Brew day 4/30/16

[SkeletorMob]

So today I mixed up a couple recipes for experience!
These should be much more bearable for you to read lol
Recipe one will be a simple bochet style melomel:
One gallon of water
Found some delicious avocado honey local to Valley center, CA about 45 min from me at a farmers market in town. Carmalized 2 lbs for about 15 min. Waited for a rich orange color and till a very rich chocolatey smell emerged.
Added to 1.070 as I plan to step feed this batch to a sweet mead.
I will add more at just below where I want it to finish around 1.020 to 1.100/+
One vanilla bean about 5-7 inches. I love vanilla.
Juice of half a tangelo
One packet rehydrated k1v1116
1/2 tsp fermax
Must tasted delicous!
Aerated for a minute and let it set, it is open fermenting right now for the step up.
Plan 3/4 of a tangelo sliced rind on one or two slices
At final 2/3 break for a light to medium profile hopefully.
Ph 4.0-4.4

Recipe 2 is a semi-sweet show
1 gallon of water
Local ramona honey sage prominent floral mix to 1.112
One packet rehydrated k1v1116
1 tsp fermax
Aerated one minute
In a carboy, covered open for now to aid aeration for a couple days then will airlock
Plan for nutrients a 1/3 and 2/3 sugar break
PH 4.4-4.6
So here we go!!!

 

[SkeletorMob]

Went to aerate here for the night, capped the bochet Mel and it exploded after 3 good shakes lmao, big clean up and thankfully I had topper must left!! I'm surprised but hot damn it's going already!
The semi sweet took the aerate just fine!

 

[AkTom]

Nice. I don't drink much mead. I have 4 Gallons of different going now though. I like making it as much as drinking it.

 

[SkeletorMob]

You I realized that the other week! I haven't drank a mead since probably 2010! And now there's 7 gallons in the closet lmao!

 

[SkeletorMob]

Well I'm thinking into the future now, and believe I've gotten myself into a prediciment. I plan on step feeding my bochet, but didn't carmalize all of the honey. Which would mean I need to carmalize before I add in. (Because adding raw (uncarmalized persay) honey to this would declassify it as bochet right?)
Obviously (I think lol) I can't throw in boiling honey cause it will effectively murder my yeast. And allowing the honey to cool to much after removing basically any moisture content will leave it much stickier than before, right?
Therefore I think my best bet for the one gallon container is to carmalize, add only enough water to get the honey mixed then add this to a bucket and cool. Then I would gently mix in my gallon from the open ferment, run tests to gravity and then lock it in the carboy, leaving extra must for topping or tasting. Does this sound appropriate for the situation I created for myself? Also
My yeast culture in 24 hrs knocked 10 points off to 1.060
And I'm hoping they keep going even a little faster. I say this because I'd like them to knock it down to or below 1.020 within 5 days so that at the time I am mixing up the sg, it will still be in or close to the aerobic stages of fermentation. Does this also sound appropriate, or are my expectations a little high? Not worried about learning the mistakes I may have made, please feel free to point them out!

 

[SkeletorMob]

48 hours gravity in the bochet down another 12 points to 1.048!! Looking good so far!

 

[SkeletorMob]

72 hour gravity at 1.031! Rocking and rolling, no more aeration

 

[SkeletorMob]

Alrighty, 7 day gravity of the bochet style is 1.010!! I'm super excited, it tasted VERY dry to me lol but this is the driest mead I've tasted. Not to much vanilla yet and the caramelized avocado honey is a tad hard to detect right now. Probably cause the yeast ate it haha. Anyways so last night was the que. Carmalized 14 ozs of avocado honey and ran out, so I used another 12 oz of delicous wildflower honey from julian with the same darkness. (I know I may have distorted the planned avocado profile of the bochet but please keep reading)
Added 4 ozs of water to the 26 ozs of honey, let it cool and then added in the bochet ferment to a 2 gal big bubbler. Gravity at 1.060, perfecto, because I felt like trying to max out k1v1116 abv tolerance and then back sweeten one last time with more of the avocado honey after this ferments out! But that's only if the yeast take it dry again! I'd like the finished product at 1.010 - 1.020! Excitement!
Now the semi sweet was kick right down as well. Took the gravity reading @ 1.070 for 7 days! Added nutrient/energizer and that one also went to a 2 gallon big mouth bubbler. This one was made with ramona local honey. Couldn't find much about cause the seller wasn't the keeper BUT it tasted of a sage dominant floral bouquet! And boy or boy the light sage taste with the sweet honey was very relaxing. But with only about %5 abv fermented in, I will definitely like this one better with the bite from a higher abv! I was also worried about the high pH but even that has settled so far into the 3.6-4.0 but I'll only be happy if it stays that way. I will be monitering that closely. Woohoo! I'm very happy with my next beginning batches! Still much more time to go, just staying patient and ever watching! I wish you all a beautiful weekend and excellent brews!

 

[SkeletorMob]

I will also add that as of yet I have not minded the yeasty tastes. I've read that this a preference issue and also have never had a recent taste of a clear mead to compare by. But for now haven't minded the yeast is in there! Also come to find out I probably will enjoy a partial carbonated mead! I imagined I would only like still meads as I'm not a huge fan of gushing champagne! But a light bubble in the tastes actually seemed like it brought some more flavor through the young tastes!

