Mead Noob - First Batch

[LongDukDong]

Good Afternoon,

I've been brewing brewskis for almost a year and loving it and about 3 months ago met a homebrewer who was generous enough to share a glass of his home made mead which was fantastic. It was a dry melomel that aged roughly 6 months and i was completely hooked after that. I've been lurking in the mead section here and other misc. spots for sometime and finally bought 12lbs of honey to give it a go.

Here is the recipe and procedure as follows....

12lbs of Wildflower Honey
5gl of Spring Water
3lbs of Mixed Berries from Costco (Rasp, Blueberry and ???)
1 Cup of Organic Raisins
2pks of Red Star Champagne Yeast (yellow package)

I brought 3gls of water to about 100 degrees and poured and stirred in the honey with the rest of the water going into a 6.5gl better bottle. After the honey was nicely dissolved i added the raisins, re-hydrated yeast and filled the primary to about the 5gl mark and started adding my fruit. At this point i realized with the fruit i was running out of head space with a little less than a gallon of my honey water mixture in the kettle so i poured some out of the carboy to fill a gallon jug for a mini batch. I know, bonehead move not calculating that 5gl of water + 1gl of honey is 6gls of fluid in a 6.5gl carboy!

It's been 3 days and both carboy and 1gl jug are bubbling away. I've been stirring them once a day to keep yeast suspended and active but i dont have any nutrients to add to the must. I was shooting for a dry mead, but without the nutrients what can i expect? Will the yeast not attenuate as well and finish a little sweeter? How many days do i continue to stir the must?

Another concern is the carboy is in my shed where avg. temp is 50-55 degrees in the evening keeping the carboy temp in the low 60's (mid 60's in the day) and the mini-batch inside with house temps in the mid 60's. After stirring the must (and sampling) I noticed in the mini-batch the alcohol is noticeable where the carboy much more subtle. Any experience out there with fermenting mead in the lower end of the temp spectrum? Should i move the carboy inside?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

The Donger

 

[MedsenFey]

The Pasteur Champagne yeast ideally likes to be at 59F or above IIRC, so it will be much slower at this temp and you may want to keep it a bit warmer. It would probably go faster if you provide nutrients. Hopefully the lack of nutrients won't lead to sulfur odors.

You can make some organic yeast nutrient of your own if you like, by boiling (microwaving) some rehydrated yeast (wine, bread or brewer's) and tossing it in. The yeast in your batch will gladly cannibalize their dead brethren. Using 2 tsp per gallon will give the yeast at least a little nitrogen to work with (maybe 80 ppm).

Medsen

 

[jezter6]

The ??? in your Costco mixed berries is "merion berry". I've made many a joke (for those of near DC) about them.

The reason the alcohol is likely more pronounced in the small batch is that it's likely much further along. The cool temps outside are probably stalling out the yeast at night and since liquid takes HOURS to get back to ambient room temp, it only has a few hours a day before it starts to get cold again.

I'd recommend bringing it back in or trying some sort of heating pad/heating belt.

 

[MedsenFey]

The ??? in your Costco mixed berries is "merion berry". I've made many a joke (for those of near DC) about them.

As long as you aren't making "crack-berry" jokes, that's okay

 

[LongDukDong]

The ??? in your Costco mixed berries is "merion berry". I've made many a joke (for those of near DC) about them.

AHAHAHaa....Yea, i think it is the "crackhead caught on tape merion berry".

I think i'll take your advice and drag the carboy into the house to help out the yeast!

 

[LongDukDong]

The Pasteur Champagne yeast ideally likes to be at 59F or above IIRC, so it will be much slower at this temp and you may want to keep it a bit warmer. It would probably go faster if you provide nutrients. Hopefully the lack of nutrients won't lead to sulfur odors.

You can make some organic yeast nutrient of your own if you like, by boiling (microwaving) some rehydrated yeast (wine, bread or brewer's) and tossing it in. The yeast in your batch will gladly cannibalize their dead brethren. Using 2 tsp per gallon will give the yeast at least a little nitrogen to work with (maybe 80 ppm).

Medsen

What do you think about boiling a couple capsules of servomyces in some water and tossing that in? I've read the opinions and most of the gripes seem to be related to price compared to nutrients vs. whether or not it will work. i have a pack on hand is the reason i ask. Otherwise i'll nuke a pack of brewers yeast and toss that in in hopes to kick up activity.

 

[MedsenFey]

Servomyces won't hurt. I've used it recently in an effort to reduced H2S production from L2226 (a yeast that can get really stinky) and it may have helped. It won't provide all the nitrogen needed, but it every little bit helps.

Medsen

 

[LongDukDong]

So i've dragged the carboy into the house where the temps are much more stable, but I cant really tell at this point if fermentation is moving along any stronger as the bubbling in the airlock looks the same as it was in the shed. I also boiled a capsule of servomyces in 300ml of water for 15 minutes, cooled and dumped a little in my 1gl batch and the rest into the carboy.

Thanks for all of the help!

 

[MedsenFey]

The best way to monitor progress is measure the gravity and see where it is.

 

[LongDukDong]

I agree taking a gravity reading is the best way to monitor the progress of fermentation and don't see a problem with doing so from the carboy. What about the 1gl? I'd think filling hydro tester tube a few times would eventually make dent in my stash. Does anyone out there on mead land just take a hydro reading directly from the primary?

 

[MedsenFey]

My answer for 1 gallon batches is to use a refractometer. You have to use some calculations to compensate for the alcohol which throws the reading off, but you get answers using 3 or 4 drops.

Before I had the refractometer, I would thieve out a sample, take a hydrometer reading and pour it back in (making sure everything that touched it was well sanitized). During active fermentation, the exposure to oxygen is a non-issue, and the risk for contamination is quite small as well (I've not yet lost a batch where I've done this).

Bubbling rates tell you essentially nothing. A mead that is degassing may bubble even though the yeast are done. A stuck fermentation stops bubbling just like a completed fermentation.

Another way to track fermentation efficiently is with a postal scale. This can be a good way for doing it without losing any liquid. As CO2 is blown off, the weight drops and can be correlated with the drop in gravity and rising alcohol content.

Medsen