Bray's One Month Mead

[nickwoo]

For a 6-6.5 gallon recipe would I just add a bit more honey and water to get the SG to 1.096-1.1?

 

[buzzerj]

Nickwoo, yes loveofrose (Bray) is using 2.5 lbs. of honey per gallon so if you use 2.5 to 3 lbs. more honey and the balance with water to 6-6.5 gallons you should be fine.

 

[loveofrose]

Agreed. Maybe bump up the nutrients a bit to be sure the yeast are happy.


Better brewing through science!

 

[nickwoo]

Thanks for the info. Just got the complete mead maker and all ready about 1/4 way through. Now to get some more honey.

 

[Arpolis]

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.

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

Ok so this is the story of my life. So many things get in my way and I have many carboys going un touched and in bottles for months on end. Near 4.5 months now and I bottled and back sweetened these batches. OMG soooo good. Now this was the first time using solely orange blossom honey and I almost thought I mis labeled my meads and mistook my traditional for a lemon mead that I also have going. But nope! There is a super nice citrusy character to the mead. It is super smooth.

The traditional finished at .990 gravity and the bochet at .992. I liked the traditional so much I decided to back sweeten it less than intended and only went to 1.008. The bochet was sweetened to 1.018. These are truly some of the best meads I have made. I am super excited!

 

[IJesusChrist]

Awesome Arpolis.

Can't wait to get back home and start a new batch (and taste my others - Ginger/ginseng mead awaits!)

 

[kingboomer]

OK, so I've read the 1 and 5 galon recipes, and I have a question on the nutrients. I'm going to be doing a 3gal variation on the cyser. What I'm wondering is how much nutrients I need to pitch at the start and sugar breaks?

 

[loveofrose]

OK, so I've read the 1 and 5 galon recipes, and I have a question on the nutrients. I'm going to be doing a 3gal variation on the cyser. What I'm wondering is how much nutrients I need to pitch at the start and sugar breaks?

Sorry there was a typo for the 5 gallon recipe. Units for 5 gallons was supposed to be tablespoons.

For 3 gallons with a starter, I would go with 3/4 TBSP DAP, 1.5 TBSP Fermaid K, and 1/2 TBSP K2CO3. Add the first two again at 2/3 and 1/3 sugar break.

Cheers!



Better brewing through science!

 

[kingboomer]

Thanks man. I'll deffinitely be making about a 1qt starter for this with some of the must watered down to about 1.050 or so, nothing too heavy. Now I will be carmelizing some of the honey and useing that in place of the brown sugar as well. I'll let you know once I get this going!

 

[Gidet]

Perhaps I missed this but..

When it comes to the Cyser recipe (post #166) instead of using a slurry is it ok to use the a new 1388 smackpack? Also would you use the entire pack in a 1 gallon brew (I mean batch sorry brewing has me trained)?

 

[loveofrose]

Perhaps I missed this but..

When it comes to the Cyser recipe (post #166) instead of using a slurry is it ok to use the a new 1388 smackpack? Also would you use the entire pack in a 1 gallon brew (I mean batch sorry brewing has me trained)?

Yes to both questions.


Better brewing through science!

 

[Gidet]

Yes to both questions.


Better brewing through science!

Great, thanks again.

 

[Lamplover]

This will be my first mead so I've got quite a few questions

How much Go-Ferm do you add in grams or Tsp? I ordered 10 grams and was thinking I would add 5 grams (~1Tsp) to each step of the starter I make.
Would it even be worth it to do a 2 step starter?
Should I boil the honey I'm using for my starter?
Do you only add the potassium carbonate once?
When I'm degassing do I have to be careful not to oxygenate the must? How often and how long to I have to degas for using a stir stick?
I plan to use a little over 12lbs of honey which will give me an OG of 1.084, will it finish too dry or cause any other problems?

Sorry for all the questions I just want it to go smoothly and it's a lot of information at once, thank you in advance for any help!

 

[Hidingfromyou]

Hey, thought I would let you know what I did and how it worked. I took all my ideas from this thread - thank you! - and it's my first mead.

I did not have access to yeast nutrients, so I staggered the addition of honey. This is for a 7.5 liter batch, which is roughly 2 gallons:

s-33 yeast (and yeast cake for nutrients, from ale)
1.1 kg honey
300 g tea leaves
500 g akashiso turned into juice (red shiso - has nitrogen and lots of trace nutrients, a kind of tart taste)
2 lemons

I mixed it vigorously for 5 minutes every day for the first week for aeration and added honey after the kraussen fell the first and second times (500 grams, then 500 grams).

