the one month time frame I was aiming for though.



Will keep everyone updated.:tank:
Click to expand...


The process of cooking honey converts some sugars to a non-fermentable form. The more you cook, the higher the final gravity will be. Since you have an acrid taste, this suggests you cooked the honey quite a lot! My understanding is that it will age out, but may be on the order of years rather than months. I personally would only cook the honey until it is amber colored rather than black.
 
silentra1n said:
@loveofrose



I know this voids the warranty, but would it be alright to use a generic yeast nutrient (I'm assuming mostly DAP in their proprietary blend), instead of DAP + Fermaid K? Perhaps a combination of generic nutrient and raisins?
Click to expand...


I have no idea. That's why I only use DAP + Fermaid K...because I know it works!
 
loveofrose said:
I have no idea. That's why I only use DAP + Fermaid K...because I know it works!
Click to expand...

I decided to use yeast nutrient as DAP and yeast energizer as Fermaid K, and I believe things are going well.

Quick question, as I'm new to making mead, especially with this protocol. I've noticed a lot of lees after just 2 days. Is this normal?
 
Hey there, I've seen videos about the BOMM and was motivated to want to begin mead making, starting with a BOMM for my own consumption. I was wondering what equipment I would need to brew 1 gallon. As this is my maiden trip into brewing, I don't have any items, and am unsure if buying a kit online may leave out important equipment. I can be reached via email at [email protected]. Thank you all for the help.
 
Far-Strider said:
Hey there, I've seen videos about the BOMM and was motivated to want to begin mead making, starting with a BOMM for my own consumption. I was wondering what equipment I would need to brew 1 gallon. As this is my maiden trip into brewing, I don't have any items, and am unsure if buying a kit online may leave out important equipment. I can be reached via email at [email protected]. Thank you all for the help.
Click to expand...

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/mead/mead-equipment/

additional commentary:

hydrometer: needs to cover the range from .098 to 1.11 or greater.

fermentation vessel: I would recommend you get a 2 or 3 gallon, technically a 1 gallon will work but you risk a huge mess when it foams up while degassing. I also recommend plastic for anything over 1 gallon, due to danger of dropping it. Buckets are easier to use, but clear carboys let you SEE what is happening and when it is all dissolved! I recommend clear.

measuring spoons, for nutrients. Kitchen stuff works fine. Optional: .01 gram scale for exact measurement.
 
andrewmaixner said:
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/mead/mead-equipment/

additional commentary:

hydrometer: needs to cover the range from .098 to 1.11 or greater.

fermentation vessel: I would recommend you get a 2 or 3 gallon, technically a 1 gallon will work but you risk a huge mess when it foams up while degassing. I also recommend plastic for anything over 1 gallon, due to danger of dropping it. Buckets are easier to use, but clear carboys let you SEE what is happening and when it is all dissolved! I recommend clear.

measuring spoons, for nutrients. Kitchen stuff works fine. Optional: .01 gram scale for exact measurement.
Click to expand...

Would a drill powered paddle mixer help to quickly degas the mead?
 
@loveofrose

When you first did your experiments and used 3787, did you find that it taste like beer? How is the flavor profile of 3787 compared to 1388 in a BOMM?
 
Early on Wyeast 3787 is pretty good with fruity notes, but always has this ever so slight saison note in the background. As it ages, the saison note turns bitter and becomes undrinkable. It's the only the second year old mead I've dumped.
 
Hey guys i was thinking of making this my first brew ever i have never brewed any beer or anything but i am planning on starting. so i have a true brew 5 gal bucket to ferment in and i have a 5 gal racking bucket. i have a hydrometer and i have a 5 gal pin lock keg. so i was thinking of doing this recipe and racking it into the keg when finished and either force carbonating it a little or keeping the carbonation that it has after its kegged. so for a first timer do you guys think this will be a good Idea.

Also for the 5 gal recipe ill need to build a stir plate?
Also when i am setting up the starter i leave the flask on the stir plate stirring for 3 days??

I plan on serving it with the kegerator i am working on.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=594120
 
Craghunter said:
Hey guys i was thinking of making this my first brew ever i have never brewed any beer or anything but i am planning on starting. so i have a true brew 5 gal bucket to ferment in and i have a 5 gal racking bucket. i have a hydrometer and i have a 5 gal pin lock keg. so i was thinking of doing this recipe and racking it into the keg when finished and either force carbonating it a little or keeping the carbonation that it has after its kegged. so for a first timer do you guys think this will be a good Idea.

Also for the 5 gal recipe ill need to build a stir plate?
Also when i am setting up the starter i leave the flask on the stir plate stirring for 3 days??

