Interesting mead Experiment, input anyone?

[Crazed_Knives]

Alright, so I figurered I'd brew a bochet mead (burnt mead).

-pumpkin spice
-Vanilla
-6 cinnamon sticks
-11lbs of Virginian Grade A honey
-1lbs of Colonial Wildflower honey
-some distilled Water (2-3 gallons)
-yeast of some kind (advice on a good yeast for this type of mead? 71B or K1v1116)

Any other suggestions for ingredients I would add to this Fall inspired mead?

 

[bsjracing]

Isn't distilled water bad? IIRC it's missing minerals or something necessary for proper fermentation?

 

[fatbloke]

Isn't distilled water bad? IIRC it's missing minerals or something necessary for proper fermentation?

No absolute bollocks. For nutrient/minerals to be enough it would need the nutritional value of raw sewage.......

Proper nutrient/energiser and aeration should be fine......

For yeast ? 71B or K1v1116

 

[Bearmaul]

Isn't distilled water bad? IIRC it's missing minerals or something necessary for proper fermentation?

Distilled water isn't recommended for stuff like brewing coffee or tea since it's so "chemically squeaky clean." It has a hard time dissolving the chemical compounds resulting in a weaker brew. Maybe for a melomel it wouldn't be so great since it might have a harder time extracting fruit flavor. But it shouldn't affect fermentation at all.

 

[Crazed_Knives]

Soooo should I just use tap water and boil it?

 

[ErinRae]

If your water tastes fine to drink I wouldn't worry about getting distilled. I've used tap for anything I've made and never had any issues

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

In case you're wondering... Some of the big offenders with tap water are Iron and Chlorine. Those two will hurt your flavor in bad ways and I think are the most common.

 

[WVMJ]

So how are you going to caramelize the honey? Cocoa nibs also go nicely with a Bochet. WVMJ

Alright, so I figurered I'd brew a bochet mead (burnt mead).

-pumpkin spice
-Vanilla
-6 cinnamon sticks
-11lbs of Virginian Grade A honey
-1lbs of Colonial Wildflower honey
-some distilled Water (2-3 gallons)
-yeast of some kind (advice on a good yeast for this type of mead? 71B or K1v1116)

Any other suggestions for ingredients I would add to this Fall inspired mead?

 

[chippermonky]

Boiling should get of the chlorine. It will also evaporate over time if I'm not mistaken.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

Boiling should get of the chlorine. It will also evaporate over time if I'm not mistaken.

Who's got time for that? Ain't nobody got time for that. I'll pay .50 to 1$ per gallon of water I know doesn't have iron or chlorine issues.

 

[Lovian]

Some cities now have chloramine that won't evaporate from water. Just something to keep in mind. My first post here now but am definitely liking this forum and all of the info here!

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

All of this is just starting to sound like an episode of Breaking Bad. Welcome to HBT. Come for the Homebrew talk. Stay for the Homebrew talk.

 

[Trugunir]

lol, alright this is interesting. So how would you use the vanilla? how many beans?

 

[chippermonky]

Who's got time for that? Ain't nobody got time for that. I'll pay .50 to 1$ per gallon of water I know doesn't have iron or chlorine issues.

That's funny because the only time I use wonderful LA tap water (honesty, really not as bad as you might think) is when I'm too lazy to go out and refill my filtered water.

 

[bsjracing]

I usually make my meads with fruit involved, so maybe that is where I heard bad things about using distilled water. I have always bought and used bottled spring water... Sorry didn't mean to divert your thread into an H2O science class