New to mead making

[rcsoccer]

I've been brewing beer for the past 5 years and never really had the opportunity to try my hand at making a mead. This past week I was given 14 kg of local mead (Atherton Tablelands, North Queensland, Australia) and I wanted to use most of it to make a sweet mead.

I was thinking that I would use 9 kg (19.8 lbs.) in a 23 liter (~6 gallon) batch. From BeerSmith I get a starting gravity of 1.121 and FG of 1.032 with around 11% alcohol. I have already order my Sweet Mead yeast from Wyeast (WY4184), but I'm not sure of the process of making mead. I want to make sure that all the wild yeast and bacteria are killed so which of the following things should I do?:

1. Use Campden tablets to kill all the yeast and bacteria (I've done this before with fresh pressed apple cider)

2. Pasteurize the honey/water mixture for about 20 mins at ~80 C. (I've read that this will give off too much of the aromatic compounds from the honey. I would like to keep as much of those as possible.)

Also, I was under the impression that honey was 100% fermentable like apple juice and I'm puzzled about the high FG of what BeerSmith is giving me. I'm not sure about trusting BeerSmith for a mead recipe.

Another question I have is the amount of yeast nutrient to add and when to add it. There are so many different recipes that are adding honey and nutrient during fermentation and I'm not sure of which method to go with.

Any comments and suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[fatbloke]

Honey is naturally sterile. You would be making mead, not beer, so heating a honey must, is wasted effort, time and energy.

That yeast is a PITA, its finicky as hell. I'd suggest you put it in the fridge until you've got a couple of batches under your belt.

 

[Onihige]

Don't trust Beersmith for mead.

You don't really have to plan the amount of honey and water to use. Sure, you can estimate but since you're not making a mash you can adjust it as you go rather than trying to calculate. Add some water and honey, measure the OG and keep at it until you hit your target gravity and volume. Just make sure it's mixed really well, or you'll get a false value.

Also, Metric ftw!

 

[MrSweet]

A good first effort with mead is a simple "show" mead - this recipe is a good place to start; I am still very much a rookie and this site has been QUITE helpful (as well as many of the members on this forum!)

Gotmead.com

There is a good bit of supporting info that can be accessed from the same area of that site.

 

[fatbloke]

A good first effort with mead is a simple "show" mead - this recipe is a good place to start; I am still very much a rookie and this site has been QUITE helpful (as well as many of the members on this forum!)

Gotmead.com

There is a good bit of supporting info that can be accessed from the same area of that site.

Gotmead is excellent, as it has a much larger concentration of people who are "mead specific".

While HBT is more general home brewing, a lot of people here brew more than one sort of home brew (you see that with newer people posting, and using beer making techniques). It's still good, as it can give you other ideas that you might not have seen else where.

Both here and Gotmead, are, IMO, brilliant sources of info

 

[Matrix4b]

Here's my 2 cents.

1. Only heat the honey enough to throughly mix it with the water. Just above room temp is enough. All you should be conserned about is making it mix well enough.

2. As mentioned, you don't need to have it sterile. Just choose a good wine yeast, I recomend Lavin D47 (if your ferment area doesn't go above 70F) or Lavin 71B (best if under 82F for ferment room, great at 63-68 temp)

3. For a sweet mead, I would go with 12 pounds in the primary for a 5-6 gal batch, then after you rack over to the secondary for a couple of months and then add about 6-8 pounds of honey AFTER you use some potasium Sorbate on it to stop the yeast, wait at least a day after you use it, This is called Stabalizing, and Backsweetening is adding the honey. Add to about 1/2 honey 1/2 water mix and put it directly in. Best if you start out with a total volume of about 5 gal for the primary as this addition will add 1 gal of liquid. And sometimes hitting it up with some potasium sorbate after adding the honey just to be sure.

4. Be sure to add nutrients, Adding about 2 teaspoons to 3 teaspoons of yeast nutrient and yeast energizer will make sure the yeast are fed and happy.

5. Add 1 oz of lightly toasted oak during the final stages of the mead, about when it is almost clear. Leave in for about 1 month. This will smooth out the mead.

6. Age it before or after bottling for 6-8 months. If before: it is called Bulk aging. If after it is called bottle conditioning. It may be drinkable earlier but oh so yummy after aging.

Hope it works out for you.

Matrix

 

[rcsoccer]

Honey is naturally sterile. You would be making mead, not beer, so heating a honey must, is wasted effort, time and energy.

That yeast is a PITA, its finicky as hell. I'd suggest you put it in the fridge until you've got a couple of batches under your belt.

I understand that honey is sterile and has a shelf life of forever, but this is raw, unprocessed honey straight out of the hive. It's thinner than commercial honey. I think I'll just heat it to 75-80 C, skim the top, chill it, then pitch a 2 liter starter of the sweet mead yeast. We'll see what happens.

 

[roadymi]

I only use local raw honey and I never heat it beyond sitting the bucket in hot water to make it easier to dissolve

 

[rcsoccer]

I ended up making the mead this past Thursday and the OG was around 1.134 (possible 17% ABV). I pitched a one day starter of Wyeast 4184 Sweet Mead yeast on Friday. Since then the fermentation has been VERY slow. Maybe bubbling once every 10-15 seconds. I bought a pack of EC-1118 just in case this yeast didn't take off. My question would be, how long should I wait until pitching the EC-1118? I was thinking of boiling a packet of dry yeast, adding it to the mead, oxygenating, then pitching the EC-1118. Would this be a good choice, or should I wait a little while longer? I'm going to take a gravity reading tonight to see if the yeast is actually working.

 

[TheBrewingMedic]

4184 is a very finicky high maintainance yeast, you're going to want to hold steady temps, aerate multiple times daily for first 1/3 of fermentation and follow a nutrient schedule and even then it has a tendency to get hung up ..... try aerating and adding the boiled yeast them waiting a bit before throwing in the 1118

 

[Golddiggie]

I ended up making the mead this past Thursday and the OG was around 1.134 (possible 17% ABV). I pitched a one day starter of Wyeast 4184 Sweet Mead yeast on Friday. Since then the fermentation has been VERY slow. Maybe bubbling once every 10-15 seconds. I bought a pack of EC-1118 just in case this yeast didn't take off. My question would be, how long should I wait until pitching the EC-1118? I was thinking of boiling a packet of dry yeast, adding it to the mead, oxygenating, then pitching the EC-1118. Would this be a good choice, or should I wait a little while longer? I'm going to take a gravity reading tonight to see if the yeast is actually working.

The Wyeast 'sweet mead' yeast is only rated for up to 11% ABV. Far, far short of what you mixed up. Get a packet of either EC-1118 or K1V-1116 to have on hand to finish the fermentation, when the 4184 stops far short.

As for when to add the new yeast, I'd wait until the first yeast did all it is going to. Then add the relief yeast. Of course, if you had used yeast that could handle ~17% ABV from the start, you wouldn't have this issue at all.

Look at the information about Lalvin Yeast Strains and see how they differ.