Lactomel Group Brew Project - 19/20th March 2016

[Vex3521]

Mine are towel wrapped, one in the bathtub for obvious explosive blow off reasons and the other in the kitchen. Kitchen is about 70 (heat is on we've got frigid temps again) and bathroom is 65 (since it's sitting in an ancient porcelain tub) and that's not slowing anything up there!

Right now depending on the weather they can just chill out in towels in the kitchen. I'm clearing out an old fridge that would have cost more to have hauled off than we'd get scrapping it that came with the house to use to house my carboys. It's sitting about 64, not sure what's wrong with it just that it's older than I am and really not worth fixing so it'll work until we Finally move.

 

[Johan__]

This sounds fun so ill join in!

Pitched yeast 21 Mars

Wild Blueberry Lactomel

1gallon batch
2.43 qt milk organic 3%fat Only heattreated to 72-76 C for 15 seconds.
3,75 pounds wildflowerhoney
1,67 pounds wild blueberry treated in a steam juicer
Wyeast 4632 dry mead
0,0776 ounces Fermaid O spread out in 4 additions (at pitch, 24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours)
Target abv 18%

Didnt warm the honey much just added the blueberry "juice" and mixed it before adding the milk.

SG >1.200 (Off the scale indicating around 1.300) Musttemp 69.8F

Areated must with 600w mixer.

Starting fermentation in a 6.5gallon bucket since i dont want a mess and the forming foam probebly will protect the must from oxidation anyway.

66,2F Tempcontrol with STC-1000

 

[TandemTails]

This sounds fun so ill join in!

Pitched yeast 21 Mars

Wild Blueberry Lactomel

1gallon batch
2.43 qt milk organic 3%fat Only heattreated to 72-76 C for 15 seconds.
3,75 pounds wildflowerhoney
1,67 pounds wild blueberry treated in a steam juicer
Wyeast 4632 dry mead
0,0776 ounces Fermaid O spread out in 4 additions (at pitch, 24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours)
Target abv 18%

Didnt warm the honey much just added the blueberry "juice" and mixed it before adding the milk.

SG >1.200 (Off the scale indicating around 1.300) Musttemp 69.8F

Areated must with 600w mixer.

Starting fermentation in a 6.5gallon bucket since i dont want a mess and the forming foam probebly will protect the must from oxidation anyway.

66,2F Tempcontrol with STC-1000

Awesome! Hopefully the blueberry flavor sticks around more than the strawberry did for the other guy

 

[Arpolis]

Sorry for late response. Been trying to get pictures to load but having computer problems. I can seem to only do one at a time with the iPhone:

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Started batch 3/20/2016.

Started by adding one gallon of whole milk to a large 3 gallon pot. Added 3/4 tsp acid blend and just over 2lb of raw honey plus comb in a straining bag, then heated to 90*F. Removed from heat and added 1/2 a rennet tablet. After 20 min I cut the curd and spooned out a bunch, pressing excess liquid into fermenting bucket pictured. Ran the rest of the whey through cheese cloth to remove solids.

Fermenting bucket is using a paint strainer bag to catch anything I have missed. The cheese I made was too crumbly. I think I only needed 1/4 rennet tablet or I may have needed less acid. Not sure. The honey throws this all off. Cheese still tasted good but with a kick of live hive smell. If you have ever opened up a hive of live bees you know the smell.

At this point I added 3/4 tsp potassium bicarbonate to the whey. SG was only like 1.060. I added honey up to an SG of 1.090. I then added 3 Camden tablets and let the must sit. Started a 13fl oz starter with Lalvin k1v-1116.

18 hours later I pitched the yeast. Things are bubbling nicely. I will transfer to carboy after a couple days and I am sure there is no threat of explosions. At which point I will add 1oz cocoa nibs. Also doing SNA of yeast nutrient and energizer.

 

[Vex3521]

Insanely volatile ferments subsided so racked out to carboy. Lost half a gallon on the milk version with blow off plus serious curds but its looking awesome. Here they are today.

 

[Yeroc]

Insanely volatile ferments subsided so racked out to carboy. Lost half a gallon on the milk version with blow off plus serious curds but its looking awesome. Here they are today.

I bet you're glad to get it out from under that curd krausen.

 

[Vex3521]

I bet you're glad to get it out from under that curd krausen.

And how!!! They are doing really well so hopefully everyone else's are doing great too

 

[Arpolis]

Mine has s very solid and strong ferment going. I bet I did not even need more yeast nutrients in the protein heavy whey but went ahead and added one additional round of nutrients this evening. My brew closet has a strong co2 brewing smell. Very hard to tell if there is any off smells. I will get this out of the bucket and in a jug tomorrow.

