My first fake mead recipe

[chazam]

I took Man Made Meads Apple Cyser recipe as a base for my recipe. I haven't started yet with the recipe. Will do in about a week.


Frozen apples 5,44kg
Sugar 0,24kg/liter
Blueberry syrup 100g for back sweetening (using one that I made a year ago)
Water 13,2-15,1 liters
Apple juice, no additives, 3,79 liters (freezing for two days just in case)

When third of the mead has been fermented (monitoring og-fg) then I'll add the apples.
That'd happen for example if the og would go from 1.1 to 1.066 (correct me if I'm wrong)

1. Add the apple juice to the fermenter.
2. Add the water.
3. If there is now 17 liters of liquids in the fermenter, add 3,63kg sugar.
4. Check the gravity.
5. Add 10 Grams of Lalvin QA23 (I have it in fridge)
6. Add yeast nutrient one teaspoon per 3,79 liters
7. Add 1-1.5 teaspoon of yeast energizer (I'll use my existing bag of diammonium phosfate from Vinoferm Nutrisal)
8. Lock the lid and attach the airlock filled with starsan and water.
9. Wait for 12-24h and add the frozen apples.
10. Take a gravity reading.
11. Add something inside that will push down the apples. Lock the lid.
12. Ferment for three weeks.
13. Transfer to another fermenter (called "secondary"?)
14. Take a gravity reading. If it is 1.00, the fermenting is finished.
15. Taste. If it's dry add some sugar.
16. Add 1/4 teaspoons per 18,9 liters of potassium metabisulfite. (Vinoferm Campden E224 - has C6H7KO2 potassium pyrosulfate and K2S2O5 in it)
17. Add potassium sorbate C6H7KO2 1/2 teaspoons per 3,79 liters.
18. Mix a little bit.
18. Close the lid, possibly dry-hop with Mandaria Bavaria and wait 2-3 weeks.
19. Filter if needed.
20. Taste and measure the right ratio of back sweetening. Add the blueberry syrup and sugar accordingly.
21. Sweeten with the right ratio and mix.
22. Taste again and repeat the sweetening if needed.
23. Take a gravity reading.
23. Attach the lid and airlock back on and see if there is still activity
24. Start kegging and force carbonate or just let it sit still for two weeks. Goal: CO2 2,5 vol

PS.
If my diammonium phosfate (Vinoferm Nutrisal) has been at room temperature for a year, has it gone bad?
If the QA23 has been part of the time in room temperature, does it affect the quality of the result product?
What'd be a good yeast nutrient? Vinoferm Cellvit, Vinoferm Nutrivit, Fermaid K, GO-FERM? Green ones are available at the moment, yellow ones 50-50, Cellvit shouldn't be impossible to get but I'll have to wait for the store to get more of it.

 

[Miraculix]

Fermaid o is the best.

 

[chazam]

Fermaid o is the best.

For some reason none in my country has it.

 

[Miraculix]

For some reason none in my country has it.

I had the same issue, could get some at eBay at the end. If I wouldn't be able to source it, I would go with a combination of go ferm and fermaid k. I would also combine go-ferm with fermaid o, go ferm is always a good thing to start with.

 

[Kyzaboy89]

So when you say "fake mead" you mean "wine" right? I'm honestly curious what one might consider a fake mead.

 

[bracconiere]

I'm honestly curious what one might consider a fake mead.

using cane sugar instead of honey?

 

[chazam]

So when you say "fake mead" you mean "wine" right? I'm honestly curious what one might consider a fake mead.

I didn't know what to call it. What we usually in my country call mead doesn't include honey. CMIIW, but what's called mead in USA has to have honey.

= I don't know what to call what.

 

[bracconiere]

= I don't know what to call what.

i'd play it safe and call it apple fritters, served with a blueberry syrup on top!

 

[Dan O]

I had the same issue, could get some at eBay at the end. If I wouldn't be able to source it, I would go with a combination of go ferm and fermaid k. I would also combine go-ferm with fermaid o, go ferm is always a good thing to start with.

Fermaid K has a small amount of DAP in it, Fermaid O does not.

 

[madscientist451]

Frozen apples 5,44kg
Sugar 0,24kg/liter
Blueberry syrup 100g for back sweetening (using one that I made a year ago)
Water 13,2-15,1 liters
Apple juice, no additives, 3,79 liters (freezing for two days just in case)


What'd be a good yeast nutrient? Vinoferm Cellvit, Vinoferm Nutrivit, Fermaid K, GO-FERM? Green ones are available at the moment, yellow ones 50-50, Cellvit shouldn't be impossible to get but I'll have to wait for the store to get more of it.

Why add water to your apple juice? Also why are you freezing the apple juice? Are you really going to get much flavor by tossing frozen apples in your cider? Perhaps just keep it simple and use apple juice, a little sugar and yeast? If large amounts of sugar are used, you may get a "hot" alcohol flavor.
Use whatever yeast nutrient you can get, but as others have indicated, Fermaid O works for me. Go-Ferm is added to your yeast when you re-hydrate it. Look up the TONSA staggered nutrient method, it works for me. I usually don't add any yeast nutrient to cider, but I do use it when making mead.