I won't say it tastes great, but there are no off flavors at 24 days. I racked to a secondary only because I am out of bottles - but still enjoyed a glass last night. As it's my first, I'm pretty happy. It is dry, no sweet flavor whatsoever.

I think I need to dramatically increase the akashiso, decrease the tea and increase the honey (not to get it sweet, just to increase ABV) - and I'm just about to try that for the next month.

 

[buzzerj]

This will be my first mead so I've got quite a few questions

How much Go-Ferm do you add in grams or Tsp? I ordered 10 grams and was thinking I would add 5 grams (~1Tsp) to each step of the starter I make.
Would it even be worth it to do a 2 step starter?
Should I boil the honey I'm using for my starter?
Do you only add the potassium carbonate once?
When I'm degassing do I have to be careful not to oxygenate the must? How often and how long to I have to degas for using a stir stick?
I plan to use a little over 12lbs of honey which will give me an OG of 1.084, will it finish too dry or cause any other problems?

Sorry for all the questions I just want it to go smoothly and it's a lot of information at once, thank you in advance for any help!

You are using Go-Ferm only to get your yeast started so you use only 1/4 teaspoon or 1 gram. Save the rest, it's golden.
I wouldn't do a two step starter, make it easy on yourself. if you wish to hit the must with a good quantity of active yeast, make a larger starter 18-36 hours prior to pitching.
Don't boil the honey for the starter. For the quantity of honey you are using ~ 6 oz., the chance of contamination is negligible if you are using cleaned/sanitized equipment. Honey has such a high concentration of sugar, it is an effective antibacterial agent itself. Honey can actually be used on wounds to prevent infection if you don't mind getting sticky and having dogs lick you.
Add potassium bicarbonate KHCO3 once yes. It's functionally similar to the potassium carbonate K2CO3 that loveofrose suggests.
Yes be careful to not oxygenate the must after the lag phase when the yeast are working anaerobically (it's called fermentation). You are trying to degas the must not re-gas it. Give it just short smooth stirring to evolve bubbles in solution not to agitate the must to drive oxygen into solution. Otherwise just carefully swirl the fermenter back and forth on a level surface to dislodge bubbles out of solution.
For a 1.084 O.G. for a 5 gallon batch, you are dialing it in for a 12% ABV if it finishes at 0.995, maybe a bit more if it finishes lower. It will finish as dry as the yeast takes it. That's ok. You can sweeten the final result as long as the yeast has hit the top end and doesn't restart fermentation or sulfite and sorbate it then sweeten it. But taste it first and see if it needs sweetening to your taste at all. Have confidence. You will be amazed at the result. Be sure to use DAP and Fermaid K for the staggered nutrient additions. The Wyeast 1388 yeast needs these to make sure it's not too stressed and to ensure the mead achieves the final result earlier rather than later. Follow the recipe loveofrose suggests and you will have a good result.

 

[Lamplover]

Wow thanks Buzzerj! Do you have any experience making dry fruity meads? I've had mead before and it was too sweet for my tastes, it had 26g/L of residual sugars so that would put it around 1.010 FG. I want it both drier and I want to experiment with adding different fruits. I'm planning to dry it out to an FG of .0995-1.000 and then stop fermentation, and rack onto some fruits. Would such a dry mead be very hot tasting? Would the sugar from the fruit restore some mild sweetness to it without it being too sweet? And would a dry mead with fruit be a bad combination?

 

[buzzerj]

A melomel at 12% is a good thing to shoot for. You can sulfite and sorbate your mead when dry and add back some fruit or fruit juice. Natural sugars are the best. Wait a awhile, taste, rack then bottle. Age a bit and enjoy. Experience is the best teacher.

 

[JoshWithrow]

Has anybody tried WLP545? I read that WLP570 isn't ideal for this, and Wyeast is hard to find in these parts (not sure why). Willing to mail order, just prefer not to.

 

[loveofrose]

Not that I am aware of. Good luck!


Better brewing through science!

 

[estricklin]

Started my BOMM about 3 weeks ago, its clearing out right now, haven't checked the gravity or tasted yet.

 

[JoshWithrow]

Has anybody tried WLP545? I read that WLP570 isn't ideal for this, and Wyeast is hard to find in these parts (not sure why). Willing to mail order, just prefer not to.

Not that I am aware of. Good luck!

Better brewing through science!

Then I'll keep you all posted! lol

 

[Lamplover]

So i ordered all my supplies and I'm making my starter, thanks for your help buzzerj.

One problem, i ordered my nutrients according to the first 5 gallon recipe (its in tsp) but i read further and it seems its supposed to be in tbsps? I only have 30gs (about 2.5 tbsps) of fermaid k and 30gs of dap, can I make this work?