I plan on serving it with the kegerator i am working on.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=594120
Click to expand...

I have not posted here a lot, but I have brewed using Bray's method over 20 times in the last 2 years (it's pretty popular around my house :)).

For a 5 gallon recipe, you would need to either build up the yeast (starter/stir plate/etc.) or double pitch (using two smack packs) which is much easier. However, for your first-ever brew, I strongly recommend you do not do a 5 gallon batch of mead. Sometime in your first few brews, you WILL make a mistake that ruins the batch, and doing that when your ingredients cost $50 or $75 is pretty painful. A lower-risk, 1-gallon batch lets you hone your skills, test out honey sources, and find out if you like the end product. Better yet, do three or four 1-gallon batches to climb the learning curve.

I have done several 5 gallon batches of BOMM, but I started with 1 gallon, and even now I usually stick to 2 gallons (using a half-gallon of honey) because it’s easier to manage and I can get away with a single smack pack.

I see you have a kegerator project in the works and I’m sure you are anxious to get something in there once it’s completed. I do keg some of my meads, but only with low gravity hydromels (adapting the BOMM method to a must with OG around 1.050), and that does eliminate the concerns about stabilizing or step feeding. However, I think you’d be better off bottling any traditional (full strength) mead you make. I find that a drink of 12%-18% ABV on tap is just plain dangerous – hence my hydromels, and it’s also nice to keep the mead around for an extended time. While this recipe is called Brays One Month Mead, my experience (and attested by many others, including Bray) is that it gets much better after 3-6 months or longer. That’s a long time to occupy your keg.

So, for the TL;DR, unsolicited advice summary:

- By all means, do the BOMM, but start with a few 1-gallon batches.
- In the meantime, brew something else for your keg – beer, cider, etc. – that you can finish in a few weeks. (A side note – I got into cider brewing for exactly this reason).

Good luck!
--Roger
 
Thanks for the reply on my post :) yeah maybe doing a 2 gal batch would be a better start I have enough growlers to bottle that much easy for the keg i guess i can start with an extract brew the reason i was thinking this mead is it looked like i didn't need the other items that I am missing for an all grain brew. or ill go to a friends house and brew with him and we can split a 10 gal batch :)
 
Hi there. I've been brewing beer for years, and am going to have a crack at my first mead - a BOMM.

Finding Fermaid-K proved to be impossible in Australia. Fermaid-O was readily available.
In the absence of any direct advice, I've landed on the TOSNA method for calculating Fermaid-O additions.
http://www.meadmaderight.com/info.html

Initial Sugar (g/L) x N requirement factor / 50 (ppm) x batch size (gals) = Total Fermaid-O (grams)

Assuming a high nitrogen requiring strain - (factor 1.25)

Calc:
(24Brix x 10g/l/Brix)*1.25/50ppm*5gal = 30g Fermaid-O

TOSNA recommends splitting this into 4 additions: 24hrs, 48 hrs, 72 hrs and 7 days (or 1/3 sugar break, whichever comes first).

Does anybody have any alternate advice on how to convert Fermaid-K/DAP to Fermaid-O and what a suitable dosing schedule might be in a BOM?

Cheers
 
TOSNA is fine for a standard BOMM (SG <1.100) with one major adjustment. You need to add upfront, 24 hrs, 72 hrs, and 96 hrs. If you have it, it is best to supplement with GoFerm or Yeast Nutrient upfront to provide vitamins, minerals, and trace nutrients.

It will taste very yeasty until the mead is completely clear. This is normal and from the Fermaid O. The ferment will be a little slower, but makes a great product.
 
Is a tsp of GoFerm up front appropriate?

I forgot to mention, potassium carbonate is hard to come by in Australia. Will I get a similar buffering effect with a tsp of calcium carbonate?

Thanks for your reply!
 
So after a little more research, (and searching of this thread - sorry I didn't search properly before asking!) I realise that chalk isn't going to cut it.

I'm day 3 of a adjusted TOSNA schedule (as suggested above) and am going to have to get some potassium into the BOMM. All I can source at quick notice is a baking powder substitute, with a mixture of Potassium bicarbonate (501), calcium carbonate (170), monocalcium phosphate (341) - in unknown quantities, although by law, ingredients have to be listed by % weight in Australia....

I was thinking I might 'suck it and see' and add 1 tsp of this.
http://www.lotuspantry.com.au/browser/product.php?sku=456770

A few considerations:
1) Potassium bicarbonate is listed first, so should be more that 1/3 of the ingredients
2) It will be adding some additional chalk - could be a flavour impact
3) I'm not sure what monocalcium phosphate will do - I'm hoping just provide some additional phosphate for the yeast

Can anybody provide any advice on this approach?

