What I did for/with Mead today

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Ren06

Ren06

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Bottled up 5 gallons of spiced cyser mead and also bottled 2-12oz bottles of it for a competition.
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Dan O said:
I have no idea, because I've never submitted any of mine, but, is just 2 12 oz bottles enough? I always thought they needed a couple of 750s for comps.
Again, I an not sure.
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Two or 3 12 oz. capped beer bottles is the typical requirement, usually 2. I usually bottle 6 so I can enter more than 1 comp.
 
Today had nutrients for two different meads in the morning and later on I racked and stabilizing about 8 different meads.
I had about 2.25 liters of whisky keeping a barrel moist with occasional rotating of the barrel. I racked it out and I got about 400ml with the barrel drinking up the rest. My Marshmallow meadowfoam mead went into that barrel.

Now it is the cleaning of the carboys. I love my SS Brewtech keg cleaner which doubles nicely as a carboy cleaner. For me, it is well worth the cost as it makes a tedious chore much easier and I can work on other items while it is going.

Also first time racking off a mead using Kieselson and Chitosan. I have to say it is amazing how quickly it works compared to Bentonite and Sparkolloid.
 
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MightyMosin said:
Also first time racking off a mead using Kieselson and Chitosan. I have to say it is amazing how quickly it works compared to Bentonite and Sparkolloid.
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Resist the temptation to rack too soon. You must let every drop of that stuff settle out else you get this really nasty medicinal taste. DAMHIK. Give it a week.
 
Maylar said:
Resist the temptation to rack too soon. You must let every drop of that stuff settle out else you get this really nasty medicinal taste. DAMHIK. Give it a week.
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These were racked off all the stuff that settled out about3.5 days later into other carboys and not bottled. They will likely sit in the new carboys for several weeks as I really do not like bottling.

I did have two batches that went into kegs as they will eventually get carbonated; I'll wait a few weeks and then rack those out into another set of kegs in case I have anymore that settles out in the next few weeks.
 
Racked 3 gallons of JAOM from primary into 1 gallon secondaries. I'll let them sit for a few more weeks and then start cold crashing them.
 
I looked at my 3 batches in secondary (traditional, cyser-chokecherry blend, and chokecherry), and decided they were not quite ready for re-racking. They are clearing nicely, maybe in another week or so.
 
Monitored several meads for their gravity. Racked off a mixed berry session mead out of primary. Pretty impressive color.
The fruits went onto my small press and I squeezed the hell out them for that last bit that they were holding on to... Give it Back!!!!

One of the items I regularly do is print the basic info of the mead out on my Dymo printer and that label gets put onto a low adhesive piece of tape. That tape with the label will move from carboy to carboy as I rack. Sometimes I'll add info on there about when oaking was started or some other detail like the ABV. If it goes into a barrel, then the taped label goes onto a barrel band near the bung.
MIxedBerry.jpg
 
Quick question Mosin. Do you bottle using the valve on that container. I have been toying with the idea of ditching my bottling wand attached to an auto siphon in exchange for a bottling bucket set up.

Also, that looks to be plastic. I love my plastic fermenters for weight and safety. How long are you comfortable leaving mead in one to age? I keep seeing folks say you risk oxidation.

Todd Peterson
 
Todd Peterson said:
Quick question Mosin. Do you bottle using the valve on that container. I have been toying with the idea of ditching my bottling wand attached to an auto siphon in exchange for a bottling bucket set up.

Also, that looks to be plastic. I love my plastic fermenters for weight and safety. How long are you comfortable leaving mead in one to age? I keep seeing folks say you risk oxidation.

Todd Peterson
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I sometimes use the valve to bottle from the Fer-Monster. I really don't like bottling wands.

The #10 bungs seem to seal pretty well and I can't say that I have noticed any taste of oxidation, though there has been some darkening on a few extended bulk aging. I have since started to use CO2 to periodically top up the headspace to help avoid those kind off issues.

