My First Mead

[Mainer]

Hi all,
I've been brewing beer for a while, and I've decided to try my hand at a mead. I know two local beekeepers, each of whom have agreed to give me 10ish pounds of their own honey. One will have it for me in April, the other in August. So I'm considering doing two different table-strength meads/hydromels, and I was hoping to get some help devising my first recipe. I'd like to give it some german hops early and some heather tips late to give it a little flavor depth and keep it close to the beer brewing I'm more familiar with. What I've seen online estimates that 5 pounds of honey in a five gallon batch will yield .035 gravity points.

So here's what I'm thinking:
1oz Northern Brewer (60)
1oz Mittelfruh (5)
2oz Heather Tips (0)
10# Local Honey (+20)

WY4632 in a 1.5L starter.

I'm shooting for a SG around 1.070 and a FG around 1.005 for an abv around 8.5%. I'd welcome any thoughts.

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Mainer - some quick thoughts. Mead ain't beer so there is no 15 points of unfermented sugars lurking in the background. Adding hops is in and of itself not a problem but the acidity of the hops are not going to be balancing any sweetness. Is that an issue?
My other point is that you are aiming for a final gravity of 1.005. Not a problem, but again, there are essentially no non fermentables in honey and all yeast essentially behaves as if they are 100 % attenuated. How are you aiming for these 5 points of sweetness? Back sweetening? filtration before the yeast have finished their work? Cold crashing and stabilizing?
Third point. If you are planning to isomerize the hops are you planning to boil the honey? Local honey - assuming that it is cold processed - is likely to be flavor rich and unique. Boiling the honey will destroy just about all the volatile aromatics and flavor molecules. Honey ain't grain... Are you OK with that cost (the loss of unique flavors and aromatics) ?

 

[Mainer]

Hi Mainer - some quick thoughts. Mead ain't beer so there is no 15 points of unfermented sugars lurking in the background. Adding hops is in and of itself not a problem but the acidity of the hops are not going to be balancing any sweetness. Is that an issue?
My other point is that you are aiming for a final gravity of 1.005. Not a problem, but again, there are essentially no non fermentables in honey and all yeast essentially behaves as if they are 100 % attenuated. How are you aiming for these 5 points of sweetness? Back sweetening? filtration before the yeast have finished their work? Cold crashing and stabilizing?
Third point. If you are planning to isomerize the hops are you planning to boil the honey? Local honey - assuming that it is cold processed - is likely to be flavor rich and unique. Boiling the honey will destroy just about all the volatile aromatics and flavor molecules. Honey ain't grain... Are you OK with that cost (the loss of unique flavors and aromatics) ?

Thanks for the feedback. I had assumed that, as with a beer, I wouldn't get 100% attenuation, that there would be some unfermented sugars just chilling out. But it sounds like you're saying that without back sweetening, I should plan on full attenuation, ie final gravity of 1.000? I'm not afraid of a dry mead. The two varieties I've penciled in are both pretty low-alpha, so I don't think the acidity will be an issue for me, but I'd like to hear others' thoughts there.

This leads me to another question I haven't really dealt with yet: sparkling or still? I imagine it's not really possible to back sweeten and get bottle carbonation, right?

 

[Maylar]

There are "sweet mead" yeasts that can leave a bit of sweetness. Also S-04 ale yeast is low attenuating and usually quits at 1.004 if you keep the temps down. Otherwise, yes your mead will be dry.

Bottle conditioning a sweet mead is tough unless you sweeten with non fermentable sugar like Xylitol. Kegging of course cures all.

 

[Mainer]

There are "sweet mead" yeasts that can leave a bit of sweetness. Also S-04 ale yeast is low attenuating and usually quits at 1.004 if you keep the temps down. Otherwise, yes your mead will be dry.

Bottle conditioning a sweet mead is tough unless you sweeten with non fermentable sugar like Xylitol. Kegging of course cures all.

Yeah, I was just reading up on that. Wyeast claims that 4184 leaves 2-3% residual, so using that might be a good way to leave a little residual sweetness to balance the hops. Given the relatively low starting gravity, 2-3% shouldn't be cloying, right?

 

[Maylar]

Yeah, I was just reading up on that. Wyeast claims that 4184 leaves 2-3% residual, so using that might be a good way to leave a little residual sweetness to balance the hops. Given the relatively low starting gravity, 2-3% shouldn't be cloying, right?

No, that's off dry. 2-3% of a typical 1.100 OG mead means finishing at 1.002-1.003.

 

[Mainer]

Okay, so I'd end up at 1.001-1.002? I could live with that.

 

[AkTom]

You should buy 5# at Costco and do a couple of small batches. More or less typical is 3# for a gallon. Temperatures can be critical.

 

[howamidriving]

An oz of bittering hops seems like a alot, even if you are going to leave a little sweetness behind. Northern Brewer is like 5-6% AA right? So, you're looking at like 20 ish IBU? That would be low for most any beer, but in a Mead with nothing to hide behind I would be a little weary.

I don't think it's certain to turn out bad, but I've never messed with any kind of bittering addition for a mead.

 

[Mainer]

An oz of bittering hops seems like a alot, even if you are going to leave a little sweetness behind. Northern Brewer is like 5-6% AA right? So, you're looking at like 20 ish IBU? That would be low for most any beer, but in a Mead with nothing to hide behind I would be a little weary.

I don't think it's certain to turn out bad, but I've never messed with any kind of bittering addition for a mead.

