Planning First Mead (on a budget)

[ArcticWolf907]

Hi, so I'm planning my first mead brew. I've bought a $15 mead kit off of Amazon which includes a 1 gal carboy, stopper, airlock, yeast packet, and a yeast nutrient. I plan on using StarSan. I've bought 5 lbs of raw honey from Walmart. I've also got my eye on a temperature control device from Amazon that I plan to hook up to a spare fridge we've got in the garage since I live in Texas and it's been 90+ degrees for most of the summer. I've been doing mead research for about a month prior to me buying the kit mentioned above.

I don't have my recipe worked out fully, but my plan currently stands as follows: 3 lbs honey for fermentation. After fermentation I plan to use sorbet and sulfite to halt fermentation and back sweeten by adding peaches (unknown quantity) and a few plumbs (also unknown quantity).

Any advice regarding flavor and sweetness? I have no idea how much of each of the fruits I should put in to balance them out. I want them to compliment each other but not beat each other out. I'm also looking towards the sweeter end of things as that is my goal with this first brew.

I plan to adjust recipe with subsequent batches and improved gear, but atm I would like advice with what I have.

 

[Maylar]

3 lbs of honey with water to reach a gallon will give you typically a 14% mead, and by adding fruit after fermenting it'll get diluted a bit which is fine.
You really really need a hydrometer and a test vial for checking specific gravity.

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi ArticWolf907 - and welcome and always good to hear of someone planning to make a mead (or wine) for the first time.

Apologies for this lengthy response.

I view myself as a contrarian so others on this forum may offer a different approach but for me my rule of thumb (my working assumption) is that 1 gallon of the juice of fruit such as fully ripe peaches or plums (and I mean fully ripe and not the fruit you buy from the supermarket that was picked weeks before the fruit was ripe in order to allow for shipping and storage over thousands of miles) probably has about 1 lb of sugar in that volume of liquid: so a few plums or peaches are not going to "sweeten" your mead, though a few pounds of fruit will add flavor. (to be clear: a gallon of fruit juice will double your intended volume to 2 gallons and will raise the gravity of the total volume by 20 points (40 points over two gallons but say, 1 pint of juice from the fruit will raise the gravity by only 2.5 points which is not very much in terms of sweetness).

What I might do then is aim initially for a starting gravity of about 1.090 and that will give you about 11% ABV). Let the honey (about 2.5 lbs in a gallon of water) fully ferment and then add frozen chunks of peach and plums you have allowed to defrost (to help extract the juice) - around 2 -3 lbs each (so you might be better using a 2 gallon food grade bucket you can buy from Home Depot or similar for around $4 and allow the alcohol to extract the flavors while the yeast will ferment the sugars.

One thing you might consider is purchasing pectic enzymes - NOT pectins but enzymes that break up the pectins in the fruit. a) this helps produce even more juice from the fruit and b) this helps create a more clear finished mead since pectins in the fruit create haze. I would add the enzyme about 12 hours before you add the fruit to the mead. Alcohol tends to denature the enzyme.

Allow this to ferment a couple of weeks and then remove the fruit (but be sure to mix the fruit into the mead every day so that the top does not become a haven for spoilage bacteria through its contact with oxygen in the air. At that point you can transfer the mead back into your carboy and you should have enough mead to fill the vessel right up into the neck. and it is at this point that you want to bang home the bung and airlock. Before air was the yeast's friend now, air is your mead's enemy.
and now you allow the mead to quietly age for two or three months.

I'll avoid any discussion about racking (best if you can age it longer and rack the mead off the sediment (lees) every two or three months but if you don't hell won't freeze over and civilization as we know it will continue. When the mead is clear enough for your taste (it should be absolutely clear but if it isn't it can still be delightful - and a lack of clarity may be caused by pectins or it may be caused because there is still carbon dioxide diffused throughout the mead and that gas is preventing microscopic bits of fruit and proteins and tannins from falling out of suspension) and you are ready to bottle it now is the time to stabilize the mead and back sweeten it.

