New to the Mead Scene

[Kody_Wulfe]

Good Afternoon all......

Couple of weeks ago, I just brewed my first two batches of simple mead..

1½ gallon spring water
5 pounds honey
1½ tsp Acid Blend
1½ tsp Pectic Enzyme
1½ tsp Yeast nutrient
1½ tsp Energizer
¾ tsp Tannin
D47 Yeast – 1 package per batch...

am getting ready to move it out of the fermentor and have been reading that some people use fining agents to help clear... I had thought about a filter... but cannot find a 1 micron conical to fit in a funnel...

What are everyone's thoughts about filtering or fining agents and what do some people use???

Thank you,

Kody

 

[bkboiler]

nice to mead you...

i mean you could filter, it is a little faster than fining...but to me cost wise i am willing to wait the day or so for finings to work..

i use a standard gelatin technique which i learned from here and it worked just as well for my first mead as it does for my beers. that mead was from the HBT BOMM recipe and I let it carb in the bottles. came out crystal clear and perfectly carbed...
How are you liking the D47 yeast? I substituted S-33 in the previous batch of BOMM and the results were fantastic!

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Kody Wulfe and welcome. If you wait the mead should clear under its own steam.. no need to filter or use fining agents. Two weeks .. It's not obvious that the yeast has finished fermenting all the sugar and if there is a great deal of CO2 saturating the mead then most if not all the particulates will be in suspension because of the pressure of the gas.
But that said, I do have a question. Your recipe calls out acid blend. Why? Honey in and of itself is quite acidic. Moreover, it has no chemical buffers and so in the presence of yeast the pH can drop precipitously - so much so that it is possible that the mead becomes so acidic that the yeast cannot transport sugars through their cell walls. No matter what any recipe suggests you really do not want to add a drop of acid into the must before you are ready to bottle. That's the first issue.
The second issue is that even if you are one of those people when seated at a table for a meal the first thing you do is grab the salt cellar and liberally douse your plate with salt even before you have tasted a morsel you really don't want to add acid to any mead until you have tasted the mead and you are certain that it needs that extra zing some acidity will give it. Again, no matter what any recipe might say, only add acid if your taste buds tell you to add acid.
There's more: acid blend is a blend of three acids - malic, tartaric and citric. Malic is associated with apples, tartaric with grapes, and citric with citrus fruits. It's not obvious that a blend of acids is what you want. The best kind of acid might depend on the varietal of honey you are using - does the acid you add complement the honey or balance it. Malic is very sharp, for example and orange blossom honey is said to have a citrusy taste while acacia honey is said to have pineapple notes. Rather than add this blend of acids you might simply add some lemon juice (or citric acid)

 

[Kody_Wulfe]

Thanks for the welcome...

As far as the D47 yeast, I used it dry and sprinkled it on my must.. next time.. I will pre-activate it first...

I only have brewed two batches.. so.. I am still very new....

did transfer it to the carboys tonight in the pictures... tried some.. found it really good...

I have to remember to take SG before and after fermentation....

Enjoy..

Kody

 

[bernardsmith]

Taking an SG during (and after) fermentation is always critical as that is really the only means you have to know how well the yeast are doing. Taking a reading before you pitch the yeast is certainly useful but you can always "guess-timate" the gravity by rule of thumb. Typically, 1 pound of honey dissolved in water to make 1 US gallon will increase the density of the water to a gravity of 1.035. Two pounds - to 1.070. To determine the potential ABV (alcohol by volume) you simply multiply the estimated (or measured) SG by 131.