Mead in a plastic Conical fermenter

[Manoau2002]

I have never made mead before (or wine) as the idea of corking glass bottles seemed like a huge headache. I have recently got into kegging and I have a kegerator with two taps. I got a good deal on some extra ball lock kegs and I thought it would be neat to use one for wine or mead as it could sit in there for months to age as its extra beyond what I need to keep beer steadily on tap.

My idea is to use my fermentasaurus (same basic design as the fast ferment) that I use to make beer to make the mead and to let it sent in there for a month or so and remove the sediment as it collects - then transfer to a keg - seal with co2 and let it age for a few months.

Does this sound like a good plan? Anyone have a good recipe? (I want to start with a very basic mead - but something that should be drinkable in 4-5 months)

 

[biochemedic]

I think that would work out well... You can definitely bulk age in a keg just as well as in the fermentation chamber. I put all my mead in a keg now, and bottle what I'm going to bottle from the tap using a jerry-rigged bottle filling contraption. I like a petilent to lightly sparkling mead over still...

Since you've never brewed mead before, be sure you're on top of the need for nutrient additions, degassing during active fermentation, proper pitch rates and hopefully some way to reasonably control fermentation temps. If you want something drinkable more quickly, all of that will help immensely. You may want to go with a lower OG (maybe 2-2.5 lbs honey per gallon as opposed to the more traditional 3 lb/gal) which can speed up fermentation, produce less yeast stress, and make a drinkable mead more quickly. Also consider stabilizing and back sweetening to semi-sweet (a little background sweetness can definitely enhance time to drinkability...) Also may want to think about playing around with some acid additions after fermentation, as that can also brighten up a mead (but also remember that depending on your level of carbonation, you will get some acidity from the CO2 as well...)

Check out the thread for Bray's One Month Mead (the BOMM) for a solid recipe...

 

[Manoau2002]

Thanks. Yes I knew about the nutrient additions. I know before back sweetening you want to add something (can't remember the name) to kill off the remaining yeast. To back sweeten would you add honey or some type of sugar? How much would you add?

I think that would work out well... You can definitely bulk age in a keg just as well as in the fermentation chamber. I put all my mead in a keg now, and bottle what I'm going to bottle from the tap using a jerry-rigged bottle filling contraption. I like a petilent to lightly sparkling mead over still...

Since you've never brewed mead before, be sure you're on top of the need for nutrient additions, degassing during active fermentation, proper pitch rates and hopefully some way to reasonably control fermentation temps. If you want something drinkable more quickly, all of that will help immensely. You may want to go with a lower OG (maybe 2-2.5 lbs honey per gallon as opposed to the more traditional 3 lb/gal) which can speed up fermentation, produce less yeast stress, and make a drinkable mead more quickly. Also consider stabilizing and back sweetening to semi-sweet (a little background sweetness can definitely enhance time to drinkability...) Also may want to think about playing around with some acid additions after fermentation, as that can also brighten up a mead (but also remember that depending on your level of carbonation, you will get some acidity from the CO2 as well...)

Check out the thread for Bray's One Month Mead (the BOMM) for a solid recipe...

 

[biochemedic]

Thanks. Yes I knew about the nutrient additions. I know before back sweetening you want to add something (can't remember the name) to kill off the remaining yeast. To back sweeten would you add honey or some type of sugar? How much would you add?

Stabilization can be achieved by adding both potassium metabisulfite and potassium sorbate. Back sweetening is to taste...although if you know what you want your final gravity to be (after sweetening), you can calculate how much honey or other sugar to add based on the PPPG (points per pound per gallon) formula. I would mention though that honey does vary in PPPG, although in my experience somewhere between 37-38 is average. For example, if your honey is 1.038 pppg, adding a pound of honey in a gallon volume of water would yield that OG, one pound in 2 gal volume would be 1.019 OG, 2 lbs honey in 1 gal would result in an OG of 1.076, etc...I think you get the picture...

As I mentioned, backsweetening is to taste; I prefer most of my mead to be lightly semi-sweet, which ends up being a FG after sweetening of ~ 1.012 - 1.015. If my mead was nearly dry, say a FG of 1.000, I would add about 1.75 lbs of honey. Say my honey's PPPG was 1.038 -- take 38 points x 1.75 pounds = 66.5, which if put into a 5 gal batch would be 66.5 / 5 = 13.3, giving me a FG of ~ 1.013-1.014