The best way to back sweeten a wine or mead is through bench testing. That is where you take three or four measured samples of the mead and to each sample you add a known but different quantity of sweetener. and you repeat that process until you find the (pun intended ) sweet spot. Because you know the size of the sample volume and you know the amount of sweetener it took to hit that sweet spot you simply divide the total volume by the sample volume .. to find out the number of times you need to multiply the amount of sweetener you need to sweeten the total amount of mead or wine you have (if your sample was 20 ccs and your total volume was 1000 ccs then 50 is the multiplier since you have essentially 50 samples of 20 ccs of mead) and if you needed to use say, 5 ccs of sweetener to hit the sweet spot so you need 50 * 5 ccs of that sweetener to sweeten the entire 1000 ccs to that level of sweetness. But hey! you might perceive the mead to be sweet enough even when it is nominally quite "dry" or you might be looking for what is a dessert wine and so you may need to add pounds of sweetener to produce the mead you are looking for.

 

[ArcticWolf907]

@bernardsmith
Thank you! That is fantastic advice. I will be sure to check everything said here when I finally start it up.

 

[ArcticWolf907]

@Maylar
Thank you! Yes, I forgot to mention it, but I got a hydrometer off of wish about a week ago. Tracking says it should be here around the 22nd.

 

[JimRausch]

Geez bernard, I don't see you as a contrarian. And your advice above makes perfect sense. It's exactly what I would have recommended if you hadn't beat me to it. Although when I add fruit to my meads or wines or beers, I put them in a mesh bag and let them sit for anywhere from 4-7 days. Then I remove the bag of used-up pulp. Helps keep down the crud on the bottom.

 

[ArcticWolf907]

@bernardsmith
@JimRausch
So how should the fruits be prepared before putting them in the mead?

 

[Seamonkey84]

Just freeze them, then thaw out in just enough water to cover them and add campden tablets to sanitize. Wait 12hours then add the amount of peptic enzyme for your entire batch to the fruit and let it sit another 12-24hrs before adding honey, more water, then yeast.

 

[ArcticWolf907]

@Seamonkey84

But I'm planning on adding them after fermentation mostly just for flavor.

Would it be basically the same prep? Just at the end instead of before the yeast and all?

Also, should I leave the skins on?

 

[Seamonkey84]

Oh right, if your adding it to secondary to sweeten, you don’t have to use the sulfite as the alcohol should have some sanitizing effect. Just make you clear and stabilize your mead once it’s done fermenting if you want the fruit to sweeten it, or else it’ll just restart the fermentation. Use some purée or juice to cover fruit and add enzyme and let it work for 12-24hrs. Keep the skin on, it’ll add some tannin and depth in flavor, but remove the pits/seeds. remove fruit/rack after 7-10 days.

 

[ArcticWolf907]

Thank you very much @Seamonkey84! I appreciate it!

 

[JimRausch]

I generally freeze, thaw, smash and refreeze fruit before adding it to usually primary, but sometimes secondary.The peaches I would depit and slice before freezing. I don't bother to peel them. In a secondary, I wouldn't bother with pectinase because I understand that alcohol destroys it. With fruit in a primary, I add metabisulphite, wait 12 hours and add pectinase, wait another 12-24 hours and pitch the yeast. In a secondary, I'd just add the thawed fruit (in a bag) and leave it for 4-7 days.
I overlooked your other post where you wanted to add fruit just for flavor and NOT have them ferment. In that case, your plan of stabilizing the mead before adding the fruit seems wise. I have not done that myself, but it makes sense. Do rack it enough to remove as much yeast as possible before adding the metabisulphite and sorbate. Good luck! Let us know how it turns out.

 

[bernardsmith]

I guess I would allow the yeast to play with the fruit. If you stabilize the mead before adding the fruit you certainly have the alcohol acting as a solvent to extract flavors but I think that the yeast do a good job of breaking down the fruit and so allowing the alcohol easier access to extract flavors. In my book stabilization is best done just before bottling.

