Radioactive mead

[BrewUpAndSup]

Just look at the picture!! I'm scared!!

 

[Dicky]

What the hell is in there? It's awesome!

Dicky

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Nice shot! Amazing what a light behind a carbouy can do for a photo ain't it?
Might make an interesting label for that mead.
Regards, GF.

 

[Rbeckett]

Look at the trub layer on the nottom too! With a layer that deep you should be able to farm that and never buy yeast again. It does look way cool though and would make a great lbel with the radioactive triangles in red and something whitty like Nuke em mead or some such. Looks cool though...
Banged up Bob

 

[BrewUpAndSup]

Ok Ok been rumbled!! Yes there is a light behind it.....but it does look ace! And thanks for the inspirational label idea. Will put a pic on to show you what it looks like now as its been bottled and im trying to resist cracking a bottle open. Think im gonna wait until 3 more months if i can! Wish me luck!

 

[BrewUpAndSup]

What it looks like now!!

 

[Huskysibe]

Wow, that sure looks tasty! Good luck not cracking one open for test purposes lol

 

[BrewUpAndSup]

lol i know!! My mouth is drooling at the thought of it!! I just keep thinking, the longer i leave it the better it will taste!!

 

[Aquavitae]

Rbeckett...how does one go about farming the lees for yeast?

 

[CreamyGoodness]

I hereby volunteer to sample and make sure it is not poisonous. That's the kind of quality guy I am.

 

[BrewUpAndSup]

No idea about farming soz

 

[biochemedic]

Rbeckett...how does one go about farming the lees for yeast?

Check out the sticky on yeast washing in the Home Brewing Beer Fermentation & Yeast section. I would say though, that I've read that washing/reusing yeast from a high ABV source like mead may not be as advisable as doing so from beer.

 

[TheBrewingMedic]

Harvesting yeast is pretty easy, just a few steps involved, for a traditional mead it'll be even easier than with beer or a flavored mead.

1. before you rack your mead into the secondary.
A. Boil about a gallon of water for 10 minutes then let it cool down to the same ambient temp as your mead.
B. Sanitize (either with sanitizer or by putting it in the water while it boild) a couple glass pint jars and lids or similar size sealable container.
C. Sanitize a gallon size container like a glass fermenting jug and funnel.

2. Rack your mead into your secondary obviously get as much out as you can

3. Add a gallon of boiled/cooled water back into your primary and swirl it around really well just to make sure its a good homogenious slurry.

*If you made a flavored mead continue to step four, if a traditional mead skip to step 5*

4. Let the slurry sit for about an hour, most of the unwanted trubish stuff will settle all the way to the bottom, most of the yeast will be in suspension still.

5. Gently pour into the santized extra container, slowly so as to leave the majority of the crap you don't want in the primary, there will be definite stratisification lines and a color difference, you just wanna leave most the useless deposits behind.

6. pour the new slurry, either from the extra just, or if tradition, from the primary into the pint jars, filling to the very top (minimize oxygen)

*In about 24 hours you will see the yeast happily settled into a 1/4 inch or so of a yeast cake at the bottom of the jar and clear liquid resembling original mead above it.

7. Place jars in fridge for a couple few months until you make a similar mead again, idealy you'll use this yeast in a mead that has same honey as the original.

8. When ready to use, take out of the fridge 1-3 days before you are going to make your mead, pour or rack off the liquid and make a starter out of the yeast.

Ive mentioned doing this in other posts and it seemed to upset some people that were worried about stressing the yeast, this process is done extensively in beer making, often brewing 2-6 batches of beer from the original pack of yeast, Ive read of some people that have used that yeast over and over for a year or more. I have done this with mead, actually used the same yeast to repitch into the batch it came from with some extra nutrients to dry it out more, it worked well.

 

[TheBrewingMedic]

*If you made a flavored mead continue to step four, if a traditional mead skip to step 5*

.

I meant to say skip to step 6

 

[biochemedic]

I'm not saying this won't work, but may be sub-optimal. This is a small excerpt from a whole page of good info from Wyeast:

Previous Fermentation: Always harvest from a low gravity and low hopped beer. High gravity and/or highly hopped beers can stress the yeast and have detrimental affects on future fermentations. Do not harvest yeast from beers with alcohol contents greater than 6.5% ABV. (my own emphasis added)

Edit: OH, and BTW, to the OP -- great picture!

 

[Dynachrome]

With the light behind it, it looks like Mountain Dew.

 

[Blackbox_Brewing]

Radioactive Man - Up and Atom!

 

[Hazroth]

It does resemble mt. Dew lol how's it taste?

 

[funkapottomous]

Radioactive Man - Up and Atom!

Up and at them!