How long does one typically boil for mead? I know boiling the honey itself isn't recommended, and I wouldn't want to do that for nice local honey. So if I boiled the water for, say, 20 minutes, and I got rid of the Northern Brewer, adding a half ounce of Mittelfruh at 20 and another half-ounce at 5, then the heather at FO, would that be a better plan?

 

[Mainer]

(Mittelfruh only runs about 3-5% AA.)

 

[bernardsmith]

I think - but am no expert - that boiling hops for 15- 20 minutes will bring out the hop flavor... and again, no expert but you may want to think about the C hops Citra, Centennial for example - They are more citrus like and so may complement the honey and bring out fruity floral notes . Your call - obviously. I have made hopped mead and while I don't aim for the alphas I simply boil the hops in the water I will use to mix with the honey once the water has cooled enough. I also mix the honey and this hopped tea in a blender - that replaces the O2 lost to the boiling...
I have also made a heather mead using both heather honey (from Scotland) and heather tips and again, I made a tea with the heather and used the cooled tea to mix with the honey.

 

[loveofrose]

With mead, anything over 10-15 IBU destroys the honey profile. May I suggest a tried and true hopped mead:
https://www.denardbrewing.com/blog/post/Fidnemed/

Stupid easy and fast.

 

[Mainer]

I think - but am no expert - that boiling hops for 15- 20 minutes will bring out the hop flavor... and again, no expert but you may want to think about the C hops Citra, Centennial for example - They are more citrus like and so may complement the honey and bring out fruity floral notes . Your call - obviously. I have made hopped mead and while I don't aim for the alphas I simply boil the hops in the water I will use to mix with the honey once the water has cooled enough. I also mix the honey and this hopped tea in a blender - that replaces the O2 lost to the boiling...
I have also made a heather mead using both heather honey (from Scotland) and heather tips and again, I made a tea with the heather and used the cooled tea to mix with the honey.

The American C hops sound tasty, but not quite what I'm going for. Instead of the strong citrus, German hops tend to have lower citrus and more of an earthy/dried flower character that I think would also accentuate the honey well.

 

[bernardsmith]

Anything that accentuates the honey or complements the honey sounds fine. Anything that masks the honey would seem like a less useful choice.

 

[Mainer]

My other point is that you are aiming for a final gravity of 1.005. Not a problem, but again, there are essentially no non fermentables in honey and all yeast essentially behaves as if they are 100 % attenuated. How are you aiming for these 5 points of sweetness? Back sweetening? filtration before the yeast have finished their work? Cold crashing and stabilizing?

Returning to this question... if I *did* want to add a few points to the final gravity for a little sweetness, I wouldn't want to resort to xylitol. Could I use lactose, like in a milk stout? I know brewer's yeast can't typically break that down...

 

[bernardsmith]

Never used lactose so cannot say how sweet you would perceive that to be in the context of a 9% ABV mead. You might want to use some more honey to back-sweeten although the addition of unfermented honey may create a haze and indeed may not taste as well-integrated as you might hope it would. The larger problem is , of course, that if you also want to carbonate this batch you will need to force carb rather than rely on fermentation...

 

[Mainer]

Never used lactose so cannot say how sweet you would perceive that to be in the context of a 9% ABV mead. You might want to use some more honey to back-sweeten although the addition of unfermented honey may create a haze and indeed may not taste as well-integrated as you might hope it would. The larger problem is , of course, that if you also want to carbonate this batch you will need to force carb rather than rely on fermentation...

I'd prefer to carbonate if possible, but I don't have the ability to force-carb. So unless I can find an unfermentable I'm comfortable with (like lactose), I'll have to either back-sweeten and forego carbonation or let it dry all the way out with no back-sweetening and bottle carb.

 

[Maylar]

I'd prefer to carbonate if possible, but I don't have the ability to force-carb. So unless I can find an unfermentable I'm comfortable with (like lactose), I'll have to either back-sweeten and forego carbonation or let it dry all the way out with no back-sweetening and bottle carb.

Pretty much. Unless you feel brave and can do what some of the cider folks do...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=193295

 

[bernardsmith]

Half of me thinks that pasteurization with bottles filled with alcohol and CO2 is lunacy and half of me thinks that adding heat to honey at temperatures that are known to destroy volatile aromatics and flavor molecules is madness... so.. lunacy or madness.. lunacy or madness.. You decide...

 

[Kody_Wulfe]

I do not boil mine.. I raise the temp of the water to about 120 degrees just to make it easier to stir in the honey... but I am still very new to this..

Kody

 

[Drewed]

Half of me thinks that pasteurization with bottles filled with alcohol and CO2 is lunacy and half of me thinks that adding heat to honey at temperatures that are known to destroy volatile aromatics and flavor molecules is madness... so.. lunacy or madness.. lunacy or madness.. You decide...

However, you pasteurize the bottles after they have been capped, and you don't take them to boiling temperatures. Where will the volatiles go if the bottle is capped?

 

[bernardsmith]

I think the flavor and aromatics in honey begins to break down at 130F ...At what temperature would you pasteurize the mead ? Not sure that the broken molecules need to go anywhere - they are damaged. Nothing to do with evaporation... But GIGO - if the honey was pretty crappy to begin with , the loss may be insignificant. If, however, the honey was first class then why go to all the bother of coddling it all the way through fermentation and aging only to trample on it minutes after you clamped the caps shut?

 

[Mainer]

Yeah, I wouldn't go in for bottle pasteurization. At best it's way beyond my technical skills and confidence. At worst it's Russian Roulette.