First Time Mead 1 Gal Recipe Help

[UGAVet]

I've been homebrewing for a couple years now, but want to make a small batch of mead. My wife and I are expecting our first child in January and I wanted to steal my cousin's idea of making a small batch of mead to open bottles on major events in her life (1st birthday, Sweet 16, Wedding day, Etc). I've taken the Papazian Barkshack Ginger Mead recipe and played with it a bit after reading a TON of threads on meads and wanted to get some feedback from experienced mead makers before getting going. Here's what I've got planned.

3.5 lbs Honey
0.3 lbs Corn sugar
1.5 oz Ginger (Finely grated/chopped)
2.0 lbs Crushed peaches
1/4 tsp Gypsum
1/4 tsp Citric Acid (lemon juice?)
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1/4 tsp Irish Moss
1/2 oz Lemongrass tea
1 oz Champagne yeast
2.5 tbsp Corn sugar (bottling)


Bring 1 gallon of water to boil.
Add 1.5lbs honey, corn sugar, ginger, gypsum, citric acid, irish moss and yeast nutrient.
Let boil for 15 minutes. Turn off heat.
Add crushed fruit and remaining 2# of honey; steep for 10-15 minutes (maintain temp over 150*F).
Transfer to primary and top off with cold water to 1.2 gallons.
Cool to 75*F and pitch yeast. Shake to aerate.
Age for 7 days or when SG is at/under 1.020. Rack to secondary.
Age in secondary for 6-8 weeks or once clear.
Rack to bottling bucket, add corn sugar and lemongrass tea.
Bottle age minimum 6 mo before trying.


Questions for you guys:
1. Any recipe changes? Are the additives all needed? Amount of honey/fruit/etc seem reasonable for a 1gallon batch?

2. I only have 5.5 gallon buckets. I was looking into getting a 2 gallon bucket to use for primary fermentation and a 1 gallon carboy for the secondary. Does this seem reasonable for this recipe?

3. There seems to be a lot of controversy over boiling or not boiling. Does boiling some make any sense or should I just put it all in after boiling the corn sugar?

4. I am hoping for a final product of a dry, ginger-peach champagne/mead. What brand/strain of yeast would you guys recommend as best?

5. Any chance this actually ferments in 7 days? I've seen posts about MUCH longer primary fermentations and don't want to rack too soon.


I really appreciate any help y'all can give me. I can't wait to get going on my first mead. -Jason

 

[fuelish]

Just a quick take on this, am not really thinking it through too clinically (just spent 3 hrs cutting grass )
This is all my personal opinion, not hard science or anything

1) I'd skip the boil totally (unnecessary), I'd skip the 0.3 lbs corn sugar addition, I'd up the ginger a bit, skip the gypsum, skip the acid (honey is tough enough to keep pH in line without adding acid up front), skip the Irish moss, lemongrass tea is up to you...also, since you're adding peaches, I'd add pectic enzyme to the must before fermentation begins, to help with clearing fruit pectin haze.....it's 1/2 tsp per gallon, and available at homebrew shops that stock wine making ingredients.....for priming sugar, I weigh mine, so am not sure what 2.5 TBS weights....I usually go 1 oz weight per actual gallon of finished product (sometimes, after racking a time or two or three, a 5 gallon batch can end up closer to 4 actual gallons, depends on a lot of things)

2) IMHO, primary fermentor vessel size is pretty irrelevant, as it's gonna be throwing off mass quantities of CO2.....a gallon jug should suffice when racked, as there will be volume losses due to fruit, etc

3) Skip the boil and skip the corn sugar in fermentor

4) My understanding is you would like this sparkling.....for a 1 gallon batch, you might want to cut back a bit on the honey, or the yeast may not have a lot left to givev to carb in the bottles.....depends on your OG and the alcohol tolerance of the chosen yeast....Redstar champagne yeast will likely not carb a batch with this much honey, in my experience....I'd cut back a bit on the honey and go with Lalvin K1-V1116 or Lalvin EC-1118....these are powerful yeasts, good up to 18%, give or take, but you want to end up under that mark so they'll bottle carb for you.....3.5 lbs honey is really more than you need for a gallon batch

5) I'd give it longer than 7 days in primary....quite a bit longer, really...yeast work on their own timetable, known only to them, ....and it varies

Hope this was of some help, and I hope someone with some alternate opinions kicks in with their thoughts....there's more than one way to make any given mead (like cat skinnin' )
I make a sparkling peach/white grape mead (peach pyment), using much less honey per gallon, peach/white grape juice, and sliced peaches.....my wife's favorite of favorites, although it's slightly different every time even though I use ther same recipe...LOL

 

[bernardsmith]

My experience pretty much provides me with the same suggestions that fuelish makes, although I might suggest other strains of yeast, 71B, for example or as Loveofrose suggest Wyeast 1388 . Two and half pounds to 3 lbs of honey is adequate for a mead (1.090 - 1.120 or thereabouts - and at 3 lbs you will get more of the flavor of the honey (assuming a good varietal) but you also get rocket fuel... 3 lbs will result in a potential ABV of about 15-16%) . So yer pays yer money and yer takes yer chance...
Mead ain't beer so there is non need for gypsum or Irish moss. I have never needed to use Bentonite to help clear mead. It seems to clear perfectly well on its own (but I don't typically make a melomel (mead with added fruit). If you are adding peaches I would add pectic enzyme about 12 hours or more before you pitch the yeast. And as fuelish says, why boil the flavor and aroma out of the honey if you are buying a flavorful honey, say Tupelo or orange blossom or sourwood or even wildflower... The honey doesn't need boiling to "modify" starches (there are only simple sugars in honey and they are all there ready for the yeast once you dilute the honey with enough water to allow the yeast to enter the honey) and honey cannot support mold or bacteria so there is no need to "pasteurize" it.
In my opinion, you want to continually taste the mead. If you use 2.5-3 lbs it COULD be ready to drink in a few months. It will improve as it ages, but that , as they say, is another story. I have had mead clear bright in 30 days and be very drinkable in two months... but I tend to make my meads as if they are wine and use about 2.5 lbs of honey in a gallon of spring water.

 

[UGAVet]

Thanks so much for the feedback. I had a feeling you guys would tell me to ditch the boil, gypsum and irish moss but was scared to venture away from the Papazian recipe without some experienced mead makers feedback. I'll be making this soon and really appreciate the help.

 

[Paul_F]

My only suggestion is to make that batch bigger..
You want her to have a bottle to drink with her folks on her 21st birthday, a bottle the day she buys her first house, a bottle when she's expecting her first child, etc.

Hey, gotta think a LITTLE big, right?