Bray's One Month Mead

[IJesusChrist]

These are common things, you don't have to be a scientist, just willing to learn. However some people don't always have the motivation to learn for themselves and like to be spoon fed.

1 Gallon of honey is equal to 11-12 lbs. This BOMM has added it until this mark, not weighing it but just adding until its the correct SG.
DAP and Fermaid K (thank you google) are nutrients, diammonium phosphate and dead yeast cells, potassium, etc which yeast require to make good brewing.
The sugar breaks:
You start at 1.100, the ending is likely to be 1.000. That means the 2/3 and 1/3 sugar breaks take place at 1.066 and 1.033 SG respectively. (1/3 and 2/3 of the way finished).

 

[Damgaard]

However some people don't always have the motivation to learn for themselves and like to be spoon fed.

Actually, I'm glad he asked...I could figure out the additives (yes, Google is my friend too), but the measurements of honey and the addition of the nutrients / energizer explanation left me a little confused (admitted newbie).

Isn't that what the forum is for? We weren't all born mead masters...or the son of God


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[loveofrose]

BOMM Recipe - 1 gallon
(Updated for clarity & post fermentation options)

Start with 1 gallon Ozarka spring water.
Remove 1/2 cup water to compensate for smack pack volume.
Draw line on jugs at this water level.
Remove an additional 3.2 cups of water from jug (757 ml).
Add Orange Blossom honey (or your favorite varietal honey) back to line.
-About 2.5 lbs. SG 1.099ish.

Add 1/4 tsp DAP and 1/2 tsp of Fermaid K. Add these again at 2/3 (1.066) & 1/3 (1.033) sugar break.
-These are nutrients you can get at homebrew shops or Amazon. Diammonium phosphate (DAP) is a free nitrogen source. Fermaid K contains vitamins, minerals, and trace nutrients. Honey is very deficient in nutrients so you need both to prevent fusel production.

Add 1/4 tsp K2CO3. One time addition.
-Potassium carbonate (K2CO3) is preferred due to high K+ levels, but potassium bicarbonate (KHCO3) will work fine. This is for pH buffering and to provide K+ for the yeast.

Shake with the top on until honey is fully dissolved. It will require some effort! You're earning your mead!
Add activated Wyeast 1388 yeast smacked for about 2 hours.
No water in airlock for 7 days or the gravity falls below 1.033. Whichever comes first, add water or vodka to airlock.
Ferments dry in about a week.

NOTE: Wyeast 1388 is NOT sensitive to temperature. Temperatures of 65-80 F all yield clean mead free of fusels. The yeast do ferment the fastest at 68 F however.

Post Fermentation (Optional!)
Add 1 vanilla bean, 3 cubes American Medium toast and 2 cubes French Medium toast oak for 2-4 weeks to taste.

You can also step feed small additions of honey until the yeast give up to sweeten. Just be sure your gravity is stable over several weeks to avoid bottle bombs!

I've also had good luck racking on 3-5 pounds of frozen berries to make a melomel.

It's your mead. Experiment!



Better brewing through science!

 

[loveofrose]

I've updated the recipe for clarity and post fermentation options/ideas. They are not necessary, but they are things I've tried and enjoyed.

I always try to help fellow mazers where I can. If someone asks for clarification, I will attempt to do so. Though we are not all scientists, we can all make good mead!


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[butterpants]

Trying this tomorrow with 6lbs of Tupelo i just scored. Thank you for the update

 

[ivyscout]

Plan on buying 3 - 3.5lbs of honey for the 1 gallon recipe. Especially if you want to backsweeten. I started with 3lbs and used approx 2.75 to hit the target OG (probably a bit too much spring water in my mix). The remaining .25-.5 lbs was used up very quickly in step feeding, I think there is a good chance this will still come out dry.

 

[IJesusChrist]

LoR whats the highest you've gotten with 1388?

I've heard you've obtained 19%+ but wasn't sure which yeast you used.

 

[weirdboy]

Interesting. I remember sac made a fast mead a couple of years ago, that he ran through a filter to clean up.

 

[loveofrose]

I've hit 19% ABV before with Wyeast 1388. It was a special case because I step fed 1 oz of honey at a time and letting it go dry before the next addition. It took a long time (~2 months). By contrast, If you add 8 oz all at once after it goes dry, it gives up around 15%.

In the end, the 19% mead was understandably very alcoholic and needed oak to round it out. Still, the best sack mead I've ever had at 3 months in, so not bad at all.

