Question: Small batch mead with honey and raisin

[Ariel]

I asked on here how to make wine from raisins. I've made two batches and they were okay. Waiting for the summer to see the prices of wine grapes if I can find them easily.

Now I am trying to make 32 ounces of mead. I have no commercial yeast for it. What I did was mix 16oz of honey and topped of the rest of my mason jar with filtered water. I mixed it all up and added a little bit of my raisin wine for the yeast. Do I need to do anything else at this point besides wait and burp my jar?

I used Honey Brother wildflower honey. The jar says Pure Natural Honey, Uncooked no preservatives. I hope its real honey. There are no ingredients and no contact info

 

[bernardsmith]

Using either indigenous yeast (yeast in the honey) or using yeast you have harvested from your own wine making are both time tested approaches to fermenting any next batch. Honey is notorious for being a nutritional desert for yeast so you may want to add some nutrients (a good source is bread yeast that you proof and then boil and allow to cool before adding - if you have no bread yeast (and bread yeast is the same creature as wine yeast , just cultivated for the qualities we look for in bread making rather than those we want in wine making) you might add a slice of
toasted bread - this was a traditional source of nutrition when wine was made at home for hundreds of years).

 

[Ariel]

Using either indigenous yeast (yeast in the honey) or using yeast you have harvested from your own wine making are both time tested approaches to fermenting any next batch. Honey is notorious for being a nutritional desert for yeast so you may want to add some nutrients (a good source is bread yeast that you proof and then boil and allow to cool before adding - if you have no bread yeast (and bread yeast is the same creature as wine yeast , just cultivated for the qualities we look for in bread making rather than those we want in wine making) you might add a slice of
toasted bread - this was a traditional source of nutrition when wine was made at home for hundreds of years).

What do you mean by a nutritional dessert? What would the bread yeast or toasted bread do that the yeast from the wine can't accomplish?

 

[bucketnative]

What do you mean by a nutritional dessert? What would the bread yeast or toasted bread do that the yeast from the wine can't accomplish?

Desert = arid land with usually sparse vegetation - he used it to mean that honey is devoid of nutrients that yeast require for healthy fermentation.

By boiling the bread yeast to kill it, you create essentially yeast nutrients. The dead yeast provide nutrients to the living wine yeast when added to your must.

Toasted bread can provide those same nutrients to the wine yeast, as well.

 

[Ariel]

Desert = arid land with usually sparse vegetation - he used it to mean that honey is devoid of nutrients that yeast require for healthy fermentation.

By boiling the bread yeast to kill it, you create essentially yeast nutrients. The dead yeast provide nutrients to the living wine yeast when added to your must.

Toasted bread can provide those same nutrients to the wine yeast, as well.

What are the nutrients the yeast need? Do I use any type of toasted bread and do I have to worry about the bread becoming mush or moldy inside? Are there alternatives to feed the yeast? I thought all yeast needed wass sugar to feed and grow. I only added raisins for my wine and it fermented with no issues.

 

[bernardsmith]

Mold grows when the organic material is in contact with air (oxygen) but you will be fermenting the honey so the space above the bread will be filled with carbon dioxide and mold does not thrive in an atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide. To help you should be stirring this bread into the liquid two or three times a day to keep it sopping wet.
Yeast need nitrogen and zinc and many of the vitamins that you and I need. Raisins are dried grapes and grapes in quantity can provide much of the nutrient load that yeast need but honey is a very poor and sparse source of nutrients. Sugar is not "nutrients" for yeast any more than sugar is nutrients for humans. Sure - sugar can provide you with the calories (energy) you need to do work but if your diet was candy you would become very ill after a very short time... Yeast is no different. Sugar provides the yeast with energy but there is nothing in the sugar they use for energy that will repair cell walls and the like...

 

[madscientist451]

Raisins are usually dried naturally in the sun and will have whatever wild yeast was in the vineyard they came from. I've never made raisin wine, but its something I was planning on trying some day. It sounds like you're using a 32oz jar and have a 50/50 mix honey and water?
What you really need to do it get another jar and split your batch. You need to leave some headspace in the jar for fermentation expansion so it doesn't overflow the jar, make a mess and you'll lose some of your mead.
The raisin wine has alcohol and it may have killed off the wild yeast, so you'd be better off adding some raisins if that's all you have.
When it starts fermenting, swirl the jars to release the Co2 and you'll get a better fermentation. If you can get a gallon jug, that would be a better fermenter. Put a balloon on the top to act as an airlock, but let the Co2 out when the balloon expands. If there is any dead yeast in the bottom of your wine container, save that and toss some in, or make the bread yeast nutrient as explained above.
Here's a you tube video where the meadmaker doesn't use any added yeast, it was just honey, water, raisins, the juice from two oranges and some oak cubes:
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[Ariel]

The wine I added is from a fresh batch that is still fermenting.

I planned to add some lemon, orange, ginger, and cloves to my mead. If I add those now with a few raisins would that be all I need?

I left some headspace in the jar so it won't overflow. I wanted to make a very small batch before I do a gallon or even a second batch at all.

Thanks. I watched his video a few months ago and forgot most of what he said in it.

I'm a novice at all this. Making raisin wine was a good start for me to get into fermenting drinks. Adding sunmaid raisins and water would get some nice bubbling overnight. It was really quick to build up yeast activity. The result was okay.. Nothing special. I didn't rack it or age it. Once i decided to stop fermenting the raisins either after 3 weeks or 3 days I bottled it. Left it in the fridge and finished it in a few weeks.

 

[Ariel]

I added a piece of ginger, raisins, orange and lemon slices. It didn't have really have any headroom left afterward. With the lid on Thursday night it overflowed a bit. Friday morning I put two layers of coffee filters tightened with a rubber on it and left it in a drawer. There was bubbling in the jar. This morning I came back to some of the fruit above the water and it looked mushy. I removed them and they smelled a little off. I cleaned the rim with a wet napkin to remove any of the residues from the fruit. The whole thing now smells a little off instead of sweet. Should I let it continue and hope it goes away or start over?

The only thing left inside is a few raisins that stay submerged in the liquid. I put a new coffee filter over it and closed the lid now.