First time posting, but I’ve lurked this forum for a while gaining mead knowledge. I’ve got some questions about adding flavours in secondary, and I thought it would be fun to post my somewhat whacky ride making mead for the first time.
First batch:
- barely any clue what to do. Buddy I work with went to school for spirits and wine history/production. Used his knowledge to get started.
- boiled the water and honey, which I’ve now read can be a no-no, didn’t use any nutrient, didn’t oxygenate it, only had about 4lbs of honey for 3 gallons, once it cooled we activated and added the yeast, which was some random wheat beer yeast from the bulk store, mixed it in and poured it into the carboy. Didn’t get an accurate SG reading either.
- did basically NOTHING with it (aside from adding water to the airlock after 2 days. Oops) until after a couple weeks, when we added a tablespoon of energizer and another package of random lager yeast from the bulk store to restart fermentation.
- tasted it every week or two; had a distinctly beer-ish undertone, but not enough of the honey was gone and the ABV tasted looooow
- left it from here on out until our second batch...
Second batch:
- has done LOTS of reading on making mead at this point; used 6lbs of honey for a 3 gallon carboy, shook the **** out of it to oxygenate and mix the honey, added nutrient and energizer, pitched the yeast (EC-1118, which I’ve now read can be a little dicey), oxygenated it again by shaking, then capped it with water in the airlock. Took an ACCURATE SG reading of 1.080
- stirred it twice a day for a few minutes for 1 week, adding additional nutrient and energizer once a day for the first 3 days.
- after 1 week, SG reading was at 1.002! We hit about 10%! (Which is what we were aiming for). Tasted it; really fruity scent and flavour, but the flavour is more subtle. Rather nice!
- also tasted our “botched” first batch... which has turned out great! Almost all the honey sweetness is gone (we like dry flavours), there’s a whisper of beer flavour, and the ABV by taste alone is, we’re guessing, between 5-6%.
So now we’re going to rack both into secondary and let them age for a little while. These two batches we want to leave as they are with no additional flavouring, but in the future, we want to try:
- lingonberry or cranberry with pine/spruce
- orange peel with vanilla bean
- strawberry with elderflower
- juniper
- rosehip
My question is: if we’re adding these flavours in secondary, and we want the flavours to be present, but only slightly, what quantities of each should we add for a 3 gallon carboy? And how long should each ingredient stay in the container for? Can we leave them in for the entire aging process?
Thanks!
First batch:
- barely any clue what to do. Buddy I work with went to school for spirits and wine history/production. Used his knowledge to get started.
- boiled the water and honey, which I’ve now read can be a no-no, didn’t use any nutrient, didn’t oxygenate it, only had about 4lbs of honey for 3 gallons, once it cooled we activated and added the yeast, which was some random wheat beer yeast from the bulk store, mixed it in and poured it into the carboy. Didn’t get an accurate SG reading either.
- did basically NOTHING with it (aside from adding water to the airlock after 2 days. Oops) until after a couple weeks, when we added a tablespoon of energizer and another package of random lager yeast from the bulk store to restart fermentation.
- tasted it every week or two; had a distinctly beer-ish undertone, but not enough of the honey was gone and the ABV tasted looooow
- left it from here on out until our second batch...
Second batch:
- has done LOTS of reading on making mead at this point; used 6lbs of honey for a 3 gallon carboy, shook the **** out of it to oxygenate and mix the honey, added nutrient and energizer, pitched the yeast (EC-1118, which I’ve now read can be a little dicey), oxygenated it again by shaking, then capped it with water in the airlock. Took an ACCURATE SG reading of 1.080
- stirred it twice a day for a few minutes for 1 week, adding additional nutrient and energizer once a day for the first 3 days.
- after 1 week, SG reading was at 1.002! We hit about 10%! (Which is what we were aiming for). Tasted it; really fruity scent and flavour, but the flavour is more subtle. Rather nice!
- also tasted our “botched” first batch... which has turned out great! Almost all the honey sweetness is gone (we like dry flavours), there’s a whisper of beer flavour, and the ABV by taste alone is, we’re guessing, between 5-6%.
So now we’re going to rack both into secondary and let them age for a little while. These two batches we want to leave as they are with no additional flavouring, but in the future, we want to try:
- lingonberry or cranberry with pine/spruce
- orange peel with vanilla bean
- strawberry with elderflower
- juniper
- rosehip
My question is: if we’re adding these flavours in secondary, and we want the flavours to be present, but only slightly, what quantities of each should we add for a 3 gallon carboy? And how long should each ingredient stay in the container for? Can we leave them in for the entire aging process?
Thanks!