Lately, I've been using a SG of 1.12 so that it finishes ~1.01. That's 3 lbs upfront instead of the standard 2.5 lbs. Keep everything else the same and it turns out quite well. Haven't started any higher than 1.12 yet. It's on the list!


Better brewing through science!

 

[butterpants]

I was planning two gallon batches of 3lbs each. Don't want to finish dry and if I don't actually have to stabilize n backsweeten, I'd rather not. Looks like it'll work 1.010 isn't bad.

 

[KitFoxley]

Hey all, just checking in. I wanted to update with the results of my JAOBOMM, Acermel and Blackberry meads.

The JAO is/was fantastic. I ended up giving a bunch away, knowing I'd be making more, and soon. I ended up using some nutrients and subbing a blood orange for the valencia orange, forgetting/omitting the vanilla bean. It fermented pretty fiercely and settled quite clear after a month. The taste is amazing: sweet, rich, spicy. The JAO was made with Washington mountain wildflower honey and came out a very dark amber.

The Acermel surprised me. I subbed only about a pint of maple syrup in and it tastes VERY beery. I dare say like a honey ale or a hefe without the clove/banana notes. I was surprised. My SO who likes beer but not mead so much has taken a liking to the Acermel, so I will be making more of it. The acermel was made with Wisconsin maple syrup, cooked down to 68 brix, (courtesy of my Dad) and a mix of wildflower and fireweed honeys.

The blackberry has been a disappointment. I have similar problems with this batch as I did with the batch I made with Forbidden Fruit yeast. It's just... funky. I think it's just the honey. It smells faintly of blackberry vines in the summer which you'd think would be good, but the taste is... not so good. The smell is reminiscent of blackberry vines and kitty pee, the taste is more blackberry/meady, but the kitty pee smell sneaks in. I'll let it age for a good, long time and hope it improves? Anyway I'm not super anxious to drink it real fast, so hopefully it improves with time.

FWIW, I tend to stabilize, backsweeten, and then wait a few weeks to make sure it's stable before bottling.

 

[loveofrose]

Hey all, just checking in. I wanted to update with the results of my JAOBOMM, Acermel and Blackberry meads.

The JAO is/was fantastic. I ended up giving a bunch away, knowing I'd be making more, and soon. I ended up using some nutrients and subbing a blood orange for the valencia orange, forgetting/omitting the vanilla bean. It fermented pretty fiercely and settled quite clear after a month. The taste is amazing: sweet, rich, spicy. The JAO was made with Washington mountain wildflower honey and came out a very dark amber.

The Acermel surprised me. I subbed only about a pint of maple syrup in and it tastes VERY beery. I dare say like a honey ale or a hefe without the clove/banana notes. I was surprised. My SO who likes beer but not mead so much has taken a liking to the Acermel, so I will be making more of it. The acermel was made with Wisconsin maple syrup, cooked down to 68 brix, (courtesy of my Dad) and a mix of wildflower and fireweed honeys.

The blackberry has been a disappointment. I have similar problems with this batch as I did with the batch I made with Forbidden Fruit yeast. It's just... funky. I think it's just the honey. It smells faintly of blackberry vines in the summer which you'd think would be good, but the taste is... not so good. The smell is reminiscent of blackberry vines and kitty pee, the taste is more blackberry/meady, but the kitty pee smell sneaks in. I'll let it age for a good, long time and hope it improves? Anyway I'm not super anxious to drink it real fast, so hopefully it improves with time.

FWIW, I tend to stabilize, backsweeten, and then wait a few weeks to make sure it's stable before bottling.

Congrats on your mead. I'm loving the JAO BOMM as well. That stuff goes really fast when your friends discover it!

I would really like the full recipe for your Acerglyn. Sounds like something my SO would like as well.

Sorry about the blackberry honey, but I do have a suggestion. Blackberry honeys generally need about 3 lbs of blackberries added to secondary as well as a FG in the sweeter range. At least for my taste anyway. Blackberries are very off balance on tartness without some sweetness. Alternatively, it could be a bad batch of honey. I've had a batch contaminated with pesticides that was beyond help.

Cheers!


Better brewing through science!

 

[weirdboy]

Out of curiosity, how are you degassing these little 1-gallon containers?

 

[butterpants]

swirling /shaking

 

[Renoun]

Out of curiosity, how are you degassning these little 1-gallon containers?

Once the fermentation has finished and I've racked off the yeast/sediments into a clean carboy I've been using the hose from my food saver that is intended for use with the jar sealing accessories. I just press the hose fitting with a flared end on to a drilled bung and run a few vacuum cycles.