 

[bernardsmith]

Arpolis. I don't think that CO2 has any smell. If it did we would smell it when we breathed out.

 

[TandemTails]

After 6 days of primary fermentation I racked one gallon of my lacotmel to a 1 gallon carboy to let it age. I then removed the curds from the brewing bucket and added about 3/4 of a pound each of frozen blackberries and frozen raspberries directly to the bucket. I'll let that ferment for another week or so and then rack to another 1 gallon carboy.

I tried the curds but they were basically flavorless with an odd aftertaste.

Curds:

Lactomel:

Raspberry/Blackberry addition:

 

[Arpolis]

Arpolis. I don't think that CO2 has any smell. If it did we would smell it when we breathed out.

Well I'll be damned. I think you are right. I have described that initial smell as CO2 for forever. I think I read that somewhere and it stuck. But thinking more logically you seem correct. Well what ever the smell is. It is not a bad off smell. I have smelled brews that were not going well or were infected and had off smells. And this is not it. But it is a familiar smell I get with meads doing well. I think I am doing alright. I will post a pic or two later.

 

[bernardsmith]

What you might be smelling is the aroma of ... alcohol, which the CO2 might carry as the gas bubbles up through your airlock. A typical "bad smell" is hydrogen sulfide - and that smells like rotten eggs (very sulfurous) and that is caused by stressed yeast. A worse bad smell smells like struck matches (or rotten cabbage) and that is caused by mercaptans and is the result of very stressed yeast and is much harder to eliminate

 

[Arpolis]

What you might be smelling is the aroma of ... alcohol, which the CO2 might carry as the gas bubbles up through your airlock. A typical "bad smell" is hydrogen sulfide - and that smells like rotten eggs (very sulfurous) and that is caused by stressed yeast. A worse bad smell smells like struck matches (or rotten cabbage) and that is caused by mercaptans and is the result of very stressed yeast and is much harder to eliminate

Yea none of those bad smells. I had an in-law that was bad about being a little too lazy and not very methodical with his mead/wine making and had lots of those cases.

Ok so I have racked into a jug with 1oz cacao nibs. Took a gravity reading and sitting somewhere 1.015 - 1.016. Bubbles made it hard to read for sure but in that range right above 1.014. And fermentation still looks to be going good. I hoped this to end in the 1.010 range because of the lactose but maybe not.

 

[Vex3521]

Looking really good! Eager to hear how the cacao nibs play out.

 

[TandemTails]

I just did a gravity check on the berry infused half of my lactomel and it was 1.013 (OG was 1.076). I also took a quick taste test and while the berry is already coming through nicely after only 2 days, the underlying mead is still extremely hot with what I can only describe as a salty aftertaste. I'm not sure where the saltiness is coming from or if it's just a weird flavor that will fade out over time. The entire mead is only 8 days old so I guess it's too early to really pass any real judgement on it yet

 

[UltraVires]

As a new brewer focusing on mead this thread caught my attention. Who knew milk was a sought after fermentable drink?

Anyway, I was wondering if this experimental group has come to a consensus on how much volume is lost to the curd krausen when using fat free milk. Is it formulaic where you can use a 3 gallon carboy to start primary and rack to a one gallon jug for secondary or is the loss de minimis?

 

[Arpolis]

I used exactly 1 gallon whole milk which should have the heaviest loss to solids and after adding my 13 oz starter, honey and a small amount of water to clean out honey bucket I still had over a gallon after primary fermentation was over and curd removed. Not bad at all.

 

[Chris_The_Rogue]

I lost less than 1/5th of my volume. Noticable but not end of the world levels.

 

[Johan__]

I racked from bucket to carboy. Fermentation have slowed. How are things going with your mead?

View attachment 1459690258664.jpg

 

[Arpolis]

Mine still bubbling away. Try to degas it daily. When will it stop!

 

[Yeroc]

Mine is still in the 2 gallon bucket (15 days). I think it's ready to be racked into a 1 gallon carboy any time now.

 

[Chris_The_Rogue]

Bottled mine yesterday. Stabalized it and added another batch of the homemade strawberry syrup. End result was....interesting. It has none of the usual young alchohol harshness but does have some odd notes of something i don't know how to describe. Doesn't taste bad but im not sure I like it. The strawberry flavor and nose is incredibly faint but is present. Going to let it age a month and try it again.

