hops and mead

[biochemedic]

I noticed on this page http://www.medievalcookery.com/helewyse/meadhops3.html mentions the author created 'bottle bombs' when using 1 pint swing top bottles, using the 1 teaspoon of sugar carbonation recipe. Is exploding bottles common and can it be avoided?

Looking at the link you posted, it looks like the brewer used 1 cup of honey to prime a little over 3 gal of brew...clearly this was a bit too much (unless fermentation wasn't complete, as frydogbrews suggested). Regardless, the most reliable way to prime for bottle conditioning is to use *weight* (not volume) of a known sugar added to a known volume of brew at a known temperature. Check out this calculator at Tasty Brew...
Priming with honey or other similar sugar sources (maple syrup, etc.) can be problematic, as the actual sugar content of honey can vary from source to source and year to year.

 

[frydogbrews]

i saw that too, i just don't see a cup of honey to three gallons of mead blowing up swingtops. i use these bottles all the time, especially for sparkly cyser, and they can handle a heckuva lot of pressure.

i agree weight is the only way to go, not volume. i said 3/4 of a cup because i force carb all my beer and i don't remember what that should weigh! i use 6-7 ounces to prime cyser and cider, but that is a higher rate than normal and you must use champagne bottles or swingtops to hold that much pressure (or a keg)

 

[JFK]

I dont like to boil my honey but I also make quite a few hopped meads. I boil my water with the hops bills and then add my honey after it has cooled. Basically making a Hops Tea without tea leaves.

 

[biochemedic]

I dont like to boil my honey but I also make quite a few hopped meads. I boil my water with the hops bills and then add my honey after it has cooled. Basically making a Hops Tea without tea leaves.

I find this very intriguing...I had often wondered if this technique would work...for some reason, I wasn't sure. From what I have read about hop utilization, I seemed to have an impression that some gravity level was necessary to extract bitterness, but also there is an inverse relationship between hop utilization and the gravity; ie, higher gravities decrease hop utilization. I'm not sure how linear this effect is, or whether it bottoms out at some point, but theoretically, you would get the best extraction of iso-alpha acids with plain water.

I actually split the difference with my hop metheglin technique -- I boil half the honey with the hops, and then add the rest once I cool it down to about 100*F

Out of curiosity, what does the "hop tea" look and taste like before you add the honey?

 

[JFK]

bitter hoppy flavorful water. Hops extraction has nothing to do with gravity and everything to do with tempeture and time at said tempeture. I got this idea from a proffessional brewmaster friend of mine when I was talking to him about wanting to extract more bitter into my mead without heating my honey. It is sound and does work very well You extract Alpha Acids and convert them the longer you soak hops at a near boiling temp. 60 minutes max bitter extraction. 30 minutes you get bitter and some aroma. 20 minute less bitters more aroma etc etc.

 

[biochemedic]

bitter hoppy flavorful water. Hops extraction has nothing to do with gravity and everything to do with tempeture and time at said tempeture. I got this idea from a proffessional brewmaster friend of mine when I was talking to him about wanting to extract more bitter into my mead without heating my honey. It is sound and does work very well You extract Alpha Acids and convert them the longer you soak hops at a near boiling temp. 60 minutes max bitter extraction. 30 minutes you get bitter and some aroma. 20 minute less bitters more aroma etc etc.

Very interesting...I may have to play around with this idea...I have a NZ hops (Motueka, Nelson Sauvin, and Pacific Jade) metheglin planned...

 

[Drunken0ne]

I am waiting on a batch that I started a month ago, but probably won't touch it for four more months. I did change the recipe some, cause I really wanted a higher ABV and was afraid to boil the honey that long. I used 12# of honey and Nottingham yeast as I didn't have any bread yeast and the LHBS didn't have coopers. I also used cascade hops, and yes the whole 1/2# of hops and only boiled for 25 minutes. It had a great aroma at first almost like a sweet tea. The batch cleared really well within the first month. I am able to read through the carboy. I may have issues as the fermentation temps were high for a day or so, it was 92 degrees and I didn't turn the AC on. I also need to learn when it is fully degassed, as it is my first mead and the bubbles won't go away when I stir it. I had stirred it for over a hour and a half, probably more but those are the times that I had written in my beer recipe book. Here is the recipe, hopefully it may help someone.

