What tips or equipment have improved your mead the most?

[donttread]

What tips or equipment have improved your mead the most? What changes in process, ingredients and equipment have made the biggest improvement in your mead?

For me so far, Staggard Nutrient Additions of Fermaid O have improved my mead the most. I really want to improve me mead. What should I try?

1. What additives have made a big improvement?
2. What equipment have your purchased that has improved your mead?
3. What process have you implemented that you have seen an improvement?

 

[Dan O]

What tips or equipment have improved your mead the most? What changes in process, ingredients and equipment have made the biggest improvement in your mead?

For me so far, Staggard Nutrient Additions of Fermaid O have improved my mead the most. I really want to improve me mead. What should I try?

1. What additives have made a big improvement?
2. What equipment have your purchased that has improved your mead?
3. What process have you implemented that you have seen an improvement?

SNA have absolutely changed the game for me. Now I make mead instead of jet fuel.
Additives....Opti-red really helps hang onto the red colors & added a complexity that can't really describe other than I like it. Can't wait to see how much it helps the blood orange spiced melomel I'll be making on Monday. Same goes for the Opti-white. I used that in my white flesh peach melomel & it came away with the same kind of complexity.

Equipment....believe it or not, buckets! Buckets have allowed me to make huge fruit additions to my melomels, therefore, another major improvement.

Process.....always make a starter. Once I started making a starter for every batch, I noticed my meads always take off much quicker than without. Also, I ALWAYS use GoFerm. It helps a lot.

I hope this helps you.
Happy meading

 

[CKuhns]

What @Dan O said.

Plus
- Star San - Keep everything sanitized including your hands.
- Adjust flavors, add fruit or spices etc, acid in secondary. A lot easier to pull them when they hit the flavor your looking for.
- Wide mouth fermenters lets you use a mesh bag for the above. Makes for easy withdrawal and clean up.
- Temperature is important. Hit mid to low end of your yeast profile. Hold as steady as practical.
- Time is your friend. A good mead will be great at 12 months and awesomre at 2 years.

Enjoy the journey, share with friends and family.

 

[Dan O]

What @Dan O said.

Plus
- Star San - Keep everything sanitized including your hands.
- Adjust flavors, add fruit or spices etc, acid in secondary. A lot easier to pull them when they hit the flavor your looking for.
- Wide mouth fermenters lets you use a mesh bag for the above. Makes for easy withdrawal and clean up.
- Temperature is important. Hit mid to low end of your yeast profile. Hold as steady as practical.
- Time is your friend. A good mead will be great at 12 months and awesomre at 2 years.

Enjoy the journey, share with friends and family.

Second everything @CKuhns said.
Another thing is fermentation weights. They weigh down the bag of fruit & you don't have to open your fermentor to punch down the cap daily. (That’s a big one for me)
6 Pack - Large glass fermentation... Amazon.com: 6 Pack - Large glass fermentation weights for wide mouth Mason jars. Preservation and Pickling. Dishwasher safe. Gift box included. Premium Presents brand: Home & Kitchen

 

[Kyzaboy89]

A good brew bucket definitely, no spigot but check the underside of the seal on lids and make sure fruit flies can't enter, rough experience there. Buckets or wide mouth fermenters allow easy access for aeration/degassing and additions/removing large materials.

Star San in a spray bottle makes quick sanitization a breeze when checking gravities or stir utensils before/after work.

Don't rack out of primary to soon, even if 10-14 days pass or gravity stabilizes for days in a row, I habitually leave things in primary 4 weeks to a month, fruit and spices not included.

That's probably the most notable things I've found helpful.

 

[jkuhl]

Nutrients.

Ever since I started using them, I've had less boozy meads and fewer sulfur smells during fermentation.

 

[videojunkie1208]

Stainless steel fermenters. Total game changer. Being able to take sanitary samples throughout the brewing process is beyond invaluable. You get to accurately assess SG as it changes, and evaluate the flavor as it progresses through fermentation. You know ahead of time of things are going well, and you can make adjustments to future batches based on your notes from the current batch.

Depending on the volume you're making, I highly recommended the Spike Flex+ and the CF series.

Related to this is tri-clamp fittings. Yes, they are a few bucks to get set up with, but in the 5 years I've been using them, I've never had an infection. Combined with the ss fermenters there's simply no place bugs can hide.

SNA is as others have posted. My meads are drinkable from initial mix through the end aging.