Skeeter Mead

[Atek]

Alrighty then, so I've racked and added 96oz lemon juice. I forgot to take a reading before the laziness kicked in again so my apologies. I did take a picture though, it had quite some time until it clears I fear but I'll do my best to keep you all updated. I do believe that this is gonna be awesome stuff.

 

[Arpolis]

I have no pics but mine is starting to clear and looks awesome. Gravity is bone dry right now at .998. I will probably rack off the lees here this next week which will degass this a bit and let it further clear more quickly. I'll keep you all up to date.

 

[Atek]

I racked again as I had quite a bit of sediment. S.G. Is right at 1. I tasted it and... Well it's not quite there yet, this is going to be better using an orange blossom honey, the clover is definitely identifiable and this young tastes a tad off with the lemon sour. Not bad mind you just could be better. This has not been back sweetened yet either so the lemon is mighty potent. Back sweetening and age will tell but if it ages like a mead this is gonna be hella good in 6 months, and amazing with more time.

 

[Pratzie]

interesting. Im sure after 6-8 months it will kick ass

 

[Atek]

Hey Arpolis, any updates? Mine is clearing up nicely, not clear enough yet but definitely getting there.

 

[Arpolis]

Not a whole lot. I have been super busy and have not done a thing with the mead........ So I got off my lazy ars and decided to rack this off the lees today. The mead is about 90% cleared at this point. I don't have the honey to back sweeten yet so will do that probably after next racking. I took a small taste and it was a little yeasty as expected. Nice and tart but not at the point where I was puckering but cheeks. And surprisingly very very smooth. Mead is normally horid at this age, hot with alcohol but my wife might actually drink this young without aging. The gravity looks to have settled at 0.992ish. I topped up with 50/50 real lemon juice and water. I actually racked twice, once into a spare 5 gallon water jug and then after cleaning back into my better bottle. All that stirring up should help this degass and drop out the rest of the yeast. About another month I bet and I can rack back sweeten.

 

[Atek]

Agreed on the smoothness, it's very interesting. Maybe the tart just masks the normal young mead astringency? I racked mine again today, it is almost crystal clear now, I'm guessing just a slight dusting of sediment will still form. I have not back sweetened this yet. Can't decide if I want to stick with clover or go with something more floral like a tupelo.

 

[Arpolis]

Mine is not that clear just yet. I may give it a second racking cause I have about 1/4" of lees on the bottom. I'll post a pic after racking.

 

[Atek]

Back sweetened with 3.75 lbs honey today. Got surprisingly cloudy after that....

 

[Arpolis]

Sorry that I have ben so lazy and not posting pics but ill make it up tonight. I gave the Skeeter mead a second racking today to get off the fine lees and I stabilized and backsweetened with 3.5lb of honey. There was just enough I could not fit into the carboy to fill up a glass. Below is a pic of that to show how clear it is before sweetening. The carboy is after sweetening. Another month or so and it should be ready for bottles.





Man I can not get over how smooth this young melomel is. I spooned in a little honey into the jar and it was really good. Oh man I can not wait for bottling day.

 

[Arpolis]

Ok we are nearly 5 months into this now so thought I would post an update. The skeeter mead is just not clearing nearly as well as I would like it to. In my last skeeter pee I could see clearly through the whole 5 gallon carboy. My ginger mead right next to this one is crystal clear. I can see the silhouette of my hand well but this is not crystal clear. I racked it again and there was a small amount of lees at the bottom. The gravity right now is at 1.02. I want to bottle this in the next 30 days so I can free some space so I gave in and gave this a dose of bentonite. We will see what it does in the next 30 days. I tasted the gravity sample and it is nice. There is a bit of bite on the back end that I think is just hot alcohol. Still smooth but now there is a noticeable after taste of some alcohol. I tasted it side by side with my last Skeeter pee. The SP was sweetened with Splenda and I think I under did the Splenda and it is less sweet than the skeeter mead. The SP is more...wine like. Where as the skeeter mead is more lemony with a little honey character and a shot of week spirits at the end. I really like my SP but I think I like the SKeeter mead better. How is yours doing Atek? Are you having any clearing issues like mine?

 

[Vikings]

Will it affect the "lemon" flavor much if I proactively use K-bicarbonate to raise the pH to around 3.5-4 before I start the ferment? I'm thinking that would be much easier than this "slurry" business, but figure there must be a reason why no one has mentioned it. I'm also thinking about using pectic enzyme since I'm going to be juicing fresh lemons. Thoughts?

 

[Arpolis]

I only speak from theory and educated guesses so take these words with a grain of salt. Lemon flavor is largely effected by Citric acid so if you offset the ph I bet the flavor will be vastly different. However if you record the PH before adjustment and after. Then bring the ph back down the same amount of point difference with citric acid after fermentation. It should taste close to the same.

Not sure if that is the best way to go about this but feel free to try it and let us all know how it goes.