 

[buzzerj]

OK this has been a bit of a source of confusion but let's try to simplify it. For a one gallon batch, loveofrose states the following: 0.25 tsp potassium carbonate at the start, then 0.25 tsp DAP and 0.5 tsp Fermaid K at the start and again at the 1/3 sugar break and again at the 2/3 sugar break. That's a total of 0.25 tsp potassium carbonate, 0.75 tsp DAP and 1.5 tsp Fermaid K for the whole batch.

If you're doing a 5 gallon batch, the total quantity of potassium carbonate is 1.25 tsp, 3.75 tsp DAP and 7.5 tsp Fermaid K (basically 5 times the above quantities for 1 gallon). Now remember, there are 3 teaspoons in every tablespoon so the prescribed total quantities of nutrients used in a 5 gallon batch in tablespoons should be the following: 0.417 tbsp Potassium Carbonate, 1.25 tbsp DAP and 2.5 tbsp Fermaid K. So I think you will be fine for your 5 gallon batch Lamplover. You have just enough Fermaid K for 5 gallons. You will have DAP left over. Be sure you've got potassium carbonate to start this off and the Go-Ferm (1 gram (0.25 tsp)) for your starter. Be sure to let us know how it comes out.

 

[Lamplover]

well the original calls for this

Dose the following at must creation, 2/3, & 1/3 sugar break.
1 tsp DAP + 2 tsp Fermaid K
Add 3/4 tsp potassium carbonate.

then he says this

Sorry there was a typo for the 5 gallon recipe. Units for 5 gallons was supposed to be tablespoons.

and this

Add 3/4 TBSP K2CO3, 1 TBSP DAP, & 2 TBSP Fermaid K
Use a drill powered mixer to mix honey completely.

Also, Dose 1 TBSP DAP + 2 TBSP Fermaid at 2/3 & 1/3 sugar break (I leave a hydrometer in to monitor it daily)

But you've reassured me and I used a YAN calculator which said the same thing as you. I did use Go-ferm in my starter and it went great, I'm doing the second step now (2L's) because I had the extra honey, Go-ferm and time.

I will definitely be updating you on how it turns out, thanks for the quick reply!

 

[buzzerj]

Yes I realize what he said. Bray can clarify for himself. But consider, six total tablespoons of Fermaid K is a whole lot of Fermaid K for a five gallon batch. That's 18 teaspoons! I can see using slightly more than maybe what I said but 7.5 teaspoons of Fermaid K is a lot too for 5 gallons. DAP is cheaper, so Bray is saying 3 total tablespoons of DAP and I have 1.25 tablespoons total. But again I'm using simple step up ratios. If the yeast really need it, hike the total DAP up a bit providing more net nitrogen but you have no Fermaid K to spare. I think you will be fine, the key is the staggered additions at the 1/3 and 2/3 sugar breaks. Providing the nutrients when the yeast need it most. Go for it. I think you will be pleased with the results.

 

[loveofrose]

The recipe is as stated with Tablespoon units for 5 gallons. The recipe does not scale linear because you are pitching a lot more yeast with a starter.

Can it work with less? Probably, but I never tested it.

I'm currently testing Fermaid O as a replacement for both DAP and Fermaid K. I'll post results when conclusive.


Better brewing through science!

 

[IJesusChrist]

I think K Carbonate should scale linearly

my .02

 

[loveofrose]

The K2CO3 does not scale linear because you are dealing with 5x volume that traps substantially more CO2 gas. That's my thought process anyway. Try less and see if it works.


Better brewing through science!

 

[JABjorn]

Just started a batch last night. Really excited to see how it comes out.

 

[Lamplover]

The recipe is as stated with Tablespoon units for 5 gallons. The recipe does not scale linear because you are pitching a lot more yeast with a starter.

Can it work with less? Probably, but I never tested it.

I'm currently testing Fermaid O as a replacement for both DAP and Fermaid K. I'll post results when conclusive.


Better brewing through science!

Im new to staggered nutrients but in my research i have never heard that the nutrient requirements dont scale linearly to the volume of must, although it might scale exponentially for the OG. Im on my phone so in a few days i can read into it a bit more and link a few sources for you to read because you may not need to recommend that much nutrients for 5 gallons (I will also be testing this).

Fermaid-O is usually used with DAP and Fermaid-k because too much Fermaid-O can cause yeasty flavours. So if you are testing Fermaid-O as a replacement, I wouldnt recommend scaling up the g/L for a 5 gallon batch.