 

[Lefou]

Funny you mentioned pH. I've been paying attention to my starter water for both my mead and my beer. My almost finished mead was showing a pH in the neighborhood of 4.4 when I decanted to secondary.

The house tap water has low calcium, low sulfates and minimal electrolytes primarily because my tap water is "soft". As it hits the in-line carbon filter in the refrigerator, it gets even more neutral. So far, I haven't had a stuck fermentation, but then again, I try to be careful by watching pH, nutrients, and pitching a strong yeast starter using both dry and liquid yeasts.

 

[SkeletorMob]

The house tap water has low calcium, low sulfates and minimal electrolytes primarily because my tap water is "soft". As it hits the in-line carbon filter in the refrigerator, it gets even more neutral. So far, I haven't had a stuck fermentation, but then again, I try to be careful by watching pH, nutrients, and pitching a strong yeast starter using both dry and liquid yeasts.

Nice! I have yet to add that into the detail, watching and noting the water that is. Our tap is also ran through a filter but only through the fridge so I know I gotta be clogging it running gallons through haha. I need to think about a little cabinet purifier/filtration system. The house used to be ran through I giant filter but it's clogged with no way to back rinse or anything. The filter is about 6' tall with a 3' radius lol $$$ I've experienced a slow ferment and a partially stuck ferment but was quickly able to save!

 

[Lefou]

To tell you the truth, I've had less problems with water quality than my own inexperience. My water pH starts around 7.1 and with beer and mead, "soft" filtered water is a good starting point for me and the styles I like.

After I found a good recent water authority report on my local tap water, I quit worrying about my water profile. It's good enough to brew the styles I like. If you're on city water, you may find a detailed report from the local water authority by doing a simple online search - or getting a free water test if there's a Home Depot nearby. Mail-in analysis testers can be had, check it out if you're curious.

I have a 42,000 gallon in-ground pool on city water. Adjusting pH and hardness got me thinking about the water quality of my beer and mead.

 

[SkeletorMob]

Here's an update from tests last weekend. Been house sitting so I haven't been around my materials much the last 20 days.
Bochet
G: 1.010
Ph: 3.2-3.6
Strong abv in tastes
I wrote wow!!! Lol
Toffee honey flavor with a nice citrus bite from the tangelo juice. Cannot detect the vanilla bean yet!
Man the yeast really love this caramelized honey.
Semi sweet: (made what I think may be mistakes)
G: 1.051 (slow ferment)
Ph: 3.6
Watery
Definite sage flavor
Possible mistakes:
#1: I was pressed for time. Add nutrient to this during the transfer without dissolving into water first.
#2: topped with water straight from fridge.
The only reason I believe these may be mistakes is because I had or have white floaters and instead of clearing it appears to be seperating. Perhaps my eyes are fooling me concerning seperation. Not letting it get the best of me, still smells fine gonna let it go and see what happens. Taking down notes of these things so that if problems arise in the future I'll be able to pin down discrepancy in execution techniques of the recipes, and thereby learn from them.

Both of these were transferred to one gallon carboys and airlocked.

 

[SkeletorMob]

I'm affraid, being a week later, that the bochet may turn out like the "dessert" show mead recipe from my other thread. In that; I believe that, given the aggressive nature of k1v116, the proper time to rack off would have been after those tests. Considering I wished for a semi or sweet recipe. I have a feeling it's dry now, and may not be able to rack for another week. We will see after more tests and decide what I can do. If it tastes great dry, I'll drink it and try again. This recipe is only 22 days old...

 

[SkeletorMob]

Racked the bochet onto 2-3 lbs tangelo fruit only, above what I planned on but have also learned more since then!
Bochet tasted of sweet vanilla before racking, anticipating the citrus bite greatly!
I have a funny eye on the "ramona" semi sweet, it keeps showing stratification randomly and I've been to perplexed and busy to worry about it. It's yeast cake is substantially smaller than the others, which leads me to believe I had improper environment for reproduction. Ph was right, staggered nutrients, and aerated the first week. gravity readings suggested that it was fermenting plenty quickly though so I'm sure the k1v116 ate it dry by now. come to find out, I love dry meads!
Have yet to taste a sweet mead that was fermented as such and even though I wanted to be finishing sweet meads, I have yet to get a ferment to finish where I want it with minimal additives. So by tasting all these dry meads, and some from golden coast, I find them delicous and actually don't crave for a sweeter one!
Thanks for checking in; to anyone who has lent me their advice and experience; to everyone for contributing to such a badass forum!

 

[SkeletorMob]

I did not take a gravity reading at the racking because a.) The K1v1116 eats everything b.) I was very late per plan on racking so I know for sure 1116 ate more than intended. Still love the dry meads, so I'm not disappointed lol

 

[SkeletorMob]

Bochet was racked 14 days ago onto 2-3 lbs tangelos, and racked off today. Tasted wonderful, will stay here for a month and a half with one of those weeks on oak. Ramona semi sweet racked to secondary, no tastes or test right now, topped with honey water. I also mashed the tangelos after racking and added the juice