 

[ArcticWolf907]

@JimRausch @bernardsmith

Thank you so much for all the advice. I've still got a couple of items to collect before j can start, but this has been extremely helpful!

 

[Seamonkey84]

You can add the enzyme to the thawed fruits and juice before adding it to your brew. I’d add water/juice to cover all the fruit, then add the enzyme to that so it’ll work in the fruit for 12-24 hours before adding to the mead.

 

[CKuhns]

Here is a technique completely different! But is easy and works amazingly well.

Freeze the fruit, drop it in frozen. Wait 10 to 14days. Rack and see if you have pectin haze. If so, than add the enzyme.

 

[ArcticWolf907]

@CKuhns
That is a neat idea! I'll keep it in mind.

 

[ArcticWolf907]

So, my first batch has been started. I have a question though, I used a packet of Red Star Premier Blanc yeast. What temp is ideal for fermentation? I have it currently between 65 and 75. I got an Inkbird temperature control unit from Amazon and hooked it up to a spare fridge we had in the garage. I'm using it to interrupt the power to the fridge to make sure it stays in that range, but I'd like to narrow it down a little so that the yeast dont get to stressed with changes in temperature.

 

[bernardsmith]

I guess I don't understand. doesn't the inkbird control temperature to between 1 and 2 degrees F? so you should be able to set your fridge to the appropriate temperature you want and the appropriate temperature is presumably on the spec sheet of the lab that produces the yeast. That said, why would there be a large enough fluctuation in the temperature of the wine to create stress for the yeast? Where in your house are you making this mead and where on the planet? My basement is not heated or cooled and it is about 60 F throughout the year with a little fluctuation towards the height of summer and the depth of winter but on a daily or weekly basis there seems to be very little fluctuation..

 

[JimRausch]

I've used that same yeast in 1 gallon batches, which I start out in buckets and rack to 1G jugs when fermentation is complete(that makes it easier to degas). Unlike my beers, which I do keep strict temp control on, for my meads and fruit wines I have not been so worried. It's generally been somewhere between 60-70.

 

[Seamonkey84]

What ever the the temp range specified for your yeast, take the middle temp and maybe go down a few degrees.

 

[ArcticWolf907]

I guess I don't understand. doesn't the inkbird control temperature to between 1 and 2 degrees F? so you should be able to set your fridge to the appropriate temperature you want and the appropriate temperature is presumably on the spec sheet of the lab that produces the yeast. That said, why would there be a large enough fluctuation in the temperature of the wine to create stress for the yeast? Where in your house are you making this mead and where on the planet? My basement is not heated or cooled and it is about 60 F throughout the year with a little fluctuation towards the height of summer and the depth of winter but on a daily or weekly basis there seems to be very little fluctuation..

God I wish I had a basement. It would make everything so much easier. I'm in Houston. The water table here is really high, so none of the houses around here have basements. I'm going to set it to a smaller temperature range. I might have to reposition the thermometer. Maybe it's to far from the vent and isn't picking up the temperature until its cooled too much. Idk. I'll have to fiddle with it.

 

[ArcticWolf907]

I've used that same yeast in 1 gallon batches, which I start out in buckets and rack to 1G jugs when fermentation is complete(that makes it easier to degas). Unlike my beers, which I do keep strict temp control on, for my meads and fruit wines I have not been so worried. It's generally been somewhere between 60-70.

So, with the same yeast, and same sized batch, you just keep it between 60 and 70?

 

[JimRausch]

So, with the same yeast, and same sized batch, you just keep it between 60 and 70?

I'd have to look at my notes, which are at home, but as a general rule I try and keep all my fermentations (except for Kveiks, or lager yeasts of course) in the low-mid 60's range. My point was, rightly or wrongly, I don't worry so much about fermentation temps with my 1G meads and fruit wines.

 

[ArcticWolf907]

Fair enough.