Mead Brewing Advice Needed

[BrewingWisdom]

Hello fellow brewers
I am thinking about brewing a mead since i have access to cheap and wild honey here.
I have read about using ale yeast for brewing mead and how it differs from using a wine or champagne yeast which most people use for mead brewing. Wine or champagne yeast have a higher alcohol tolerance but you miss out lots of flavors on the other hand ale yeast ferments faster,has a lower alcohol tolerance but it gives lots of flavors and esters.
So as a beginner I decided to use ale yeast. My ale yeast has a alcohol tolerance of 14%abv and around that's much abv I am aiming for. The maximum fermentation temperature is 25 C.
I want to brew a batch of around 10 litres(2.6 US gallons). Please guide me how much honey I should use for that volume. I want a mead which can attain around 14%abv , and not end up in over sugary mess ,that means it should eat almost all sugars to give me the required abv. And of course retain all the flavors(guess that's the work of yeast and fermentation temperature)
Thx.

 

[Drewch]

I've done a handful of meads now and have only ever used ale yeasts. I like strains that throw some esters but not so much phenols.

Try the recipe builder here:

http://www.meadmakr.com/batch-buildr/
To hit 14% ABV in a completely dry (FG=1) mead, you'd need ~3.5 kg of honey in 10L. But that's assuming complete attenuation and an average sugar content for your honey. YMMV.

In my experience, staggered nutrient additions and degassing will make your mead drinkable way faster.

 

[BrewingWisdom]

I've done a handful of meads now and have only ever used ale yeasts. I like strains that throw some esters but not so much phenols.

Try the recipe builder here:

http://www.meadmakr.com/batch-buildr/
To hit 14% ABV in a completely dry (FG=1) mead, you'd need ~3.5 kg of honey in 10L. But that's assuming complete attenuation and an average sugar content for your honey. YMMV.

In my experience, staggered nutrient additions and degassing will make your mead drinkable way faster.

Personally which mead you found better. One brewed with wine yeast or ale yeast?

 

[Drewch]

Personally which mead you found better. One brewed with wine yeast or ale yeast?

Personally, I stick with ale yeasts, but I know homebrewers who make really good mead with wine yeasts.

 

[BrewingWisdom]

Personally, I stick with ale yeasts, but I know homebrewers who make really good mead with wine yeasts.

Other than a typical flavor of honey, does ale yeast gives you any extra flavors?

 

[jtratcliff]

Have you seen the recipe for BOMM?
(Bray's One Month Mead)

He uses a Belgian ale yeast I believe...

He tested many different Ale and Wine yeasts with a goal of finding one that makes a good quick Mead . The Belgian is the one he found best for this purpose.

Also requires specific staggered nutrient additions (SNA)

 

[BrewingWisdom]

In my experience, staggered nutrient additions and degassing will make your mead drinkable way faster.

Also requires specific staggered nutrien

What exactly are these nutrients and what happens if I don't use them?

 

[jtratcliff]

https://denardbrewing.com/blog/post/BOMM5gallons/
Here's the BOMM...

The nutrients are things like DAP, fermaid-O. And fermaid-k...

Things to keep the yeast healthy inorder to avoid of flavors that need longer to age out...

Stressed yeasts throw of phenols and esters that may not be pleasant

Honey doesn't really have sufficient nutrients for optimal yeast health.

 

[BrewingWisdom]

https://denardbrewing.com/blog/post/BOMM5gallons/
Here's the BOMM...

The nutrients are things like DAP, fermaid-O. And fermaid-k...

Things to keep the yeast healthy inorder to avoid of flavors that need longer to age out...

Stressed yeasts throw of phenols and esters that may not be pleasant

Honey doesn't really have sufficient nutrients for optimal yeast health.

In simple words if I don't use those nutrients I will have to age my mead for a longer time.
What's the average aging time for a mead to make it drinkable?

 

[Dan O]

If you follow the BOMM recipe, with BOMM yeast, typically it's done in 30ish days & good right out of the fermentor @ about 16% ABV, if your fermentation conditions are close to perfect.

 

[madscientist451]

Personally which mead you found better. One brewed with wine yeast or ale yeast?

I'm risking sounding like a total a-hole, but here I go anyway. There is no brewing involved when making mead, cider or wine. Old school mead recipes had you boil the water and honey, but all that does is drive off aromatics.
I apologize for going .
So back to the OP's question:
A great calculator for your mead-making recipes can be found here: HOME | Mead Made Right
My mead comes out much better when I use the TONSA method. Before using SNA, I thought that I just didn't like mead, the flavor was very strong, like drinking kerosene.
If you can't get Fermaid-O and Go-Ferm, I've heard you can substitute dead yeast as a yeast nutrient. Basically take baker's yeast and boil it to kill the yeast, or use the yeast slurry from a previous batch.
Some people will tell you that raisins can be used as a yeast nutrient, however tests have been done and there is very little actual nutrient value in raisins, but go ahead and do what works for you.