 

[JRW1]

Subbed epic thread

 

[Edbert]

swirling /shaking

Do not listen to Bond James Bond, stirring is much preferable to shaking in a 1 gallon BOMM, unless a mead explosion is your goal.

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[butterpants]

I use 2 gallon buckets. Stirring is for suckers.

 

[weirdboy]

I use 2 gallon buckets. Stirring is for suckers.

But that doesn't degas the mead. Are you saying you don't degas?

 

[IJesusChrist]

I'm willing to bet he swirls/splashes.

 

[Edbert]

Started another 5 gallon batch last night...and when making the starter I realized I might have had a brainfart...or an apfelwein one...and used DME out of habit instead of honey.

That may be to blame for the relatively bad taste of that batch. I cannot say for certain but I do not recall boiling a honey and water solution before. All this time I was blaming the honey.

After about 3 months from pitch it tasted okay...but not at 1 month.

 

[bernardsmith]

A small vacuum will degas with no problem. You need to remove a pint or so to allow room for the gas but something that can pull about 25 inches will remove all the CO2.

 

[weirdboy]

I am finally giving this method a shot, since my usual mead-making method is to wait a year or more.


I went out and bought a vial of WLP570, which according to Jamil's website is the same strain as WY1388, and some potassium carbonate, and mixed up a 1-gallon batch this afternoon with some wildflower honey I picked up yesterday evening. Now it's just sitting on the counter waiting for good things to happen...

 

[weirdboy]

Did the book go into whether this was done as a double-blind study or did the tasters go in knowing which beers were which? If they knew, going in, which were which, then one should discount their findings as possibly biased There's a reason medical studies are supposed to be "double-blind" you know.

It just so happens I know Ron Cooper, and can ask him the next time I see him. Although lately he hasn't really been coming to many club meetings.

 

[loveofrose]

Sadly, everyone who has tried WLP 570 yeast has not had optimal results compared to Wyeast 1388.


Better brewing through science!

 

[weirdboy]

Wow, really? Oh, well. Unfortunately Wyeast is a bit hard to come by around these parts unless I mail order.

By non-optimal, what are we talking about, exactly? Off flavors? Stalled fermentation?

 

[butterpants]

By non-optimal, what are we talking about, exactly? Off flavors? Stalled fermentation?

The batch of mead ate all of their children. Very non-optimal, unless you don't really like your kids.

 

[RegarRenill]

For me, wlp570 took forever to clear, even using sparkalloid and bentonite. Also, it tasted...odd. Not necessarily bad, but almost earthy and yeasty, slightly vegetal. I used clover honey to ferment and back-sweetened with the same to 1.01 and the taste persisted under the sweetness. The honey does not have that taste. I ordered 1388 online (with the optional ice pack)and have been farming the yeast. Basically, made a starter, doubled it, then split it. Doubled both, split and mixed back together. Continued until I got 3L. Half is stored in the fridge, other half gets pitched in the batch. Next time, I warm to ambient temp and mix the store batch up. Pour off a starter and repeat the process to 3L. 3 batches done this way and no off flavors yet.

 

[ivyscout]

Well I finally racked my first 1 gallon BOMM today (40 days after initial pitch). So here's my review so far:

1) WY1388 is a beast! My OG was 1.090 and fermented out to 1.000 quickly (less than two weeks) so I back sweetened up to 1.012 and that stuff ate through it all back down to FG of 0.998. I'm out of Orange Blossom Honey at this point, so that is where it is going to live.

2) This is clarifying very nicely, my first batch of mead was a Wildflower Honey with Champagne Pasteur yeast, and after 62 days it is nowhere near the clarity of this batch.

3) After 40 days this stuff is incredibly smooth. Like ridiculously smooth. The good part is that there are zero off tastes and none of the fussels that I'm fighting with in my first batch. If anything, I'm actually wary that it is too smooth for my tastes. I used my wife, mother and father as guinea pigs, and they all seemed to enjoy it. Surprisingly my mom most of all (who usually prefers sweet wines and watered down beers). I think this batch is an overall success, but I think it would have been a bit better if I could have maintained some residual sweetness to increase the complexity. Maybe next time I'll try experimenting with a light oak as well.
Overall though, I'm very impressed. I think it tastes 10X better than some of the Dry Mead I picked up at whole foods earlier this month. Hats off to loveofrose and everyone else that gave me tips, I think this will be my recipe of choice, now it’s time to experiment with it

 

[IJesusChrist]

Awesome!