Yoohoo. I made 3 batches of mead a while ago with 3 kinds of honey and I found out the akacie/hickary liquid honey was pretty good and the wildflower solid honey was great on day 1 and then degraded in flavor over time. I guess it degraded in flavor due to me messing up with the sanitizer and getting the ratios wrong.
Either way I'm trying out 2 yeasts now and will go forth with the solid wildflower honey, as I assume it is better than the liquid honey and I just screwed up with the sanitizer. The wildflower honey also finished fermenting after 2 months, as opposed to the liquid honey taking 4 months.
Yeast 1: WLP720 Blush Wine / Sweet Mead
Yeast 2: Wyeast 4184 Sweet Mead
What I want to do is use my favorite apple juice (made from nothing but apples) and also make a strawberry mead in May when they are in season.
One problem is I'm not sure which yeast to use and I hope both can finish fermenting by May so I know which one to use. I do want a sweet mead, not bitter. I've experimented with adding sugar to my current batches and had success with that, so the WLP720 could work.
What I am thinking is I can either:
1: Make 2 bland honey & water meads, 1 with each yeast
2: Make 2 apple juice meads, 1 with each yeast.
If I follow method 1, I'll make the apple juice mead later anyway, but just 1 batch instead of 2. I'd like to know what you guys recommend, but I vote for plan 2.
For apple juice mead do I replace the 5 liters of water with 5 liters of juice or do I go 50/50? I don't wanna use actual apple slices, but just the juice from my favorite juice box. This could maybe lead to a PH problem for the yeast, but it's not a particularly sour apple juice. It's just nice and kinda sweet.
For strawberry mead I plan on freezing the berries for 2 days before cutting them and adding them to the mead. I do have some questions about this mead in particular since I wanna make it for my mom by for christmas this year.
1. Do I NEED to put the mead into secondary before adding strawberries or is it possible to add strawberries to the primary once fermentation has calmed down?
1 b: Is it okay to age (for 6 months) strawberry mead in the primary carboy until christmas so I can bottle it the day before or do I need to put it into a secondary carboy to prevent the dead yeast from adding to the taste?
2: How do I make mead less bitter and more sweet reliably? I tried adding more honey, but that in general doesn't help. I tried table sugar and about 1-2 table spoons per cup made 90% of the bitter go away and made it taste more of honey and upped the sweetness too.
3. Have I missed anything that could be usedful for me to know about these 2 brews? I welcome any help I can get!
4. Do you add water after putting it into secondary? I read somewhere you were supposed to do that. I did experience some positive flavor change after having icecubes melt in my glass so I do wonder about it.
Here's my first mead. It came out pretty clear.
Either way I'm trying out 2 yeasts now and will go forth with the solid wildflower honey, as I assume it is better than the liquid honey and I just screwed up with the sanitizer. The wildflower honey also finished fermenting after 2 months, as opposed to the liquid honey taking 4 months.
Yeast 1: WLP720 Blush Wine / Sweet Mead
Yeast 2: Wyeast 4184 Sweet Mead
What I want to do is use my favorite apple juice (made from nothing but apples) and also make a strawberry mead in May when they are in season.
One problem is I'm not sure which yeast to use and I hope both can finish fermenting by May so I know which one to use. I do want a sweet mead, not bitter. I've experimented with adding sugar to my current batches and had success with that, so the WLP720 could work.
What I am thinking is I can either:
1: Make 2 bland honey & water meads, 1 with each yeast
2: Make 2 apple juice meads, 1 with each yeast.
If I follow method 1, I'll make the apple juice mead later anyway, but just 1 batch instead of 2. I'd like to know what you guys recommend, but I vote for plan 2.
For apple juice mead do I replace the 5 liters of water with 5 liters of juice or do I go 50/50? I don't wanna use actual apple slices, but just the juice from my favorite juice box. This could maybe lead to a PH problem for the yeast, but it's not a particularly sour apple juice. It's just nice and kinda sweet.
For strawberry mead I plan on freezing the berries for 2 days before cutting them and adding them to the mead. I do have some questions about this mead in particular since I wanna make it for my mom by for christmas this year.
1. Do I NEED to put the mead into secondary before adding strawberries or is it possible to add strawberries to the primary once fermentation has calmed down?
1 b: Is it okay to age (for 6 months) strawberry mead in the primary carboy until christmas so I can bottle it the day before or do I need to put it into a secondary carboy to prevent the dead yeast from adding to the taste?
2: How do I make mead less bitter and more sweet reliably? I tried adding more honey, but that in general doesn't help. I tried table sugar and about 1-2 table spoons per cup made 90% of the bitter go away and made it taste more of honey and upped the sweetness too.
3. Have I missed anything that could be usedful for me to know about these 2 brews? I welcome any help I can get!
4. Do you add water after putting it into secondary? I read somewhere you were supposed to do that. I did experience some positive flavor change after having icecubes melt in my glass so I do wonder about it.
Here's my first mead. It came out pretty clear.