What I did for/with Mead today

[MightyMosin]

Saying goodbye to alcohol for 40+ days

I thought about doing this, but there is a Mead event that I skipped last year when I gave up alcohol. This year is giving up meat.

 

[MightyMosin]

My mead activities today is drinking a Blueberry Cyser as well as a minor tasting of my Viognier pyment from June 2024.
That pyment had a Lactic Acid Bacteria fault that came across as corn chip. It seems that two of the three kegs have aged out that fault. Hurray.

 

[Maylar]

Rigged up a rope hoist to get the Speidel off the floor and into my brew room for secondary -

It'll sit here for a while, getting yummy -

Now to order some honey and pick up some FAJC to start a Cyser. Think I'll go with White Labs WLP715 for that.

 

[seatazzz]

Yesterday visited my favorite apiary and picked up 6lbs of wildflower honey, which as soon as I got home was transformed into 2.5g of what will be a blackberry melomel. They were out of their blackberry honey, tasted the wildflower and immediately said yes. Added the first dose of fermax this morning, will add more tomorrow then lay it by for a week or so until racking over, and the blackberries go in.

 

[MightyMosin]

It's behind schedule, but my 2025 Christmas mead is now yeast pitched.

This years has been dropped about 1.2%abv, partly because I'm behind where I want to be.

The good part is I have plenty of the 2024 batch which should be going great at the end of the year.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Packaged an entry for NHC. I don’t expect it to go through, but since I paid the entry fee I’m submitting something.

 

[MightyMosin]

It feels like its becoming a tradition for me that I am drinking a Blueberry Cyser while doing or after mead stuff and today that continues.
Today I started a 5.5 gallon batch of what I hope becomes a peanut butter and jelly mead.

About half the must is pure concord juice by Welch's and the rest if a orange blossom must that ends up about 11.5% ABV potential. I'll let this ferment out and then I'll start some small trials to determine how much powdered PB to use and where I want to sweeten to, though I image that will end up fairly high as the pH is fairly low at 3.3. Lalvin B71 should eat some of that malic acid and raise the pH up some.
Edit: No fermentation activity this morning. I hydrated 10g of 71-B with Go-Ferm Sterol Flash. This was on a heated plate stirrer and after 15 minutes, I killed the heat and added about 25mg must to it. I did that every 15 minutes for about 45 minutes until the started yeast was within about 8 degrees of the must temperature and then I pitched it. It is now near the end of the day and fermentation is going along really well. It's a bit ahead of schedule but I also gave it the 24 hour nutrition.

Today I also tested a variety of meads for free SO2 to find them all sorely lacking. Thankfully good sanitizing has kept most of these free of issues. Probably make another post about this separately at some point.

 

[MightyMosin]

I racked about 5 gallons of mead today and it should hopefully be the last rack of that particular one. I added some more K-Meta to a variety of meads that have been sitting and I'll probably run a bunch of SO2 tests tomorrow if the work schedule allows for it.

 

[MightyMosin]

Today I bottled ~1.5 gallons of the Solera project generation 1. This had been in barrel about a year and is quite delicious. I'll try to not touch these too much as I hope that at the end of three years that I will have enough samples from each stage of the project.

I was going to bottle up my v3 of Marshmallow mead but it was too cloudy. I wasn't thinking and it was racked from the barrel straight to a keg. Great for lack of O2, but I didn't verify that it was as clear as it should be. This will be racked to a carboy where I can see that it is cleared.

And I'm enjoying a blueberry cyser while I type this.

 

[Maylar]

And I'm enjoying a blueberry cyser while I type this.

Wouldn't that be a melomel?

 

[MightyMosin]

Wouldn't that be a melomel?

There is certainly overlaps in these categories... what would it be if I had caramelized the honey as well?

 

[Maylar]

There is certainly overlaps in these categories... what would it be if I had caramelized the honey as well?

I don't think that matters. A Cyser is with apples, a pyment is with grapes, other fruits are melomels.

 

[MightyMosin]

Today I measured SO2 and pH on a Pinot Noir must. It's looking good for a pyment must, though I need some suggestions on this much of a raw must.

 

[Lampy]

I've been making tepache and have used honey for sweetening/priming (I add it and let the bottles carbonate overnight, then put them in the fridge). It is essentially non-alcoholic (NA), but can have trace amounts and I did use a little honey. So, it got me thinking: when is a drink mead? How much honey is required? Can there be NA mead? BJCP lists the low end for hydromel as 3.5%ABV, but also says that deviation is not disqualifying.

 

[MightyMosin]

Racked my Marshmallow v3 mead off of last(?) sediment and into a keg. Might even get to bottling this weekend.
Racked a concord grape mead (first part of my PBJ attempt).
Moved a carboy to the table to rack soon.