 

[chazam]

Why add water to your apple juice? Also why are you freezing the apple juice? Are you really going to get much flavor by tossing frozen apples in your cider? Perhaps just keep it simple and use apple juice, a little sugar and yeast? If large amounts of sugar are used, you may get a "hot" alcohol flavor.
Use whatever yeast nutrient you can get, but as others have indicated, Fermaid O works for me. Go-Ferm is added to your yeast when you re-hydrate it. Look up the TONSA staggered nutrient method, it works for me. I usually don't add any yeast nutrient to cider, but I do use it when making mead.

The water was in the recipe already.

A lot of people who make this strong alcoholic bad tasting student drink (made by an aggressive yeast, nutrient, juice, water and sugar) say that to ensure deactivation of a possible anti-fermentation agent, you need to freeze the juice.

The frozen apples are in the recipe already. I don't know how much flavor comes out of them. I do know that I have a few apple trees in my garden and the amount of apples have been a nuisance. I thought about trying a "mead" recipe for them and seeing would it work.

PS. Could I use a sauna to kill the yeast when needed thus I wouldn't have to buy the necessary ingredients? I saw it go easily to 52c and with some water it'll go above that.

 

[bwible]

using cane sugar instead of honey?

I thought in the past about substituting a small percentage of honey with some corn sugar in a mead. Even at 2.5 pounds per gallon you’re getting 10 or 11%. We see this with barleywines and big beers where people do this to aid in fermentability and dry it out some. Mead unlike beer will ferment all the way down to 1.000 though as long as the sugar is within the yeasts tolerance. So I can see there is a difference between beer and mead. I’ve been told that “no mead maker would do that” but its something I may try just to see.

 

[chazam]

I thought in the past about substituting a small percentage of honey with some corn sugar in a mead. Even at 2.5 pounds per gallon you’re getting 10 or 11%. We see this with barleywines and big beers where people do this to aid in fermentability and dry it out some. Mead unlike beer will ferment all the way down to 1.000 though as long as the sugar is within the yeasts tolerance. So I can see there is a difference between beer and mead. I’ve been told that “no mead maker would do that” but its something I may try just to see.

10-11 ABV%, ok. So 2,5lbs per 16,9-18,9 liters, so that'd be 60-67g per liter.
What I know, grains have unfermentable carbohydrates, which is for the drinkers taste buds but not for the yeasts food. Mead... Sugar is easy to ferment. If there were anything unfermentable it'd have to come from some addition added to the liquid. I don't know what would it be.

Also why are you freezing the apple juice?

I have to add to my previous message, any of the juices that I've seen don't have anti-fermentation agent in them when looking at the labels. Only some have added vitamin C to them. I don't know the reason for that. Longer shelflife?

I just don't know if they have to tell about the anti-fermentation agent, if it's added.

 

[chazam]

BTW. this is traditional "mead" recipe of what we use.
8 liters of water
4 lemons
1/2 kg of brown sugar
1/4 teaspoons of bakers yeast
raisins

Some like it without the brown sugar. The variety of recipes has been minimal. Now someone came up with orange mead and I wonder if the mead is going to be a bigger thing where I live.

 

[bwible]

10-11 ABV%, ok. So 2,5lbs per 16,9-18,9 liters, so that'd be 60-67g per liter.
What I know, grains have unfermentable carbohydrates, which is for the drinkers taste buds but not for the yeasts food. Mead... Sugar is easy to ferment.

Yeah thats what I meant when I said mead ferments to 1.000 (hydrometer reading for final gravity) - unlike beer. Beer stops higher, 1.010 range meaning there is more unfermentable sugar in beer.

 

[bwible]

BTW. this is traditional "mead" recipe of what we use.
8 liters of water
4 lemons
1/2 kg of brown sugar
1/4 teaspoons of bakers yeast
raisins

Some like it without the brown sugar. The variety of recipes has been minimal. Now someone came up with orange mead and I wonder if the mead is going to be a bigger thing where I live.

1/2 kg to 8L is not going to produce much alcohol. 1.022ish - around 3% alcohol or a little less than that. If you make it without the brown sugar you pretty much have lemon water with raisins in it and nothing for yeast to ferment.

 

[chazam]

1/2 kg to 8L is not going to produce much alcohol. 1.022ish - around 3% alcohol or a little less than that. If you make it without the brown sugar you pretty much have lemon water with raisins in it and nothing for yeast to ferment.

It's more PCish version of meads. I like the taste though.

 

[chazam]

What would be closest to "yeast energizer" out of these:
Go Ferm, Fermaid O, Potassium sorbate, Campden potassium metabisulphite, Diammoniumphosphate? Last one?

