Mead acid

[matew90]

Hello,my name is Matew and im from Croatia. Here mead is nt some actual theme,we mae wine schnaps and other products but not mead.

When i make wine i have in start already sme acid from grape, but when i brewing mead ,how many acid do i add,,or is i t necesery??

Thanks folks

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

I have only made 2 batches of mead in my life. The one I acidified to make it resemble wine was a great disappointment, and the one I added nothing to tasted great.

Others will likely tell you the opposite of this.

In retrospect, I now believe that if I had added a malolactic fermentation step to the acidified mead after its yeast fermentation stage was complete it would likely have turned out much better. As it was, it was too harsh. The mead that I did not acidify was smooth tasting.

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Matew and welcome. Honey is already quite acidic and in fact when honey ferments there are no chemical "buffers" in the honey that prevent the pH of the honey dropping very low (and so the acidity rising very much). Yeast do not like acidity... so when you make mead it is always best to avoid adding anything that adds acidity until you taste the mead and are ready to bottle. If it tastes bland, then you might want to add some lemon juice or a blend of acids but it may taste just fine...

Silver Is Money - MLF means that you are transforming malic acid (a very sharp/strong acid) to lactic acid (a much less strong acid ) ... so if the mead tasted harsh AFTER you removed any malic acids from the honey then there was something else creating that harshness...

 

[BeerSmith]

You don't need to add acid to mead. In fact in general the problem is often too much acidity, which can inhibit a complete fermentation.

The best thing to do to avoid to much acidity is monitor your pH during fermentation with a calibrated pH meter. The ideal pH range is 3.6-4.2 (roughly) and you really don't want to get the pH below 3.2. If it dips too much during fermentation you will need to raise the pH using potassium bicarbonate a small bit at a time until the pH stabilizes.

The only place I would consider adding any acid is if you make a sack (very sweet) mead that is way too sweet, in which case you may add acid blend at the end to try to rebalance it but even in this case there are better options like diluting with vodka or brandy to counter the cloying sweetness. In any case, this would only be done after the mead is complete.

 

[matew90]

Ok guys,very nice informations,
i realize that i have mixed up termins ph and acidity,(till now was the same thing) so i have to reasearch a little bit.

Beersmith - for increase ph value i add potasium bicarb,, i just measure it in the end of ferment and then i add it ,i which amount??

 

[matew90]

And another quest, does anybody have book by schramm. the compleat meadmaker in pdf ??

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Silver Is Money - MLF means that you are transforming malic acid (a very sharp/strong acid) to lactic acid (a much less strong acid ) ... so if the mead tasted harsh AFTER you removed any malic acids from the honey then there was something else creating that harshness...

I did not MLF my acidified mead (to which I added "acid blend"). I merely speculated that if I had MLF'ed it, it may have somewhat mellowed out my acidifying mistake.

 

[bernardsmith]

Ok guys,very nice informations,
i realize that i have mixed up termins ph and acidity,(till now was the same thing) so i have to reasearch a little bit.

Beersmith - for increase ph value i add potasium bicarb,, i just measure it in the end of ferment and then i add it ,i which amount??

Matew, pH is a measure of the strength of acidity- alkilinity of a solution. Numbers below 7 tell you how strong the acids in the solution are and those above 7 tell you how strong the alkalinity - but you should note that pH does not tell you how much acid is in the solution (or how much alkaline is there). You can have a lot or a little of any acid and that acid can be strong or weak...

 

[BeerSmith]

You need to monitor the pH as fermentation progresses - usually the pH drops near the beginning of fermentation which is when you would need to add the potassium bicarbonate. Later in fermentation the pH usually stabilizes and no more additions are needed at that point.

 

[matew90]

Ok , do you have any link for quantiti of honey in dry and sweet mead?

 

[matew90]

I will try do do both ,,gallon each.

i what is the perfect temp for ferment??

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

20-21 degrees C. should work. 18 degrees min, and 23.5 degrees max.

3 lbs. of honey per gallon is about max for dry.

3.5 lbs. per gallon should end up sweet.

4 lbs. or more per gallon and it will likely be too sweet to be enjoyed.

 

[matew90]

And one more,know anything about sparkling mead??

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Sorry, I've never tried sparkling. It could be dangerous if you get it wrong. You don't want to make bottles that explode.

 

[bernardsmith]

For sparkling there is no danger. All you do is allow the mead to ferment dry and then when you are ready to bottle add about 20- 24 g of sugar dissolved in about a 50 CC of water for every gallon you are bottling. Best to boil and allow the sugar solution to cool. This WILL produce CO2 in each bottle so you want to use beer bottles or champagne bottles and not corks and wine bottles...

 

[matew90]

So when i see that it doesnt bubling anymore that means the ferment is not over ,f i put al ittlee amount of sugar it will create more CO2

 

[gratus fermentatio]

So when i see that it doesnt bubling anymore that means the ferment is not over ,f i put al ittlee amount of sugar it will create more CO2

Don't rely on bubbles to determine if it's done, use a hydrometer to be certain. Here's some handy info on using a hydrometer:
http://www.grapestompers.com/articles/hydrometer_use.htm

Here's some info on priming, it's intended to be used for beer, but it works well for wine & mead too.
http://howtobrew.com/book/section-1/priming-and-bottling/priming-solutions
Hope that helps. Regards, GF.