Bray's One Month Mead

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That is the true scientific way. I am a scientist at work. So at home, I do the logical thing and eyeball it.


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Just popped in to say I got my keezer running 90% finished and put a 5G on 6PSI. After a few hours at 4.9C I took a pull off a 5G keg of BOMM, had been pitched on 12/15 and racked to corny on 1/21.

It was AWESOME, an no hint of being carbed for a few hours at 6PSI, but I shut off the gas anyway.
 
Arpolis said:
Few... I have been procrastinating reading this thread for a while now and just sat down to read it all. Great stuff LofR. I have a couple one gallon meads going now that I want to contribute the findings for in this thread.

Basically the same as BOMM bit with 3 & 4 changes so I guess they actually are nothing like BOMM lol.

First mead is mead is made to a gravity of 1.06 with orange blossom honey. I have potassium bicarbonate so I upped the addition but probably by too much that I now have read everything correctly. I used 3/4 tsp in the batch. Finally I did change the yeast and went with a 100g slurry of Lalvin 71b-1112 from a previous white grape peach wine. Love of Rose I noticed that was not one of the yeast strains you compared so there may be some benefit to the tasting notes on this. Next Tuesday will be day 30 so I will give some tasting notes and additional info then then.

The second one used everything the same but I Caramelized the honey on a medium heat for 1.25 hours.
Click to expand...


I too have two more BOMM spinoff batches going. The first two I did were good but seemed flat, lacking something. Carbonation may have fixed that but sadly I had stabilized already and only have a 5 gal keg. I also started to dislike some of the yeast flavors which seemed more beer esque rather than wine. I remade following the BOMM to the letter, up until I didn't lol. In this case I added acid additions as that was on part I felt was lacking, though in hind site I have a feeling most of this neutralized with the carbonate, or at the very least negated the carbonate so that it is no longer effective. In one of the batches I used 2 old bananas as I am told this helps with the mouth feel and with just the banana portion does not impart much actual banana flavor. Both batches included 1/4 tsp grape tannin. Lastly I used K1V-1116 for both batches, I have had extremely good luck with this strain, though it is not as fast as the yeast recommended for BOMM, particularly it takes a while to flocculate, but it seems to leave a nice clean, crisp brew. So inspired by BOMM, but not really a BOMM.
 
Sounds like you guys are ready to step it up a notch. Below is the post for the "Perfect BOMM" from gotmead that I just recently bottled. This one eliminates complains of no body and lack of fullness in the flavor. I'll re-post in abbreviated form below:

Time to move one step closer to what I consider a perfect mead. For this one, I'm pulling out all the tools at my disposal. I will start by blending honey for characteristics that I desire. Half OB for velvet and body and half tupelo for nose and perceived sweetness.
I will follow the standard BOMM protocol to ensure a drinkable product on a short time scale; however, I've found a few months in the bottle does provide a noticeable increase in quality. I'll set the aging to 3 months. By standard mead aging, that is still very quick.
I'm adding Tannin FT Soft Blanc for body and to help avoid oxidation. Post fermentation treatments will include a small addition of tupelo honey to make this off dry as well as the usage of American and French oak for an extra layer of complexity. My preferred acid blend will be added to taste. This turned out to be 0.45 g/L. I like a very lite touch on acid.
Recipe as follows:

Perfect BOMM - 2.5 gallons
Use 3 lbs each of OB & half Tupelo.
To a 3 gallon carboy, Add 4 cups OB & 4 cups Tupelo plus water up to 2.5 gallons. (SG ~1.1)
Add 1 TBSP Tannin FT Soft Blanc.

Dose the following at must creation, 1/3 & 2/3 sugar break.
1/2 TBSP DAP + 1 TBSP Fermaid K.

Add 3/4 TBSP K2CO3.

Stir to aerate and add a starter of Wyeast 1388.
Add additional water to SG 1.09-1.1.

No water in airlock for 1 week.
Degas daily.

Post Fermentation (Gravity hits 1.00)
Rack off of the gross lees.
Add 1/2 cup tupelo to backsweeten to off dry (Add to ~1.005).
Add 1 whole vanilla bean for 5 days or more.
Added Superkleer.
After it is clear, rack again and add 0.45 grams/liter of 50/40/10% Tartaric/Malic/Citrus (by weight) acid blend. (Make this by mixing 12.5 g Tartaric, 10 g Malic, 2.5 g Citric in 50 ml of water. Added 9 ml to 2.4 gallons)
Added 8 American oak cubes and 5 French oak cubes (medium toast) for 1 month before bottling.