Cleaned a keg and two carboys and a brew bucket.

 

[MightyMosin]

Tested my new pump and equipment for CIP. Pump is plenty powerful and CIP works well. The fermenter is all sanitized.

The 1" hose I have is too flexible and collapses under pump pressure on the inlet... that's no good. I ordered some new reinforced hose.
The clamps don't close down quite tight enough to deal with the pump pressure and leaks some. Those clamps are being returned and slightly smaller ones are on the way. I ended up ordering some more shut off valves as well as a 90 that I believe will make the dump port more useful. I also ordered a 1.5" TC blukhead connector to add to a bucket as that will make priming the pump easier.

Meads have been brought in from garage as the weather is warming... which isn't so good for the new Pinot Noir pyment that will be starting up on Sunday... but hopefully the new connectors and hose will work for an improvised temp control in the new fermenter until I et a chiller or some other alternative.

I also just worked out my new Pinot Noir pyment recipe tonight... and hopefully I allowed enough headspace for the grapes that will be brought up to the top while fermenting. 6.5 gallon batch in a 7.76 gallon fermenter... 1.126 gallon head space.

 

[MightyMosin]

Made my newest batch of Pinot Noir pyment from a full grape must. All new experience for me.

Lots of cleaning today.

Nice weather today so a blended Strawberry Margarita with the wife once I was mostly done with the mead stuff.

 

[SixShooter]

Bottled a gallon of apricot melomel. I'm surprised how dark it got, but it is quite pretty.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Bottled a gallon of apricot melomel. I'm surprised how dark it got, but it is quite pretty.View attachment 871709

Fresh apricots oxidize, trust me, it’s not pretty in a wheat beer.
I minced a fresh banana to make a tincture with dark rum. The goal is banana Fosters mead made with bochet.

 

[SixShooter]

Made a 3 gallon batch of a raspberry, orange, mango habanero pepper melomel. It was a quick turnaround as a 1 gallon batch last year. Hopefully, it will be ready for a brew club event in August.

 

[Maylar]

Started a 4 gallon batch of cyser. Apple Blossom honey and grocery store frozen concentrate.

1.045 OG for 2 gallons of apple juice. Honey and water to 4 gallons, with total OG at 1.090. I chose White Labs WLP715. It's still in the 60's in my basement and this yeast wants 70-75, so I only need a heater, no cooling.

Trying Fermaid-K this time, I'll add it at the 1/3 sugar break per instructions.

I love my new Tilt -

 

[Dan O]

Started a 4 gallon batch of cyser. Apple Blossom honey and grocery store frozen concentrate.

View attachment 872331

1.045 OG for 2 gallons of apple juice. Honey and water to 4 gallons, with total OG at 1.090. I chose White Labs WLP715. It's still in the 60's in my basement and this yeast wants 70-75, so I only need a heater, no cooling.

View attachment 872332

Trying Fermaid-K this time, I'll add it at the 1/3 sugar break per instructions.

I love my new Tilt -

View attachment 872333

Where did you find the apple blossom honey, please?

 

[Maylar]

Where did you find the apple blossom honey, please?

Honey

 

[MightyMosin]

Racked ~6 gallons of Viognier pyment. It was clear, but I mostly needed the wide mouth carboy.

Cleaned and sanitized said carboy. Placed ~5 Lb of cut and frozen strawberry's into sanitized bag and then into carboy. Racked 5 gallons of a finished session mead into carboy to eventually have a carbonated strawberry session.

 

[Dan O]

Honey

Thank you

 

[Maylar]

Where did you find the apple blossom honey, please?

I ordered two 5 lb jars and when I got to checkout the shipping cost came up as $69. Ouch. I added a WTF note and placed the order. They got back to me and refunded $20. When I got the package, I could see why it cost so much. Glass jars, not plastic, packaged really well...

And the honey is delicious.

 

[Dan O]

I ordered two 5 lb jars and when I got to checkout the shipping cost came up as $69. Ouch. I added a WTF note and placed the order. They got back to me and refunded $20. When I got the package, I could see why it cost so much. Glass jars, not plastic, packaged really well...

View attachment 872480


And the honey is delicious.

Awesome!

 

[Maylar]

Added some Fermaid-K to my cyser. The yeasties must like it, the bucket is bloopin' up a storm!

 

[MightyMosin]

Removed strawberries from mead and racked to new vessel. Tested Free SO2 level and its close to optimal.
Strawberry mead to refrigerator to cold crash.

 

[MightyMosin]

Bottled a gallon of apricot melomel. I'm surprised how dark it got, but it is quite pretty.View attachment 871709

I LOVE the clarity and color on this.

That's exactly the kind of thing that I shoot for when it comes to presentation. Great job on that!