 

[Vikings]

I'm torn between two theories on how to get around making a slurry. The first I outlined above, the second is to use the lemon juice almost like a late SNA. Say, first 32oz at 50%, then 24 hours later. This would give the yeasties a couple of days in a 4.5 gallon "starter" before they're hit with all of that acid. I think I'm going to try this. Also, I'm going to use 1116, cause that stuff will ferment in the core of a reactor, lol. And lastly, I'm going to do my first batch with sugar and back sweeten with honey. If it fails, I'm out $10.00 in fermentables instead of $75.00.

 

[Arpolis]

Just heads up on what happened with the bentonite. Wow. It is super crystal clear now. It actually cleared so fast I could watch it clear. There was just a line if cloudy milkyness that traveled down the carboy. There is about an inch and a half of milky substance at the bottom that I can only guess is protean and bentonite mixed together. I'll still give it a few more weeks to see if the stuff at the bottom compresses more.

 

[Atek]

Interesting notes there, the first SP I made I had to clear with bentonite which seemed to tame some of the harsh lemon as well. To confirm my SMead is not clearing as well as I'd like either. Though I can see my hand through the mead and could read a newspaper if I had to it is still visibly occluded. I too have noticed that slight bite at the back of the tongue, to me it seems to be the blend of the clover floral flavors with the sour lemon. I too agree it is quite good but not quite yet as good as my standard SP. The really interesting thing is that the Smead is MUCH smoother than the SP at a much younger age. Given the tendency for mead to age the way it does I feel that the back bite will smooth out in another 6 months and will likely be FAR better than traditional SP.

Arpolis how much bentonite did you add to clear yours?

 

[Arpolis]

Arpolis how much bentonite did you add to clear yours?

I mixed one canning jar of near boiling water with 2 tbs of bentonite in a blender. Let that roll for about 3 min and then mixed into the SM.

 

[JohanMk1]

I'm torn between two theories on how to get around making a slurry. The first I outlined above, the second is to use the lemon juice almost like a late SNA. Say, first 32oz at 50%, then 24 hours later. This would give the yeasties a couple of days in a 4.5 gallon "starter" before they're hit with all of that acid. I think I'm going to try this. Also, I'm going to use 1116, cause that stuff will ferment in the core of a reactor, lol. And lastly, I'm going to do my first batch with sugar and back sweeten with honey. If it fails, I'm out $10.00 in fermentables instead of $75.00.

I would rather make a 2litre or bigger starter with your chosen yeast and pitch at high krausen.

 

[Vikings]

So I went ahead an did this using the invert sugar for the base and back sweetening with honey. It is delicious and <21 says from pitch to bottle. Although I haven't bottled yet, I could. here is the thread I started in the wine making section, since honey wasn't my primary fermentable.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/skeeter-pead-420084/

 

[Atek]

Ok, I just tried this again during a racking of a different wine I have and all I can say is this **** is amazing!!! Pardon the language but that is the ONLY way I can describe it.... WAY better than regular pee which is amazing already!

 

[Atek]

Bottled my skeeter mead today, man is it good!!!!

 

[Arpolis]

Awwww that looks super good. Now I want to bottle mine. I need to go through my clean empty bottles and see if I have enough.

 

[Atek]

Hey Arpolis, how is your SM doing? Would love to see a picture!

 

[Arpolis]

Hey Arpolis, how is your SM doing? Would love to see a picture!

Ok I can take some pics. Actually I still have it bulk aging. It is crystal clear and looking great. Last a tastes it was months ago and it was great then. When I get home I will chill a wine glass and siphon enough to take a pic or two.

 

[Arpolis]

Ok here are some pics as I promised. On the left is a skeeter pee wine that is over a year old and on the right is my skeeter mead. The third pick is also skeeter mead.

View attachment 157432



View attachment 157430

I was surprised the one with lighter color was the skeeter mead. I tasted the two side by side and wow the mead is so much better. But then again this last batch of skeeter pee was back sweetened with Splenda mostly. I tried to use some prong sugar and carb the wine but fermentation never kicked in. Also I was a bit low on the Splenda. So the skeeter pee is a bit more tart and has a bitter after tone. The skeeter mead is sweet and sour like you expect a lemonade. There is a lot less alcohol hot tastes in it compared to the wine. Soooo gooood!

 

[Arpolis]

Hmm attachments did not all work. Try this:

 

[Arpolis]

Ok I ended up bottling. I bottled most of the skeeter pee then I had 36fl oz of "just tart cherry juice" in a gallon jar and I racked the S.M. Onto it till full. That then went into it's own bottles. So I have S.M. And Cherry S.M. Bottled. I calculate the cherry to be just over 7% ABV and OMG is it good!!!!! Here are some picks:

 

[Arpolis]

Here is the cherry:

 

[butterpants]

the unicorn really makes that photo

 

[Atek]

That is one nice looking mead there man!