 

[Kyzaboy89]

Fermaid O would be the Energizer/nutrient. Go Ferm is for prepping a yeast starter to get it going healthy before feeding it Fermaid K, Fermaid O and Diammoniumphospate or DAP for short. Potassium Sorbate or (K Sorbate) is to prevent yeast multiplying and consuming sugars when back sweetening and Campden/Potassium Metabisulfite is a sterilizer and anti-oxidizer for killing anything wild on fruit before starting fermentation or finishing/aging/transferring.

I have Fermaid k and o, as well as DAP and LD Carlson's "Yeast Energizer" and my best meads have come from DAP/Energizer. Find what works for you and good luck.

 

[Abhishek Dewan]

If you substitute sugar with DME, it’ll provide nutrients along with the raisins, and also body to the drink. I personally don’t like adding DAP etc.

 

[chazam]

Look up the TONSA staggered nutrient method, it works for me. I usually don't add any yeast nutrient to cider, but I do use it when making mead.

FYI. This is already kinda old comment, but I tried to look up TONSA and what I understood it speeds up fermentation without drop in quality. The problem is I have no idea about Lalvin QA23s brix value or yeast factor.

Fermaid O would be the Energizer/nutrient. Go Ferm is for prepping a yeast starter to get it going healthy before feeding it Fermaid K, Fermaid O and Diammoniumphospate or DAP for short. Potassium Sorbate or (K Sorbate) is to prevent yeast multiplying and consuming sugars when back sweetening and Campden/Potassium Metabisulfite is a sterilizer and anti-oxidizer for killing anything wild on fruit before starting fermentation or finishing/aging/transferring.

I have Fermaid k and o, as well as DAP and LD Carlson's "Yeast Energizer" and my best meads have come from DAP/Energizer. Find what works for you and good luck.

Jesus, got so much understanding from that. Thanks!
It seems fairly straight forwarded now for a beginner recipe.

If you substitute sugar with DME, it’ll provide nutrients along with the raisins, and also body to the drink. I personally don’t like adding DAP etc.

I could skip DAP in fear of off-flavors, but it's in my fridge... taking space.
There is birch sap in my freezer. Taking space too. I wonder if that'd give any good nutrients for my mead. Although I don't want to just dump everything in what sounds potentially good.

 

[chazam]

Warning, this is some beginner s.

So far:
Frozen apples 5,44kg
Sugar 0,24kg/liter
Water 13+4 liters (latter added separately)
Apple juice, may've had additives even though it didn't say in ingredients, 3 liters (freezing for two days just in case, maybe I should've simmered on stove instead)
When third of the mead has been fermented (monitoring og-fg) then I'll add the apples.

1. Add the apple juice to the fermenter.
2. Add the 12 liters of water and 1 liter of meadowsweet+whiteclover -tea.
3. Add 4,08kg of sugar.
4. Check the gravity. (It was too high to measure)
5. Drypitch 5 Grams of Lalvin QA23 (didn't work after 12h, panicked and added 50g of hydrated bakers yeast + 5g of hydrated QA23)
6. Add Go Ferm one teaspoon (completely messed up the math, should've used more)
7. Add total of 1-1.5 teaspoon of DAP+Fermaid O-mixture (I think I used more than this when I panicked)
8. Lock the lid and attach the airlock filled with starsan and water.
9. Wait for 1,5d, add 4 liters of water. (I was thinking of adding 4l of birch sap and the apples after 24h, but things changed. decided to use just 4l of water)
10. Take a gravity reading. 1.17 after 1,5d of fermenting.

The gravity reading has been way too high. I thought I was going to get around 1,1.
Could I get it from 1,17 to 1,1 and then cold crash for 12h, add potassium disulfite + potassium sorbate), keep on cold crashing for a week, force carb at keg, bottle and age? I wouldn't have to backsweeten if there is still sugar left unfermented?

 

[Miraculix]

Wtf Mate, This sounds like a disaster. Next time, open a new thread and discuss the recipe and process here and start with the process of making the brew only after everything has been thoroughly discussed.

There's no clear nutrient regime, there is no predicted og, there is no target abv, there is basically just throwing in random stuff. This is not how nice drinks are being made I'm afraid.

 

[chazam]

Wtf Mate, This sounds like a disaster. Next time, open a new thread and discuss the recipe and process here and start with the process of making the brew only after everything has been thoroughly discussed.

There's no clear nutrient regime, there is no predicted og, there is no target abv, there is basically just throwing in random stuff. This is not how nice drinks are being made I'm afraid.

I noticed there were still headspace left to pour in more water. I thought I could still lessen the damage by doing that.
I don't know how to predict og or fg. The rough prediction for og was 1,1 and the target is/was 1,0 and I assumed I'd get there but somehow it went past it. You live, you learn? Trust me I did do planning for this and this is pretty much my first time doing this. I try to ask help and adjust everything I hear to this recipe.