Wish I would have found this forum about 4 days ago....

[Krahzee1]

After some thinking about it I finally decided to make a batch of mead that began last saturday. 5 Gal carboy, spring water, 15lbs clover honey, D47 yeast, yeast nutrient. That's all I have so far with a 1.14 SG. I followed proper cleaning and sanitation protocols (I work in pharmaceuticals, so this was old hat). My intention is to, at the two week mark, rack into 1Gal containers and add fruit concentrates (cherry, grape, apple, pineapple) and leave the last one plain. After 2 more weeks, provided fermentation is completely done, I'll bottle. All of the information I've been going by is from some reading, youtube videos, etc. In just the last 30 minutes perusing this site I've picked up a lot that I never saw before.

Anybody spot anything critical that I'm missing? I've seen several people mention addition yeast nutrient additions, what else?

 

[MajorJC]

Acid has a lot of impact on the final product. If your must is low in acid, you will get off flavors, think cough syrup. You should have about 3 parts per thousand acid, somewhere around 1/2 to 3/4 oz of acid per gallon. You can use citric acid, it is easy to find on the canning aisle of the grocery store. But you will get a better mead with 2:1 ratio of
malic acid : tartaric acid, which you can get online or at your LHBS.

You can also add grape tannin to give your mead some astringency, 1/4 to 1/3 tsp per gallon, too much will ruin it. You can add this after your mead is done, so add a little and try it before you add the full dose.

You should also add some pectic enzyme if you are fermenting with fruit solids in your primary.

Good luck on your mead.

 

[Krahzee1]

Acid has a lot of impact on the final product. If your must is low in acid, you will get off flavors, think cough syrup. You should have about 3 parts per thousand acid, somewhere around 1/2 to 3/4 oz of acid per gallon. You can use citric acid, it is easy to find on the canning aisle of the grocery store. But you will get a better mead with 2:1 ratio of
malic acid : tartaric acid, which you can get online or at your LHBS.

You can also add grape tannin to give your mead some astringency, 1/4 to 1/3 tsp per gallon, too much will ruin it. You can add this after your mead is done, so add a little and try it before you add the full dose.

You should also add some pectic enzyme if you are fermenting with fruit solids in your primary.

Good luck on your mead.

I did buy an acid blend, but i read somewhere that it is best to wait until fermentation is nearly finished to add it?

 

[Maylar]

Yes. Acid to taste at the very end.

Your plan may be a bit aggressive, as mead doesn't follow a timetable. I've yet to make one that was ready to bottle in less than 2 months. Your hydrometer will be your friend.
And 1.14 seems high for 3 lbs/gal, unless you meant 1.104.

 

[Krahzee1]

Yes. Acid to taste at the very end.

Your plan may be a bit aggressive, as mead doesn't follow a timetable. I've yet to make one that was ready to bottle in less than 2 months. Your hydrometer will be your friend.
And 1.14 seems high for 3 lbs/gal, unless you meant 1.104.

You are correct, it should have said 1.104

 

[Krahzee1]

How critical is it for me to do additional yeast nutrient additions? This is the first place I've read about it, but it seems to be an widely accepted practice.

 

[MajorJC]

Honey has very poor nutritional value for yeasts. In the past I have dropped a few raisins into small batch ferments as a yeast nutrient.

 

[MajorJC]

Actually, the yeasts can produce off flavors during the ferment if your must does not have enough acid. The mead book that I bought and have gone by for many batches has the acid going in just before pitching the yeast.

It is the tannin that goes in late to taste.

 

[madscientist451]

Anybody spot anything critical that I'm missing? I've seen several people mention addition yeast nutrient additions, what else?

You are missing: re-hydrating the yeast with go-ferm, staggered nutrient additions, degassing and temperature control during fermentation.
That process is described here:

https://www.meadmakr.com/batch-buildr/

 

[SKBugs]

Do what the mad scientist suggests. The batch builder is pretty awesome. But it all will take time.

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Krahzee1 and welcome.
My comment is a little different from the others. My "concern" is about how you are planing to add flavor to these gallon batches. You say in your first post that your plan is to add concentrates. Ok... but you are not adding the concentrates to add complexity to the flavor profile you really want to use those "concentrates" to be the flavor. That may be ok but you might find that those concentrates create a sorta kinda artificial flavor and be one dimensional. If you can I would add real honest to goodness fruit to the secondary and allow the mead to sit on the fruit a few weeks. The alcohol will help extract flavor from the fruit much like the higher alcohol would extract flavors from commercially made extracts but the difference is that your fruit will be fresh and ripe and full of flavor... Others may disagree but yer pays yer money and yer takes yer chance.

 

[Maylar]

Actually, the yeasts can produce off flavors during the ferment if your must does not have enough acid. The mead book that I bought and have gone by for many batches has the acid going in just before pitching the yeast.

It is the tannin that goes in late to taste.

That's very old school. Nobody adds acid to primary any more. Too much acid (too low pH) can inhibit and even stall a ferment. It's one of the reasons that stirring/degassing has become popular, as the CO2 in suspension adds carbonic acid that lowers pH. Nowadays people are actually adding potassium carbonate as a buffer to reduce acidity. And tannin takes time to integrate and also helps with clarification, so using it up front is an advantage.