Tasting Notes from Day 85
Appearance: Crystal clear and golden. Nice legs too!
Nose: Orange blossom and tupelo with some oak. Some vanilla if allowed to warm a bit.
Taste: Orange blossom and tupelo have blended into something greater than the sum of their parts. A good dose of oak enforces the vanilla while providing a fullness of flavor. The oak really smoothed the flavor into a pleasant slightly dry finish.
Overall: Along with the flowery notes, there is a softness to this mead that makes me enjoy it much more than usual. A bit of tart from the acid blend really brightens the flavors. Very complex, but highly enjoyable.

Improvements: I am being super picky here on a phenomenal mead, but I am attempting to make the perfect mead here.
Lose the tannin, and add oak earlier. Or more American oak. Everything else is spot on for my taste.
Oh, one more critique. MAKE MORE.




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I just wanted to give a bit on my little BOMM inspired creations. I was able to sneak a sample from my Bochet BOMMish and traditional BOMMish. I have yet to do any racking and the like because between requiring sleep, kids and trying to get my honey do list completed from the wife I have not had a real good chance.

The traditional is one of my best yet. Very smooth, fragrant and pleasant. I planned on still bottling at the 3 month mark so I expect great things.

Now the bochet is the interesting one. The caramel tones are very faint but that happens with light bochets like this when they are dry. I expect more of that to come once sweetened. But the alcohol hot is a little harsher with this one. It seems the Caramelized honey environment may be a little more taxing on the yeast then in the traditional. It is still good but at comparison without sweetening and right at 30 days the traditional wins out in overall pleasantness so far.

Both are probably 95% clear and not at the pristine clear level yet but I expect that to happen after racking and another 2 - 3 weeks.

One thing I did differently with these batches compared to priers that I wanted to point out is how I degassed. I could not believe I never figured this out before. I have a hand held ziplock vacuum for those vacuum seal packs you can get. The nozzle on it fits perfectly over the bung hole in the jar. So I just take the airlock out of the bung and add a little vacuum pressure and just keep sucking CO2 until the foaming dies down. It has worked really well so far.
 
just to confirm on the new recipe there the og is 1.074 for about 10% abv right?

I have this converted to a 1 gal recipe equivalent. could you confirm the following appears correct?

pre-ferment:
1096g honey (548g OB + 548g Tupelo)
1 1/5 tsp ft blanc soft
1 4/5 tsp 2:1 DAP:fermk *3 (1/3 SB & 2/3 SB)
9/10 tsp K2CO3 (carbonate)

post ferment:
61.75g tupelo
2/5 vanilla bean
superkleer
1.75g 50:40:1 T:M:C acid blend
5 Med toast american oak (skipping the french oak based on personal taste and your recommendation)

if this looks right then i will convert these measurements to grams and repost in fuller detail if thats ok. (id have to covert it all anyway as i dont have a way to measure 5ths or 10ths of a tsp).
 
OG is ~1.1. It is 3 lbs of OB plus 3 lbs tupelo honey.

For 1 gallon, that is 1.2 lbs each or 545 grams each. So your weights are correct, but the SG would be 1.1 with these amounts.

For 1 gallon with 1 smack pack, use these amounts:
Add 1/4 tsp DAP and 1/2 tsp of Fermaid K per addition.
Add 1 tsp K2CO3
1 tsp FT soft Blanc
1 vanilla bean

Hope that helps!

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loveofrose said:
OG is ~1.1. It is 3 lbs of OB plus 3 lbs tupelo honey.

For 1 gallon, that is 1.2 lbs each or 545 grams each. So your weights are correct, but the SG would be 1.1 with these amounts.

For 1 gallon with 1 smack pack, use these amounts:
Add 1/4 tsp DAP and 1/2 tsp of Fermaid K per addition.
Add 1 tsp K2CO3
1 tsp FT soft Blanc
1 vanilla bean

Hope that helps!

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Click to expand...


Gotchya, I was using fermcalc to get that, it states to get the gravity of 1.1 you'd need 8lbs for 2.5 gallons. For 1 gal it'd be 3.5 lbs or 800 grams each. 1.1 OG would be better however so I'll keep that in mind to split the honey in half and ensure I reach 1.100 SG. Anyone else really missing GotMeads meadcalc right now? :-/

I'll be picking up the oak and other supplies I dont currently have for this and will post a detailed report of the process and recipe. Thanks LoR for letting us all be a part of this quest for perfection!
 
Atek said:
Gotchya, I was using fermcalc to get that, it states to get the gravity of 1.1 you'd need 8lbs for 2.5 gallons. For 1 gal it'd be 3.5 lbs or 800 grams each. 1.1 OG would be better however so I'll keep that in mind to split the honey in half and ensure I reach 1.100 SG. Anyone else really missing GotMeads meadcalc right now? :-/



I'll be picking up the oak and other supplies I dont currently have for this and will post a detailed report of the process and recipe. Thanks LoR for letting us all be a part of this quest for perfection!
Click to expand...