@loveofrose - I saw on an earlier post, you mentioned adding a whole banana. Were you serious or just taking the mickey? :)

Cheers
 
Whew! This is a loooong thread to read through! I'm only at the halfway mark, but decided to cut to the chase and add my post.

I came to mead making via homebrew, and for the better part of a decade I made mediocre to awful mead by brewing the same as I had ale. It wasn't until a few years ago--just before BOMM was shared with the world--that I learned degassing and water/ice baths to control fermentation temperature was key to controlling those nasty fusels. If Wyeast 1388 can overcome my hot Texas ambient temperature, I'm all for it!

I started a 3 gallon batch using 2.5 pounds of Walker Honey Farm wildflower honey per gallon (their Dancing Bee Winery makes some nice meads, so hey, who am I to argue?). I started this before I found Bray's 3-gallon recipe variant on page 31, so I simply scaled up from the original recipe: 3/4 tsp of DAP, 2.25 tsp of Fermaid K (my math was off), 2.25 tsp of potassium bicarbonate. I used a homebrew test strip to check acidity, but the strip only went up to 4.4 and the resulting color was a darker blue than the chart showed for 4.4, so I'm guesstimating it's closer to a starting ph of 5. After adjusting for temperature (70F) my og is 1.080, which is a little lighter than my target. Depending on taste at racking, I may or may not add a bit more honey to boost ABV to the 11% range.

I pitched the packet of 1388 after 6 hours, no starter. It's fermenting as aggressively as any must I've had. I degassed five times yesterday, and no matter how hard and long I shook, their was no shortage of CO2. Ditto this morning before work. I've got it next to a window, and the temperature in that corner's remained a consistent 72F thus far. No off odors thus far. I'm approaching 1/3 sugar break, so I'm torn whether to up the nutrient addition to match Bray's 3-gallon recommendations or stick with my original schedule.

I plan on ultimately metheglin-izing this, improving on a recipe that got favorable evaluation at the Texas Mead Fest a few years back. Can I say I'm really, really excited about the potential of 1388? Heat's been my biggest problem during fermentation and this might well be my golden ticket. I wonder if the folks at Wyeast have noticed an uptick in orders for this strain?
 
loveofrose said:
I'm glad to hear you are enjoying the recipe. The BOMM was born in Texas (I'm north of Dallas) so you should be fine. If you need metheglin ideas, check these recipes:
https://www.denardbrewing.com/blog/category/mead/
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'm working on a very specific recipe of my own devising I haven't encountered elsewhere. I'll share when I get to that stage. At the moment, I'm just giddy at having something fermenting that doesn't need to be babied with an ice bath! :)
 
Hit the 1/3 sugar break yesterday with a 1.054 sg reading. Gave nutrient additions of .75 tsp of DAP, 2.25 tsp of Fermaid K. For the record, I pitched Friday night around 11 p.m., so I hit the first sugar break at less than three days. I expected the ferment to go a bit slower, seeing as how I did a straight pitch and didn't make a starter, but the yeasties don't seem to be phased in the slightest.

Temperature's consistently in the 70-72F range. I'm degassing 3-4 times daily, but no matter how long I shake there's always more CO2 blowing out. Strong yeast smell, and no off odors thus far.
 
Bang! Zoom! This yeast is fast. My sg reading tonight was 1.020, meaning the must hit the 2/3 sugar break of 1.027 this morning sometime. I degassed and pitched .75 tsp of DAP--getting close to that 9% cutoff, but not quite there yet, I think--and 1.25 tsp Fermaid K because that's all I had left. Temperature is 69F. Ph is 3.6. I hope that's enough nutrition to keep it from stalling out, but inertia is strong in this one. If anything, I feel it's speeding up.

I took a taste, and even at this stage I can say this is the best mead I've ever made. Very clean and smooth, non fusels at all (and I know from fusels). It was floral, lightly sweet with strong citrus overtones. It was somewhat effervescent despite the degassing, so I wonder if that contributed to the citrus?

I'm keeping a close eye on it to watch for any signs of stalling out. If it continues at this pace, the ferment should be done by Friday. Wow! If so I'll rack to begin metheglinizing it, and hopefully start an Abbaye BOMM, as I do love me some complex Belgians.
 
Less than 24 hours later sg reading is 1.004. Temperature of must is 69F. Citrus still predominates the taste, with some yeastyness creeping in. It's a little hot, with a faint hint of fusels. I guess the 1388 wasn't entirely happy with my skimping on the Fermaid K this last feeding. Absolutely no sign of this one stalling out. I expect it'll finish up sometime tonight at this rate. Fastest ferment I've ever seen.
 

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