To scale

[Ponder]

I was wondering if I could make a half gallon at a time. I was trying to figure out if it was the same as to scale up from 1 to x.

Ideas? Thoughts?

 

[IslandLizard]

I'd say so, scaling would be a pretty much linear conversion for all ingredients.

There may be a relatively slightly higher loss when racking, due to leaving trub/yeast behind. You can only rack so tightly, before trub/yeast gets sucked up. Tilting the fermenter toward the end of the transfer keeps the siphon well deeper and reduces those losses significantly. Some may even put the fermenter on a tilt, a few days before racking, so the trub/yeast slides and settles out in one corner. Then at the end of the transfer slowly tilt toward the opposite side.

[Added] When racking, use one of those (flow) inverter caps on the bottom of the cane/siphon, so trub/yeast doesn't get sucked up as quickly.

There's no boil involved, where evaporation does not scale linearly with batch size.

 

[Dan O]

I was wondering if I could make a half gallon at a time. I was trying to figure out if it was the same as to scale up from 1 to x.

Ideas? Thoughts?

Yes. I do it all the time. Scaling by 1/2 works very well.
When I want to try something new, I use Mason jars...1/2 gallon for traditionals that I want to experiment with, quart size for ones that are pricey.
I hope this helps you.
Happy meading

 

[Ponder]

Yes. I do it all the time. Scaling by 1/2 works very well.
When I want to try something new, I use Mason jars...1/2 gallon for traditionals that I want to experiment with, quart size for ones that are pricey.
I hope this helps you.
Happy meading

Outstanding! Where do get the tops?
Thanks

 

[Ponder]

I'd say so, scaling would be a pretty much linear conversion for all ingredients.

There may be a relatively slightly higher loss when racking, due to leaving trub/yeast behind. You can only rack so tightly, before trub/yeast gets sucked up. Tilting the fermenter toward the end of the transfer keeps the siphon well deeper and reduces those losses significantly. Some may even put the fermenter on a tilt, a few days before racking, so the trub/yeast slides and settles out in one corner. Then at the end of the transfer slowly tilt toward the opposite side.

[Added] When racking, use one of those (flow) inverter caps on the bottom of the cane/siphon, so trub/yeast doesn't get sucked up as quickly.

There's no boil involved, where evaporation does not scale linearly with batch size.

Great advice. Thanks

 

[Dan O]

Outstanding! Where do get the tops?
Thanks

They have them for standard or wide mouth

Fermentology Sauer System Fermentation Airlocks – Lids, Grommets, Gaskets, Stoppers – for Wide Mouth Mason Jars – 8 Pack https://a.co/d/aKnBwla

 

[MightyMosin]

I'm a big fan of the FerMonsters, but those lids are nice

 

[Dan O]

I'm a big fan of the FerMonsters, but those lids are nice

I love my FERMONSTERS. These lids make it very convenient for the Mason jars. Very heavy duty, & the come with 3 pc airlocks that are better than the standard 3 pc airlocks that you can buy.

 

[Rish]

tops

You can also buy these and drill holes in your regular Mason lids. I buy them individually at the LHBS for about a quarter each.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WNHS4T...tq-MgDbHlADtCW_rX9QJWwh51T8kyRNUBUmcloA9WXozv

 

[Ponder]

They have them for standard or wide mouth

Fermentology Sauer System Fermentation Airlocks – Lids, Grommets, Gaskets, Stoppers – for Wide Mouth Mason Jars – 8 Pack https://a.co/d/aKnBwla

Thanks. I'll be ordering some.

 

[Dan O]

Thanks. I'll be ordering some.

You're welcome.
Happy to help when I can.

 

[Ponder]

Yes. I do it all the time. Scaling by 1/2 works very well.
When I want to try something new, I use Mason jars...1/2 gallon for traditionals that I want to experiment with, quart size for ones that are pricey.
I hope this helps you.
Happy meading

Would you mind sharing a .5gal recipe so that I can have a baseline?

 

[Dan O]

Would you mind sharing a .5gal recipe so that I can have a baseline?

Any one gallon recipe will work, just divide all measurements in 1/2.
For my Mason jars batches, they tend not to be melomels, (fruit meads), as the fruit would take up to much volume for a small jar. Instead, that's better suited for me as the place to make traditionals with honeys that I haven't used yet or honeys that I want to experiment with other things for creating new flavors.
My advice would be make a traditional.... 1.25lbs of honey, water to 1/2 gallon, mix thoroughly, yeast of your choice, GoFerm for waking up the yeast, TOSNA feeding schedule. Once you get the hang of making smaller batches, scaling gets easier...up or down.
I hope this helps you.
Happy meading

 

[Broken Crow]

In 1993, I knew very little about mead but I was reading Plato and came across his mead description... I had also been reading the Sandman comics and 'Dark Mead' was mentioned and while these were stuck in my head I bought some honey, mixed it to Plato's ratio in mason jars, threw in some bread yeast, set the lid on and left the sanp-ring loose to allow for venting and left them in a kitchen cabinet until some time later when I had a group of friends from out of town visited. Despite the loose lid, it was somewhat carbonated and we all got totally ripped and all had the worse hangovers the next day (most of them were passed out in my living room, one in my bed, and a few others on the other side of the building in my GF's apartment). We still agreed it was a success though it needed some work.
So yeah; You can make it in any size.