I don't know what's wrong with fermcalc. I do know that 6 lbs of honey in a final volume of 2.5 gallons is always in the 1.1 range. Maybe fermcalc thinks honey doesn't have the fermentable sugars that it does in reality. I use BrewPal.

I'm always glad to help fellow mazers. There isn't many of our kind !

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Yes, I've done a Braggot with the BOMM protocol, but there are a few changes in light of the hops aversion to oxygen. I only aerate the first 2-3 days. Water is in the airlock from the beginning. Also, keep the IBU in the 10-15 range to avoid masking the honey too much.

Works well if you adapt a Belgian Golden Strong ale recipe into a Braggot by substituting the candi sugar and half the malt for honey. One warning though. It doesn't last long!


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Took me a while to read through this, but I'm sold. I followed The Complete Meadmaker for my first batch, but I have 3 lbs of Orange Blossom to make my second batch a BOMM, and 3 lbs of BlackBerry Honey that I'll try as a BOMM varietal after that. The OB will probably go in this weekend after I pickup the wyeast and additional nutrients.

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So I made my first 1 gallon BOMM tonight, and ran into a bit of a snafu. I pulled out 1/2 cup at the start to account for the smack pack volume, and about 3.5 cups to account for the honey, but by the time I hit my S.G. and added the yeast, I was up to the top of my carboy. There is literally no headspace, should I siphon a bit out or just let it go?

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My worry is that if I pull some out it will mostly be the yeast I just pitched

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Better? Or should I pull a bit more?

Edit: I pulled a bit more, got it to the level where I could put in my hydrometer without it overflowing.

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1395035527750.jpg
 
Sanitize a funnel and pour some into a sanitized water bottle to get some headspace. Use a pin pricked ballon for an airlock. After the ferment finishes, you can add it back to eliminate the headspace.

It got the acronym BOMM for a reason. Once it takes off it will blow the airlock off if you leave it as it is!


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ivyscout said:
Better? Or should I pull a bit more?

Edit: I pulled a bit more, got it to the level where I could put in my hydrometer without it overflowing.

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Definitely more. Give yourself a good 3-4 inches headspace. Even then, it may still overflow. I generally leave mine in a container to quarantine the mess.


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Well, I decided my wife wouldn't be too happy if I ended up with Must all over the basement, so I decided to defuse my BOMM. Funneled off a bit into a spare growler and dropped my primary into a bucket. I didn't have any spare airlocks or balloons, so I used a plastic bag with a rubber band around it. Should hood me off until I stop by the store. I can definitely get done better aeration going on with the extra headspace.

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I started this in a 5 and a 1 gallon on the 9th. I also started a 1 gallon cyser at the same time. Filled the airlocks this morning with vodka. The 1 gallon seems to have bottomed out as there is very little activity. The 5 gallon and the 1 gallon cyser are going strong with a bubble every 1-2 seconds. I will take readings tonight. The cyser has a 1/2" of sediment and is beginning to clear quickly. The two standards are beginning to clear as well. All have smelled very pleasant during the first week with no noxious aromas coming off. They have been fermenting in 66-68 degree temps from day 1.
 
Well no carboy eruptions for me (although it did come close during my 24 hour aeration). After 72 hours I'm down to 1.055 from 1.092 so I hit it with the first SNA. I feel like this batch has a much better scent than my first batch (wildflower honey with Champagne Pasteur yeast). Really looking forward to the end result. Thanks for the recipe LoR.

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SoR, it seems like your preference is to ferment your BOMM dry, then backsweeten. Is there an advantage to doing so vs having a higher OG?

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ivyscout said:
SoR, it seems like your preference is to ferment your BOMM dry, then backsweeten. Is there an advantage to doing so vs having a higher OG?

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Click to expand...


Usually, I step feed after it is dry to prevent over sweetening. That is, I add to 1.01 and let it drop; add to 1.01 and let it drop again. Repeat until the yeast give up and can't drop the gravity. This way, you don't end up with a FG that too sweet to drink. On one occasion, I've ended up with 19% ABV doing small 1 oz step feeds like this! Clean and delicious out of the fermenter too!

Also, adding too much honey upfront can contribute to fusel production due to high osmotic stress on the yeast. I've been testing adding more honey upfront to see if Wyeast 1388 would still remain clean or throw some fusels. So far it still remains clean. Exactly how much to add to reach a desired FG has not been fully worked out though. I know that up to OG 1.12 is clean, but I've not tested higher.

This yeast remains very clean in most conditions. I'm tempted to try a show mead just to see what the limits are.


