Is my mead to simple?
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Iceman2197
Well-Known Member
my best mead ever was a simple mead like that. I would a little acid blend though.
Yes and no?
Simpler can often be better and if done correctly you can get terrific results. One thing I would say though is you have a lot of honey there. If left alone this batch will be a hot mess and may need 3 years to age out and be smooth. If you added all that honey to get a higher ABV it is much easier on the yeast and you get a better product by starting with a lower gravity. Closer to 1.75 - 2 pounds of honey and after the gravity drops by about 90% then add more honey to what your desired sweetness level would be. Let it ferment back down to where it was and repeat. Keep doing that till the yeast quit.
If you have a second bottle/carboy I would probably split this batch in two, add another 1/2 tsp of nutrients each and top each up. Then do the above.
Simpler can often be better and if done correctly you can get terrific results. One thing I would say though is you have a lot of honey there. If left alone this batch will be a hot mess and may need 3 years to age out and be smooth. If you added all that honey to get a higher ABV it is much easier on the yeast and you get a better product by starting with a lower gravity. Closer to 1.75 - 2 pounds of honey and after the gravity drops by about 90% then add more honey to what your desired sweetness level would be. Let it ferment back down to where it was and repeat. Keep doing that till the yeast quit.
If you have a second bottle/carboy I would probably split this batch in two, add another 1/2 tsp of nutrients each and top each up. Then do the above.
noblesquirrel
Well-Known Member
I'd wait until post fermentation prior to adding any acid to the mead. Once the acid goes in, it can't come out. Plus, you'll prevent a drop in pH from disrupting fermentation.
I have brewed beer and wine for years. I have learned the importance of yeast.
I just started a batch of mead. 15 lbs honey, 5 gallons of water, and champagne yeast. fermentation ,one week in is fantastic. i went simple. Quality local honey, dissolved in boiling water, allowed to cool to 70 degrees, then added yeast culture i have grown from champagne yeast. culture I have nursed for a year. I can't wait to see/taste the final product
I just started a batch of mead. 15 lbs honey, 5 gallons of water, and champagne yeast. fermentation ,one week in is fantastic. i went simple. Quality local honey, dissolved in boiling water, allowed to cool to 70 degrees, then added yeast culture i have grown from champagne yeast. culture I have nursed for a year. I can't wait to see/taste the final product
fatbloke
Well-Known Member
Importance of yeast applies to meads as well.
Which is why champagne yeast, while not a bad thing, isn't ideal. It tends to blow a lot of aromatics and other VoC's straight out the airlock. Resulting in a bland/neutral result.
Yes, if you get a stuckie, sometimes there's no real choice, but there are many that will produce a better result - flavours developed by yeast type etc.......
No, there's no list as to what the yeast will provide flavour-wise, but K1-V1116, D21, D47 (fermented below 70F), 71B, etc etc (haven't tried the QA23 that lalvin have recently advertised as I haven't seen it anywhere yet)...........
I have learned from elders who used cake yeast in their country wine. Thanks for the tip. Still learning. A local bee keeper, whom I bought the honey from, recommended champagne yeast for mead. I need a yeast guide.
Since it was boiled doesnt really matter if the champagne yeast blows out the goodness of the honey source as its already gone. A big shift in meadmaking philosophies now it to not heat the honey past 100F, about the same temp as a hot hive in the summer. A drill mounted stirrer mixes up honey easy without having to heat it up a lot. Ale yeast, lager yeast, wine yeast, all work, just depends on what kind of mead style you want, With your high starting gravity a Champange yeast is fine, the style you are doing is for a high alcohol traditional mead so the yeast is a good choice as would be EC1118 or Premier Cuvee, we use these on our high level meads. WVMJ
KangerBrew6
kangarooted60
Champagne yeast is what it is. Yeast for making champagne. We've moved along a bit and you can get specific yeasts for the job. Have a look at wyeast or whitelabs. I reckon champagne yeast makes champagne mead. Stripped of flavour, bubbly and not really mead. Burrrp!
I need to correct my statement. not boiling water but rather boiled water. I added the honey at 100 degrees F. Batch turned out good. I am going to try staging my honey additions, per your advise and much reading on mead. We are all students, the day we believe we are masters is the day we are fools. What I love most about brewing is that I am always reminded that I don't know **** and I go the next step. My kitchen is becoming a chemist's lab all for brew. And brew for all. The escalation of my brewing has gone extreme and I have never been happier. The finished product just keeps getting better. Is that not the point of this forum? Now I am contemplating braggots. after I brew another batch of mead, with stage honey additions, I will try. brew on my brothers and sisters.
bernardsmith
Well-Known Member
Not sure that I agree with KangerBrew6 that champagne yeast is for making champagne. I suspect that champagne yeast comes from grapes grown in the Champagne region of France but I am not so certain that any wine makers there would use "champagne yeast" as their first choice to ferment their own grapes, although I am always happy to be disabused of false ideas.
EC-1118 is one of the most popular yeasts in the world. You just have to ferment at low temps to keep it under control.
bernardsmith
Well-Known Member
yeah -bit it's... um... popularity may have as much to do with how much alcohol it can make when ... um...those "brewing" their wine want to make high ABV ..um .. alcohol rather than how well it ferments fruit to produce exceptional wines. EC 1118 blows off volatile aromatics and flavor molecules but it allows you to make wines that resemble spirits... 
Temperature matters. At 65-70 it blows aromatics right out the airlock. At 50-55 it's clean and neutral with low nutrient requirements. Jolicoeur uses it for cider.
bernardsmith
Well-Known Member
and most novice winemakers (or cider makers) ferment their wines at 50? I would be surprised to hear that. Moreover, Claude Jolicoeur aims to have his ciders' gravity drop microscopic amounts each day - What is it - about 1/100 of 1 point a day or something? But the folk who pick champagne yeasts for their wines are often confounded when their wines are still bubbling 10 days after they pitch their yeast or are surprised when all the sugars have been eaten up after 3 or 4 days. Popularity has nothing to do with understanding. What's the saying? When the only tool you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail...
Point taken. I would never suggest EC1118 to a cider maker without adding the caveat that temperature control is mandatory.
