Water for Meadmaking

[AerationStation]

Hey guys, I was kicking around with the idea of doing another raspberry melomel ( the last one I made came out awesome!) and it occurred to me that I might want to start paying attention to the water I'm using.

I'm assuming that much like beer yeast, wine/mead yeast have a Ca2+ requirement for proper flocculation. The party line seems to be 50 ppm is the min, is that still true with mead?

I was also wondering if any of you guys worry about the chloride/sulfate ratio of the water to try and accent some of the flavors you're going for. For example I was thinking about maybe bumping the sulfate for this one to try and get the raspberry flavor to be a little more "crisp". Alternatively I was thinking a ratio more towards chloride might be good for more "earthy" flavors like vanilla, hazelnut, etc.

Since mead doesn't have a mash (thank god for that :cross and yeast tend to regulate their environmental pH, is there a target for pre-fermentation pH?

This might be a ridiculous line of questioning but I just want to see if anyone screws around with these things. Thanks for any advice you can give!

(I'm also in the market for a good melomel recipe if anyone has one they love )

 

[Arpolis]

Since mead doesn't have a mash (thank god for that ) and yeast tend to regulate their environmental pH, is there a target for pre-fermentation pH?

I did not respond at first because I honestly do not give too much thought to water. I use a simple Brita filtered water and call it good. But with no responses so far ill at least comment a little to the above.

I do think PH management is very important with meads because unlike wines. The sugars we add to the must (Honey) is acidic where sugar is not. So two identical recipes lack swapping sugar for honey you will have a lower PH in the mead. Thanks to the work from Loveofrose I am now a believer in adding a little something to raise PH in a mead so as to keep it from dropping too low and causing yeast stress or worse stalling. I think potassium bicarbonate works best to compliment flavors and yeast nutrient requirements.

 

[fatbloke]

Whereas, I didn't answer as I just wanted to do the "RTFM/do a search" rant.

But I had the presence of mind to realise that'd be inappropriate and lacking consideration.

So here goes.....

There is plenty of info out there, that explains about hard water (calcium hardness) isn't so good as it can indeed cause flavour issues (depending on what is being made as to what kind of flavour issue).

Equally, you'll find many comments about how distilled water is thought to be bad i.e. lacking in minerals and such nonsense (IMO that is).

For the water element to have much impact it would likely need the kind of nutritional value of raw sewage. The nutrients would routinely be added either by addition of energiser/DAP etc or maybe fruit etc.......

Ergo, if you are adding the nutrient why would distilled water be bad ? You'd be aerating to replace any dissolved O2 lost to distilling process etc so it would be soft or at least as neutral as possible.

Personally I use reverse osmosis water from the aquarium supply shop. Its about 50 or so ppm TDS and works fine. Lacking in calcium has never caused me any clearing issues etc.....

plus its a lot cheaper than distilled water so no contest.

As for "spring" water ? I'm suspecting it has different meaning as here something can only be labelled as such if its bottled at source (that's an EU thing). It doesn't confirm or convey any magical or medicinal properties or even tell you the make up of the levels of trace. You'd need that to know anyway and they're allowed to include that amongst the marketing blurb....

As Arpolis points out, there are acid issues connected with meads. Those are most prevelant with traditionals i.e. mels etc have some pH buffering ability from fruit etc.......

There's quite a few recipes or methods out there that suggest the addition of potassium carbonate to the unfermented must, as it reduces the possible pH swings and drops that can be caused by primary fermentation.......

 

[gratus fermentatio]

With the exception of worrying about the addition of chlorine or chloramine to a municipal water supply, I don't really worry too much about the water I use in meadmaking. I mean, if it tastes bad, for whatever reason, I won't use it; but as far as the actual mineral composition goes, I never worried about it.

Now if we had a real issue with the local water, like a high iron content or a low PH, then I might be concerned about using it, but as is, the water here is fine by me; it makes some good mead. I'm concerned about the other ingredients like honey and/or fruit.
Regards, GF.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

I agree with gratus here, as long as your tap water doesn't have any off flavors, you should be good to go. The PH of municipal supplies is typically in the 7-9 range to keep from leaching in PVC water piping.

 

[fuelish]

Agreeing with gratus and MB....as far as I can tell, the only meads I haven't been satisfied with weren't the result of my (filtered) tap water, just poor recipe choices ....and none has been undrinkable, of course

 

[VikingChrisColby]

Here's some information on pH in mead, along with the need (in many cases) to add a little potassium to a mead must. Mead musts can be low in pH, and this can cause the yeast to struggle. Taking care of your pH and potassium levels, combined with "SNAs" (staggered nutrient additions) will do a lot to ensure your mead fermentation is quick and orderly. I'm not sure about calcium ions, but if you added around 50 ppm Ca++ to your water, I doubt it would hurt. (You can just use filtered tap water to make mead. The yeast may, however, struggle and making the extra effort to treat your water will help the whole process go more smoothly. Professional meadmakers certainly pay close attention to these things.)

Potassium and pH in Mead
http://beerandwinejournal.com/potassium-ph-mead/

Staggered Nutrient Additions
http://beerandwinejournal.com/staggered-nutrient-additions/


Chris Colby
Editor
http://beerandwinejournal.com