View attachment 1459878212094.jpg

 

[TandemTails]

Bottled mine yesterday. Stabalized it and added another batch of the homemade strawberry syrup. End result was....interesting. It has none of the usual young alchohol harshness but does have some odd notes of something i don't know how to describe. Doesn't taste bad but im not sure I like it. The strawberry flavor and nose is incredibly faint but is present. Going to let it age a month and try it again.

Yours is definitely a lot clearer than mine at this point, although I think you started yours a little bit before me.

I'll probably wait until mine is almost fully clear before bottling

 

[Arpolis]

Oh mine is super cloudy. Bet it tastes fully of yeast. This weekend I may cold crash it.

 

[Arpolis]

Ok 3 weeks into this. I put my batch in the fridge to cool off. See if I can start to get it to clear. Once really clear I will take a gravity reading and see if I want to back sweeten with some lactose. If the chocolate flavor is not there I am thinking of adding another once of cocoa nibs or cocoa powder:



Anyone think one would be better over the other? My first time with chocolate additives. I have heard it can be hard to get the power to clear out of a mead. But then I have heard that from other ingredients and I can always seem to get a brilliantly clear product. Any thoughts appreciated.

 

[bernardsmith]

Thoughts? I tend to wait for the yeast to finish what they started... Fermentation is a slow food...

 

[Yeroc]

Today I racked from the 2 gallon bucket into a jug and added another 1/2 pound of Mesquite honey (total of 2.5 lbs). I used the yeast slurry to start a skeeter pee.

Since I'm not close to a full gallon, I didn't pull a sample for a gravity reading. I did take a very small taste and was surprised to find it had a bit of milky tartness to it. Sort of reminiscent of the whey from yogurt but really not as sour as all that. Because the taste is leaning toward tart, I'm rethink my plan.

Instead of cinnamon and vanilla, I'm now contemplating those frozen peaches in my freezer. Maybe I'll top off the gallon jug with a can of Kern's peach juice. Then at some point later rack back into the 2 gallon bucket with a few pounds of the peaches.

 

[Dr_Floyd]

So I finally got around to starting my Lactomel or Milk Mead! Pretty simple, I made Mozzarella and used the remaining whey as my liquid base. I plan to make this a Honeysuckle Cinnamon Milk Mead.

*3 1/2 lbs. Wildflower Honey
*Maybe 3/4 gallon of whey
*Nutrient and Energizer
*Lalvin 1122 Wine Yeast

It smells fantastic so far but what a foaming mess! I should have heeded the experience of others and started with a blow-off, I guess I figured since I separated the Curd before starting that I wouldn't have the same messy problems as others that put straight milk in the fermenter! Oh well, it was so damn active that I don't think any other bugs could have possibly gotten in. Had I had the presence of mind I would have taken a picture of the mess but alas I just started cleaning before thinking to snap a picture. Here is what mine looks like now:

 

[Arpolis]

Yea the whey seems to be very nutrient rich and kicks yeast into overdrive. A welcomed difference compared to many mead styles that leave the yeast starving without yeast nutrients.

Took mine out of the fridge yesterday. A lot more sediment at the bottom but still not brilliantly clear. Next weekend after pay day I will pic up some lactose. Then I will rack off the yeast and back sweeten. I may add my second dose of cocoa then if it does not have the flavor I want.

 

[Yeroc]

Today I racked from the 2 gallon bucket into a jug and added another 1/2 pound of Mesquite honey (total of 2.5 lbs). I used the yeast slurry to start a skeeter pee.

Since I'm not close to a full gallon, I didn't pull a sample for a gravity reading. I did take a very small taste and was surprised to find it had a bit of milky tartness to it. Sort of reminiscent of the whey from yogurt but really not as sour as all that. Because the taste is leaning toward tart, I'm rethink my plan.

Instead of cinnamon and vanilla, I'm now contemplating those frozen peaches in my freezer. Maybe I'll top off the gallon jug with a can of Kern's peach juice. Then at some point later rack back into the 2 gallon bucket with a few pounds of the peaches.

I was so confused by my very small taste sample last week that I pulled a slightly larger sample today. I don't think all the honey from the last addition is totally fermented out yet. So there is some honey sweetness. A bit of hot alcohol but not rocket fuel. The thing I described in my last post as whey like tartness now seems a bit more like a citric acid tartness. The most surprising thing is that I'm also perceiving a salinity in the mead. Maybe that shouldn't be too surprising since salt was used to create the mozzarella from which the whey was derived....

Laughing at myself because I'm still unsure what the next step should be -- The original cinnamon/vanilla bean plan or go with peaches? Which is a better idea for a mead with a salty, Gose like, quality? Suggestions welcome.

BTW, the saltiness isn't over the top, just odd and seemingly out of place in a mead.