First Mead

[SpanishCastleAle]

Making my first mead tonight. I bought a 'full-to-the-rim' gallon jug of raw honey, two packets of D-47, two 8g packets FermAid K, and some DAP. The beekeeper said it was "wildflower, about half Brazilian Pepper tree" and was selling it to folks in my homebrew club (he's a member/meadmaker). I also have an old 1 lb jar of 'Sourwood Strained Honey' that someone gave me as a gift a couple years ago, it still looks perfect in the unopened mason jar.

Should I use the Sourwood Strained Honey?
I'm using bottled water, I have a choice of Spring water or Drinking Water, Drinking water has more alkalinity (190ppm Bicarb vs 140ppm). Which would be better to use?
I have water adjustment salts/acid and a pH meter (from beer brewing), should I adjust the water at all? Both waters have ~60ppm Ca and ~5ppm Mg, low everything else. I was thinking a tiny bit of Epsom to increase the Mg.
Since it's my first should I just keep as simple as possible (no fruit/spices)? Is a good plain ole mead still plenty satisfying (I haven't drank much mead TBH).
Suggestions on amount of water? I know I don't want it sweet but the beekeeper implied that a good dry mead wasn't as easy to make. I figure I've got ~12 lb wildflower plus 1 lb sourwood. Really not sure what to shoot for here.

Thanks for any help, I realize most of these are repeats that are answered already but I figured if I'm gonna ask I might as well cover all of them.

 

[MedsenFey]

You should be able to make something really good with that honey.

If you use the 12 pounds of wildflower, I'd suggest mixing with enough water to get a gravity of 1.095 (should be about 3 gallons of water). That will give a total volume of about 4.5 gallons and will produce a dry mead at 12.5% ABV (more or less). You can use whatever water you have, but if you like the taste of the drinking water, and it has more bicarbonate, then I'd say use it. Adding 1 gram of Epsom salts is helpful.

For the nutrients you are going to want all the Fermaid K, and about 10 grams of DAP. That will give you a tad more than 200 ppm nitrogen which should be enough. I'd add half at the beginning and 1/2 when the gravity gets close to 1.065. Aerate it well during the first couple of days (yes, this sounds like heresy if you are a brewer, but have faith - meads and wines need it).

To get a good result with D47, you need to keep the temperature under control. It needs to stay below 70F at least during the first half of fermentation. If you ferment above about 73F, you're going to get paint thinner. In Florida, this is our biggest challenge to making good mead.

Check the pH at 24 and 48 hours. If the pH drops below 3.1, adding some potassium bicarbonate (or other carbonates) to bring the pH back up to at least 3.4 will help things get done. During fermentation, if you will swirl it at least daily (you can keep the airlock on) to keep the yeast up in suspension, it will go a little faster. When it gets done, and the gravity is 1.000 or lower, you can rack it to a carboy and make sure that you don't leave any headspace with air in it. You can add 1 Campden tablet per gallon (but this is optional).

If you want to oak it, go very light with the oak. This honey will have some "woody" character to it, so you can easily overdo the oak. Try 1/2 ounce at max, and I'd probably use medium toast. When it is clear, you can rack it again and then you can decide if you want it sweeter.

If you do, you can stabilize with sorbate/sulfite to make sure the yeast don't start up again and you can use the Sourwood honey to sweeten it. Remember that with aging the perception of sweetness will become noticeably stronger, so it is wise to keep it slight less than you think you want it.

If you keep it dry, you can also decide if it needs a bit of acid to brighten the flavor by adding a tiny bit to a glass to see if that improves things. A dry mead with this honey will take at least 18 months to really show its glory, but it will come. And yes, a simple traditional mead can be absolutely outstanding. I think a good traditional is a fine way to start - that way you can see what the honey tastes like on its own, and from there, if you want to try adding other things, you'll have a base to compare it with.

I hope you get a great batch.

Medsen

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

Thanks for the help.

If you use the 12 pounds of wildflower, I'd suggest mixing with enough water to get a gravity of 1.095 (should be about 3 gallons of water). That will give a total volume of about 4.5 gallons and will produce a dry mead at 12.5% ABV (more or less).

Per the calculator in the sticky, exactly 3.5 gal water makes everything match so I'll go with that.

18 months! Guess I should start planning batch #2. It's strawberry season.

 

[bob1852]

Guess I should start planning batch #2. It's strawberry season.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/group-brew-strawberry-mead-156994/

I'd try this!

 

[mccann51]

18 months! Guess I should start planning batch #2.

By no means am I gonna try and contradict Medsen on this - I'd take his advice and save some for at least 18 months to taste it at it's peak - but that also doesn't mean it's not entirely possible to be quaffable and enjoyable at 3 months.

Though this strategy may be why I only have about a gallon's worth of mead aging when I've probably fermented upwards of 20 gallons by now, haha!

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

After adding the honey mixture to the cool water in the carboy I shook the crap out of that carboy but the OG was 1.104 which seems high so I'm not confident I got a good sample. pH was 5.55.