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Awesome, I figured you had a good reason. I found it a bit difficult to get the honey fully dissolved when I did my step feeding in the 1 gallon carboy so I thought I'd ask. Maybe next time I'll rack off a portion into a sanitized growler so I have more space for mixing. It's interesting that you've had the yeast go up that high, I was hoping to backsweeten to around 1.010, but my 3lbs is gone now so wherever it stabilizes now will be it!

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ivyscout said:
Awesome, I figured you had a good reason. I found it a bit difficult to get the honey fully dissolved...

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Don't bother. I don't try to dissolve it. It will go into solution naturally over 2 days or so.


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loveofrose said:
Don't bother. I don't try to dissolve it. It will go into solution naturally over 2 days or so.


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Easy enough, do you add any additional nutrients when you step feed?

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It took some kinetic energy to dissolve my 1 gal batches but not that hard. The 5 gal batches are a different story. I just stirred until arms gave out and pitched...worked out fine.

I must say I am interested in taking the ABV higher, 19% may be a bit much, but higher levels will allow me to keep some around longer.

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Edbert said:
It took some kinetic energy to dissolve my 1 gal batches but not that hard. The 5 gal batches are a different story. I just stirred until arms gave out and pitched...worked out fine.

I must say I am interested in taking the ABV higher, 19% may be a bit much, but higher levels will allow me to keep some around longer.

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Click to expand...


In theory, but it goes faster than you think!


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Wow, 1388 is sure a monster yeast. I made a gallon batch in a 4l jug and had to loose a bit to the vigorous fermentation. Seven day in and it's clearing. Fermentation temp was in low 70's sitting on top of my hot water tank. I was able to shake it to degas several times a day and wrapped the jug with a blanket to get mid-70's for the last couple of days.

3/25 OG 1.096 with raspberry honey from the bulk foods section at my grocery
3/27 (56 hours after pitching) 1.058 and first nutrient addition
3/8 (22.5 hours later) 1.030 and second nutrient addition
4/2 ferm slowing and starting to clear
4/3 SG off scale low on my hydrometer, probably .093-.095

The attenuation was pretty high for this yeast since I got 13.4%ABV, possibly a bit higher. I assume I'll be back-sweetening some of this batch before bottling.

Just bought some blackberry honey today and I'm planning on reusing this yeast as soon as I can rack off it. I'm more of a cider guy, Is there anything special for reusing yeasts from mead fermentation?
 
Renoun said:
Wow, 1388 is sure a monster yeast. I made a gallon batch in a 4l jug and had to loose a bit to the vigorous fermentation. Seven day in and it's clearing. Fermentation temp was in low 70's sitting on top of my hot water tank. I was able to shake it to degas several times a day and wrapped the jug with a blanket to get mid-70's for the last couple of days.

3/25 OG 1.096 with raspberry honey from the bulk foods section at my grocery
3/27 (56 hours after pitching) 1.058 and first nutrient addition
3/8 (22.5 hours later) 1.030 and second nutrient addition
4/2 ferm slowing and starting to clear
4/3 SG off scale low on my hydrometer, probably .093-.095

The attenuation was pretty high for this yeast since I got 13.4%ABV, possibly a bit higher. I assume I'll be back-sweetening some of this batch before bottling.

Just bought some blackberry honey today and I'm planning on reusing this yeast as soon as I can rack off it. I'm more of a cider guy, Is there anything special for reusing yeasts from mead fermentation?
Click to expand...


If you step feed small amounts of honey now, you can backsweeten by virtue of the yeast giving up. Add 1/2 cup (12 oz) per gallon to make them give up around 15% ABV with a FG in the 1.01 range.

Adding multiple additions of smaller amounts (1 oz) at a time, I've reached 19% ABV with a FG of 1.02. I call it a sweet Sweet BOMM.


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loveofrose said:
If you step feed small amounts of honey now, you can backsweeten by virtue of the yeast giving up.
Click to expand...
It's not completely clear yet but there's a nice 1/2" yeast cake at the bottom that I don't want to kill off. I'm thinking about adding a bit of honey tonight when I rack, if fermentation restarts that will be fine but I'm not too concerned about boosting ABV. I'm ready to reuse the yeast in it's current state to keep the mead pipeline filled and am more concerned about having a healthy slurry to pitch into the next batch.
 
Bray's One Month Mead aka "the BOMM" - 1 gallon
No heat method.
Added Orange Blossom honey to SG of 1.096 in 1 gallon jugs. (how much honey in pounds?)
Added 3/4 tsp of 1:2 DAP:Fermaid K;(<what's this stuff?) also, add this at (what does this mean?> 2/3 and 1/3 sugar break.

sorry, not everyone is a scientist
 

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