user 338612
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- Apr 21, 2023
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Hello all,
I decided to grab a 15L fermenter and make my first mead, I re-pitched more yeast because it wasn't doing much after a couple of days, but it has a nice foamy head that get much bigger when I gave it a stir today, hadn't seen airlock activity yet but I assume the foam has dampened it a bit (there was quite a bit!)
Anyway I'm only 3 or 4 days in now, but I thought I'd share the recipe I used, and we'll see how we go!
I took roughly 4kg of store bought honey, along with a smaller boutique style one that had a vanilla bean in the jar, that stuff smelled completely different to the bulk 2.5kg tubs of homogonised stuff, hopefully the vanilla gets attacked nicely by the yeast and gets me even more of that flavour!
Anyway, I added that to 10L of spring water straight from the freshly opened bottle (after sanitizing everything the mead would be touching of course!) and then decided to add a couple of things for the yeast to eat in the primary.
I took one navel orange, one pear (I don't remember the exact name but it was a more expensive one) and 2 passionfruits (once again, don't know the name but larger than normal) and popped them in, and I bought a couple of jars of bee pollen as I read that it makes a pretty damn good yeast nutrient and imparts even more honey flavour. I added 1 x 240g jar of that.
I also added in about half a packet of store bought yeast food to get the buggers started, gave it all a very generous stir and pitched in some 1118 after an admittedly too fast hydration in a little of the must and hoped it would fly after a day or two. It didn't so I ended up adding a packet of mangrove jacks mead yeast that I got at the same time as the 1118, but this time I did it right and boiled some fresh water, let it cool, pitched and waited half an hour for foam etc. Also gave it another good stir to get some air into it.
Today we thought it wasn't going anywhere because the airlock wasn't moving, but taking the lid off revealed a massive foam cap on top and a ripe fruit smell (not rotten thankfully though my friend gagged a little, for some reason I normally hate bad smells and I was fine though).
Gave the must another stir (not as vigorously this time) and watched a bunch of foam rise from the top before I stirred it all back down into the must.
Then I took out the fruit because I figure it's probably not helping with the foam and the yeast seems to have had a good go at it already and probably got most of the juices I wanted (I squeezed the oranges in before I dumped them in, of course all was sanitized even the fruit before I cut it with a sanitized knife)
It's currently doing whatever it is doing at my friend's house (he had the room to store it while it ferments) and from the good signs today I am expecting a pretty strong fermentation when I check on it tomorrow.
I plan on separating the must out to 3 x 5l bottles and airlock them, then get my 2 bandmates to pick their favorite fruit to add for secondary ferment before we re-rack to bottles.
What do you guys think of the recipe so far? Any suggestions for good fruits to complement the ones I added in primary? I assume I only added enough to give the barest hint of a flavour in the end, which is fine because I plan to add the real taste in secondary anyway, and probably do something to crash the yeast and backsweeten if it's too dry (the potential ABV on the test was about 13% and I know the 1118 and the mead yeast will happily go to 18%)
I was looking around at the foam stories on here and thought I'd share my first recipe anyway.
Here's hoping it's a tasty brew at the end!
I decided to grab a 15L fermenter and make my first mead, I re-pitched more yeast because it wasn't doing much after a couple of days, but it has a nice foamy head that get much bigger when I gave it a stir today, hadn't seen airlock activity yet but I assume the foam has dampened it a bit (there was quite a bit!)
Anyway I'm only 3 or 4 days in now, but I thought I'd share the recipe I used, and we'll see how we go!
I took roughly 4kg of store bought honey, along with a smaller boutique style one that had a vanilla bean in the jar, that stuff smelled completely different to the bulk 2.5kg tubs of homogonised stuff, hopefully the vanilla gets attacked nicely by the yeast and gets me even more of that flavour!
Anyway, I added that to 10L of spring water straight from the freshly opened bottle (after sanitizing everything the mead would be touching of course!) and then decided to add a couple of things for the yeast to eat in the primary.
I took one navel orange, one pear (I don't remember the exact name but it was a more expensive one) and 2 passionfruits (once again, don't know the name but larger than normal) and popped them in, and I bought a couple of jars of bee pollen as I read that it makes a pretty damn good yeast nutrient and imparts even more honey flavour. I added 1 x 240g jar of that.
I also added in about half a packet of store bought yeast food to get the buggers started, gave it all a very generous stir and pitched in some 1118 after an admittedly too fast hydration in a little of the must and hoped it would fly after a day or two. It didn't so I ended up adding a packet of mangrove jacks mead yeast that I got at the same time as the 1118, but this time I did it right and boiled some fresh water, let it cool, pitched and waited half an hour for foam etc. Also gave it another good stir to get some air into it.
Today we thought it wasn't going anywhere because the airlock wasn't moving, but taking the lid off revealed a massive foam cap on top and a ripe fruit smell (not rotten thankfully though my friend gagged a little, for some reason I normally hate bad smells and I was fine though).
Gave the must another stir (not as vigorously this time) and watched a bunch of foam rise from the top before I stirred it all back down into the must.
Then I took out the fruit because I figure it's probably not helping with the foam and the yeast seems to have had a good go at it already and probably got most of the juices I wanted (I squeezed the oranges in before I dumped them in, of course all was sanitized even the fruit before I cut it with a sanitized knife)
It's currently doing whatever it is doing at my friend's house (he had the room to store it while it ferments) and from the good signs today I am expecting a pretty strong fermentation when I check on it tomorrow.
I plan on separating the must out to 3 x 5l bottles and airlock them, then get my 2 bandmates to pick their favorite fruit to add for secondary ferment before we re-rack to bottles.
What do you guys think of the recipe so far? Any suggestions for good fruits to complement the ones I added in primary? I assume I only added enough to give the barest hint of a flavour in the end, which is fine because I plan to add the real taste in secondary anyway, and probably do something to crash the yeast and backsweeten if it's too dry (the potential ABV on the test was about 13% and I know the 1118 and the mead yeast will happily go to 18%)
I was looking around at the foam stories on here and thought I'd share my first recipe anyway.
Here's hoping it's a tasty brew at the end!
