Recipe help

[benharper13]

I am starting backwards for a recipe, since my LHBS is far away I wanted to see if I could make a mead recipe with what I can get around here. The tricky part is I have red star montrachet yeast I bought 4 so I have spares from making Ed's apfelwein. Anyhow this will be my first mead and I know I'm starting backwards but do you guys have any good recipes that would finish well using this yeast?

 

[malkore]

Honestly, THE yeast to be using right now is the Narbonde 71-B strain.

But montrachet works too. Biggest thing is: do you have nutrient and energizer? or better yet GoFerm and Fermaid-K?
Honey has no nutrients or nitrogen, so these are really really needed for the mead to turn out quickly.
Also, degassing daily for the first week is vital for yeast health as the CO2 and carbonic acid (lowers pH) is bad for yeasties.

Mead doesn't have to be difficult. 2.5 to 3lbs of honey per gallon of mead produced, pitch a whole satchet of yeast. degas daily, and read up on 'staggered nutrient additions'.

Get the base mead made and in secondary, add any additions like fruit, spices, etc. Or leave it plain.

 

[Rikadyn]

Pretty much any mead recipe should be fine, you're looking at about a 13% tolerance with that yeast.

 

[MedsenFey]

Montrachet makes a good mead, but it tends to make sulfur odors if it gets stressed. It you treat it well, it will make something very tasty.

The biggest factor in how your mead will turn out is the honey. If you use really great, fresh, honey you get better mead. Generally speaking, lighter honey makes better mead, so if you have some local light colored honey that may be your best bet.

For a specific recipe, I'd try something that ends right at the edge of dry (you can sweeten it more if you like after you taste it). And I'd use:

Honey roughly 3 pounds per gallon. Go by the hydrometer reading and aim for 1.100
Cream of Tartar 1 tsp per gallon
Fermaid K add 2 tsp per gallon
Montrachet yeast 1 packet - rehydrated in 100 F water for 20 minutes.

Mix the honey and water. I don't heat, boil, or use Campden tablets in most cases. Mix in the Fermaid K, and cream of tartar. Then pitch the yeast. Aerate the must well before pitching, and on day one and two. Keep the temp below 70F. When the gravity stops dropping, rack it into a fully-topped-up carboy/jug. Let it clear until you can read through it (possible a few months). Then bottle.

If you let it age for 12-18 months total, you'll have a mead at its best.

Medsen

 

[benharper13]

Sounds good. If I'm a year out from drinking it I want a good recipe. What have you guys foundto be very tasty?

 

[Rikadyn]

I really like how my Acerglyn (Maple mead) is aging out, it's at 6 months right now and getting near bottling I think. Even if it took like 5 of those 6 months to clear...

 

[benharper13]

Check that I also have a muntons regular yeast 6 gram pack

 

[CampFireWine]

I am starting backwards for a recipe, since my LHBS is far away I wanted to see if I could make a mead recipe with what I can get around here. The tricky part is I have red star montrachet yeast I bought 4 so I have spares from making Ed's apfelwein. Anyhow this will be my first mead and I know I'm starting backwards but do you guys have any good recipes that would finish well using this yeast?

I would bet if you cracked it with potassium sorbate, it would finish right then and start to settle when ever you wanted it to.

 

[MedsenFey]

I would bet if you cracked it with potassium sorbate, it would finish right then and start to settle when ever you wanted it to.

You would lose.

Even the combination of sorbate and sulfite is not reliable for stopping an active fermentation full of yeast. They work better at preventing restarting once the yeast count has been reduced by a couple of orders of magnitude.

To achieve mutage (the arrest of fermentation) with sorbate alone requires approximately 5 grams per liter, and would taste unpleasant.

Medsen

 

[CampFireWine]

You would lose.

Even the combination of sorbate and sulfite is not reliable for stopping an active fermentation full of yeast. They work better at preventing restarting once the yeast count has been reduced by a couple of orders of magnitude.

To achieve mutage (the arrest of fermentation) with sorbate alone requires approximately 5 grams per liter, and would taste unpleasant.

Medsen

I use 1 tablespoon of sorbate and 6 campden tablets (per 6 gal) when racking out of my primary and within 12 hours there is a very noticeable clearing starting at the top which can be skimmed off and drank right then. Within a week the whole carboy can be drank but it continues to clear for up to a month. It seems to work wonders for me but maybe it is just how I use it.

The sorbate doesn't kill the yeast per say, it just sterilizes them so they can't reproduce. They die from old age quickly. Yest lifespan is pretty short.

 

[Rikadyn]

Best solution is to cold crash then rack onto the sulfite and sorbate solution, tis how I killed off K1V in my acerglyn.

 

[MedsenFey]

Yest lifespan is pretty short.

Actually it can be several weeks (if that is what you mean by short, then yes).

I won't say the the combination of sorbate and sulfite won't work, just that it isn't reliable. Depending on which yeast strain, the ABV, the pH, and other factors the yeast may be inhibited by the addition, or they may keep trucking along. Worse yet, later on, they may wake up again after bottling (had that happen to me with EC-1118 after trying your approach. messy...)

Medsen

 

[CampFireWine]

Actually it can be several weeks (if that is what you mean by short, then yes).

I won't say the the combination of sorbate and sulfite won't work, just that it isn't reliable. Depending on which yeast strain, the ABV, the pH, and other factors the yeast may be inhibited by the addition, or they may keep trucking along. Worse yet, later on, they may wake up again after bottling (had that happen to me with EC-1118 after trying your approach. messy...)

Medsen

When I do that I am right at the attenuation rate of the yeast and most have already died but there are the last few still holding on, swimming around keeping things cloudy, and messing up the flavor, but it really doesn't take much to finish them off at that point.