I have several Torpedo kegs that I'll use for bulk again as well as carbonating my session meads. I also use CO2 in the oak barrels if I can't keep them topped up all the way; which is an issue with 5 gallon batches and barrels that are larger than that.
 
Bought a heating element for my fermentation fridge, at this point even I have to admit that building that bloody thing is taking me way too long.

I've also started to cold crash my plum melomel that's been ageing for about 9 months now. To be fair, I've also been putting that project off, since it's at a different location from my current residence.
 
Racked a couple one gallon batches to secondary.

Played with blending some flavors.

Pineapple jalapeño mead 15%abv. Ymmm!
 
Racked a secondary into tertiary. Racked a primary into secondary. Was going to rack another secondary, but it's mid-cold crash. Perfectly clear above the middle line, fully opaque below.

Worked up the recipe for the next one. First foray into melomels. Will use 32oz not-from-concentrate, preservative-free blueberry juice as part of the water in my typical 1G batch. It's labeled as equivalent to 3lbs worth of fruit. Should be enough, eh?
 
Last night I removed the fruit, vanilla beans & toasted cocoa nibs from my chocolate/ cherry/ vanilla/ pomegranate mead, also removed the blueberries & blackberries from those two meads.
Today, I will add lime zest to the blackberry, [ICODE]add either American medium toast oak cubes, Hungarian medium toast cubes or Amburana cubes to the chocolate/ cherry/ vanilla/ pomegranate [/S][/ICODE] & finally split the blueberry 3 ways. 1 will get vanilla bean, 1 will get ceylon cinnamon and Graham cracker, nutmeg & vanilla & the 3rd will get lemon zest & vanilla. After those additions have had a chance to do their thing & have been removed I will spit each of the 3 in half for oaking experiments. One half will get American medium toast cubes & the other half will get Hungarian medium toast cubes.
I love this hobby!!!😁

Life got busy & things either changed or didn't get done. Now that I have a few days off, they will. Got some cherry staves for the chocolate/ cherry/ vanilla/ pomegranate & put those in last night, likely to sit for 4-6 weeks. Blueberry will get split today for those separate additions as well as the Blackberry getting the lime zest.
 
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DBhomebrew said:
Racked a secondary into tertiary. Racked a primary into secondary. Was going to rack another secondary, but it's mid-cold crash. Perfectly clear above the middle line, fully opaque below.

Worked up the recipe for the next one. First foray into melomels. Will use 32oz not-from-concentrate, preservative-free blueberry juice as part of the water in my typical 1G batch. It's labeled as equivalent to 3lbs worth of fruit. Should be enough, eh?
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I have used RW Knudsen pure blueberry juice with good success. They come in 32 ounce bottles.

I look forward to hearing how your blueberry melomel turns out.

Todd Peterson
 
DB, I checked my notes on the blueberry juice. I used 1.5 gallons in a 5.5 gallon batch. I also used some black currant juice as well. I think juice is a really clean way to get fruit essence into mead. That said, it does not seem to generate all of the qualities as using whole fruit in primary.

Much cleaner and lower maintenance though. Also, not subject to the seasonality and availability of whole fruit.

Todd Peterson
 
Yesterday checked my sweet potato pie mead and also did a quick taste of my melomel with oak staves; and finally checked my cran raspberry session. Everything is moving along nicely
 
MightyMosin said:
Never done one of these. What is the basic process?
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I’ll let you know when it’s done. Right now it’s experimental but I’m using what would make sense in my head when making my family recipe for the pies and apply that to the mead. I’ll show the final product and process minus the spices (🤫), later on 😂.
 
Today I bottled 2.5 gallons of mesquite/buckwheat bochet... and I was reminded of why I hate bottling.

To be fair, the first (4) 375ml bottles went great and then it became shite.... which turned out to be a split in the tubing on my floating dip tube that was suddenly sending mostly CO2 instead of mead.

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That split where it attached to the out tube caused me much grief. It sucked, but it is done.

Now to start on my new version of Marshmallow Bochet, which is difficult as bottling has sucked the life from me, but I need to make the teas tonight so I can actually work on it tomorrow.
 
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