 

[Ponder]

Any one gallon recipe will work, just divide all measurements in 1/2.
For my Mason jars batches, they tend not to be melomels, (fruit meads), as the fruit would take up to much volume for a small jar. Instead, that's better suited for me as the place to make traditionals with honeys that I haven't used yet or honeys that I want to experiment with other things for creating new flavors.
My advice would be make a traditional.... 1.25lbs of honey, water to 1/2 gallon, mix thoroughly, yeast of your choice, GoFerm for waking up the yeast, TOSNA feeding schedule. Once you get the hang of making smaller batches, scaling gets easier...up or down.
I hope this helps you.
Happy meading

This is exactly what I was thinking. Thank you so much. This is all so new and exciting.

 

[Ponder]

In 1993, I knew very little about mead but I was reading Plato and came across his mead description... I had also been reading the Sandman comics and 'Dark Mead' was mentioned and while these were stuck in my head I bought some honey, mixed it to Plato's ratio in mason jars, threw in some bread yeast, set the lid on and left the sanp-ring loose to allow for venting and left them in a kitchen cabinet until some time later when I had a group of friends from out of town visited. Despite the loose lid, it was somewhat carbonated and we all got totally ripped and all had the worse hangovers the next day (most of them were passed out in my living room, one in my bed, and a few others on the other side of the building in my GF's apartment). We still agreed it was a success though it needed some work.
So yeah; You can make it in any size.

Plato's ratio? What does this mean?

 

[Broken Crow]

Plato's ratio? What does this mean?

I might be mixing my greek's up... I've lost an incalculable amount of memory to brain injury and now I think this might not be correct. Tried looking it up online so I don't get it wrong, but what I remember reading a classic greek (I'm fairly certian it was Plato) was: "mix one part water with three parts honey"..but my memory's been unreliable since 2014...heck I might not even have the numbers in the right order
Maybe someone else knows this one?

 

[Dan O]

Quick Google search came up with Plato's number.... 216

 

[Ponder]

Quick Google search came up with Plato's number.... 216

Thanks..That's what I found also but couldn't get any understanding. I thought it was me as I too have had a tbi. We'll figure it out together.

 

[Broken Crow]

My bad.. NOT Plato... Pliny the Elder. I found a reference to it in a paper behind a paywall on Springer.com, so here's what I cut and pasted from my Duck-search:

Mead: The Oldest Alcoholic Beverage | SpringerLink​

Mead was omnipresent during the Roman Empire, and the Romans also produced mulsum, a traditional grape wine that was sweetened with honey. Pliny the Elder described how to make hydromel, a mead made of three parts water and one part honey, where this honey-water solution was left to ferment

...and yup, as I often do with numebers anymore, I got them backwards.
Sorry for the confusion.

 

[Ponder]

My bad.. NOT Plato... Pliny the Elder. I found a reference to it in a paper behind a paywall on Springer.com, so here's what I cut and pasted from my Duck-search:

Mead: The Oldest Alcoholic Beverage | SpringerLink​

Mead was omnipresent during the Roman Empire, and the Romans also produced mulsum, a traditional grape wine that was sweetened with honey. Pliny the Elder described how to make hydromel, a mead made of three parts water and one part honey, where this honey-water solution was left to ferment

...and yup, as I often do with numebers anymore, I got them backwards.
Sorry for the confusion.

Thanks for the follow up. Interesting stuff.

 

[MightyMosin]

My bad.. NOT Plato... Pliny the Elder. I found a reference to it in a paper behind a paywall on Springer.com, so here's what I cut and pasted from my Duck-search:

Mead: The Oldest Alcoholic Beverage | SpringerLink​

Mead was omnipresent during the Roman Empire, and the Romans also produced mulsum, a traditional grape wine that was sweetened with honey. Pliny the Elder described how to make hydromel, a mead made of three parts water and one part honey, where this honey-water solution was left to ferment

...and yup, as I often do with numebers anymore, I got them backwards.
Sorry for the confusion.

That recipe called for fresh collected rain water to be stored 5 years before using. Tallk about planning!

 

[Broken Crow]

That recipe called for fresh collected rain water to be stored 5 years before using. Tallk about planning!

Heck! I only went by the water/honey ratio, but used water that went through my 2-stage filter and then a Brita jug...My local tap water is pretty much toxic (hence the filtering I've used since 1988)... I could've just used my local tap-water which is proabably the equivalent to 5-year old (local full of industrial pollution) rain water