AZ_IPA, I've been looking at that recipe! I was going to make that my first batch but decided I should start with something very simple. That'll be #2.

 

[fatbloke]

After adding the honey mixture to the cool water in the carboy I shook the crap out of that carboy but the OG was 1.104 which seems high so I'm not confident I got a good sample. pH was 5.55.
-----%<-----

Well, just give it another shake. Let it settle for a while to allow any induced bubbles to rise, then take another measurement.

1.104 is fine. The pH you quote, while a little higher than is often seen with honey musts, isn't a problem. It's still on the acidic side of neutral, so when a ferment is started, the pH will still swing about wildly, but you'd probably not have an issue with stuck ferment, which can be the case if it drops below 3.0 pH or so........

regards

fatbloke

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

Thanks fatbloke. Based on where it is now (below), I think that first reading may have been right.

After pitching Friday evening, Saturday morning I swirled it and nothing, then 2 hours later I swirled it and got foam. I swirled it regularly all day Saturday. This morning I took a sample and got SG = 1.094 and pH = 3.85. I'm guessing it should be about ready for more nutrient Monday evening. I gave it 5g of each at the beginning. It's been at about 65* F since pitching the yeast.

 

[fatbloke]

Thanks fatbloke. Based on where it is now (below), I think that first reading may have been right.

After pitching Friday evening, Saturday morning I swirled it and nothing, then 2 hours later I swirled it and got foam. I swirled it regularly all day Saturday. This morning I took a sample and got SG = 1.094 and pH = 3.85. I'm guessing it should be about ready for more nutrient Monday evening. I gave it 5g of each at the beginning. It's been at about 65* F since pitching the yeast.

Sounds like it's doing it's thing........

Me ? I tend to stir it once (sometimes twice) a day, until it gets to the 1/3rd sugar break, which will be about the 1.065/1.070 area...... doesn't have to be too accurate. That'd be the time to stir it a final time, then add the last of the nutrients etc (dissolved in a little must). Doing it that way helps remove the chance of adding the nutrient, then stirring, only to end up with a "mead fountain"......

Which apart from being a complete PITA, is a waste of good mead......

regards

fatbloke

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

Yesterday evening it was at SG = 1.074 and pH = 3.42 so I waited until late last night and added the last nutrients (5g of each) plus a tiny bit of CaCl. Degassed it one last time this morning.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

Racked it last night (day 13) and got SG of 1.000 and pH of 3.40. Probably could have racked it Monday night. Very cloudy (opaque), pretty dry, not particulary tasty but not rocket fuel either. This morning there is already a small layer on the bottom. Not sure if I should wait an entire month to rack it again.

 

[MedsenFey]

Unless it develops some sulfur odor, I wouldn't be in any hurry to rack unless it accumulates a huge amount of lees. I'd let it clear as much as possible.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

This doesn't look good. I was hoping it was just wax/junk that had worked it's way to the top but the small 'pizza bubbles' have me concerned. It was racked almost exactly 2 weeks ago. Any comments/suggestions? I have campden tabs, would that help? Do people make sour/funky meads (intentionally that is)?

That 'ring' below the surface is just lees settled onto one of the 'bands' of the carboy. But this shot shows the 'pizza bubbles'.

 

[MedsenFey]

Check the gravity. My guess is that it isn't finished fermenting.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

Check the gravity. My guess is that it isn't finished fermenting.

Thanks. Will do, it was at 1.000 when I racked it.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

I decided to just let it go until the next racking, which was this past weekend. The layer on top did not grow or change in any way over the last 3 weeks. I used a 3 gal carboy this time and it's filled to within 2" of the very top, the rest went into 2L seltzer bottles.

Gravity was still at 1.000 and pH was 3.46 (actually I tiny bit higher than before, I assume from lysed yeast). Clarity was OK. Tastes/smells about the same as before. The aroma is very nice and otherwise tastes kind of like a hot, dry Riesling. Couple glasses of that was all I needed Saturday night.

 

[fatbloke]

I decided to just let it go until the next racking, which was this past weekend. The layer on top did not grow or change in any way over the last 3 weeks. I used a 3 gal carboy this time and it's filled to within 2" of the very top, the rest went into 2L seltzer bottles.

Gravity was still at 1.000 and pH was 3.46 (actually I tiny bit higher than before, I assume from lysed yeast). Clarity was OK. Tastes/smells about the same as before. The aroma is very nice and otherwise tastes kind of like a hot, dry Riesling. Couple glasses of that was all I needed Saturday night.

You do, sometimes, get slightly strange stuff floating like in the picture. I'd have thought it's just some of the yeast sediment that was attached to CO2 and might take a while before it sinks (might not, capilliary action and all that).

Just let it clear.

Your analogy of "hot, dry Riesling" suggests a bit of "alcohol hotness" taste. That's not a problem as it should mellow out over time.

Yup! I'd be happy with progress like that.

regards

fatbloke