 

[JFK]

The bubbles are the yeast at work. I have a batch right now that the yeast is going nuts in still after a solid week. It just means there is plenty of nutrition, good temps, and a high enough PH for them to basically be at the amusement park with a 1/2 pound of hops at 25 minutes you will get a lot of flavor out of it and aroma for sure. If you were aiming to pull alot of bittering out of it you will definaly get a good deal because you used a half pound. You can definatly get the same results from WAY less hops with a longer boil. Id suggest using the hop tea method to do this so your not structurally changing the honey at all. Let us know how it is when you get it done. When i first heard you were using a half pound of hops i was like OMG thats going to be undrinkable but then i read you only used it at a 25 minute boil. For more information on hops i would suggest looking into a book on brewing beer they get into a lot of detail on what your pulling out of the hops at certain tempetures for certain durations of time. There is definatly a lot of science behind hops extraction. I would also recommend putting a towel around your fermentor yeast is sorta vampiric in that it doesnt like light very much.

 

[Drunken0ne]

I was thinking I was crazy at the 1/2#. But I remembered something about the way people originally hopped IPAs. Something about coming over on a boat and how flavor lasts for months and then it fades in flavor. I planned on at least 5 months, I figured the flavor would change dramatically.

That was the first picture, it is in a water bath held at about 65. With a towel around it, that I dampen daily. I'll let you know how it turns out, right now I think the hops are not as strong as it sounds and it is drinkable. Its not as mellow as I am looking for, hopefully time will heal all.

 

[JFK]

hops has a tendancy to mellow out with time. the higher abv in mead makes it hold up longer though than it does in a beer. Think of extracts for an example they last for long durations based on the content of alcohol being used to preserve them. What type of hops did you use? Im sure you posted it above but I am being lazy today.

 

[Drunken0ne]

Cascade hops only

 

[wickerman]

I just made a 1 gallon experiment similar to one previously posted.
-1.5 lbs orange blossom honey
-1oz citra hops
-2 lemons (juice)
-1 tsp energizer/nutrient
-safale s-04 yeast

How long should I let it age before bottling, and is 1oz corn sugar enough to carbonate?

Thanks,
wickerman

 

[Drunken0ne]

I told my self not to bottle earlier than 5 months for the 5 gallon batch. So, mine is still aging, as I want the hops to mellow out a bit. It has almost been 4 months, but it cleared and was finished within 3 weeks. But I am new to mead so the clarity might not be enough for some people.

 

[quitapenas]

There is a hopped soft mead in Russia called Medovukha that is between 6-8%
They basically use arround 0.75kg of honey per 5L so arround 1lb per gal, boil it half an hour with the hops, some black tea and some lemon juice.
There are some tutorials on youtube, where you would wonder how can they use such dirty carboys

 

[HawleyFarms]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=513978

I feel like I have a pretty solid 1 gallon recipe here. Used centennial hops, honey, apple juice, water and Belle Saison yeast. Took about 2 weeks to finish, cold crashed for 48 hours, primed with honey and bottle conditioned for another 2 weeks. Tastes fantastic. Have a 3 gallon batch of it going now that is now done fermenting (week 2) but is probably going to need another week for clearing.

Tastes great young but I think if it conditioned for a month ot would be even better but none of my bottles lasted that long. I have done a few hopped meads so far including the hopped saison cyser, a red radish saison acer-cyser (with belle saison) and a black raspberry acer with us-05.

Going to try a lower abv session brew of the hopped saison cyser next after the smoked maple saison, a house amber, and a graff that i'm working on.