Simplest Mead

[watchUburn]

Hi all mead gurus,
I'm planning for my next mead (besides the JAO v2) I'd like to do a simple straight honey, water, yeast mead.

I was thinking:
1.5 Kg honey
4L water
Some variety of yeast (US05?).

So what I'm wondering is: what would be the recommended yeast to give a sweet mead?

 

[pdilley]

First determine your OG so you know what you have to work with. I can calculate it already for you if you want just by looking at what you've posted so far

Then look at your yeasts to see what they normally chew through in Meads:

Then determine how much will be left afterwards.

If this is not enough adjust your ratios of honey to water to give a target finish value you would like.

I have data first hand on US-05 but that is when used with nutrient additions and the 1/3rd sugar break fermentation management method. YMMV if you do a simple mead so you may get different results.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[watchUburn]

According to the calculator I found here - Mead OG Calculator
I should be looking at something around 1.088 to 1.091
From what I've read, us-05 should attenuate to about 80%, leaving me with a FG of about 1.018.

I was planning on using the yeast nutrients, but I don't know how a mead of 1.018 is going to taste. Maybe I need to use more honey?

 

[Airgead]

According to the calculator I found here - Mead OG Calculator
I should be looking at something around 1.088 to 1.091
From what I've read, us-05 should attenuate to about 80%, leaving me with a FG of about 1.018.

I was planning on using the yeast nutrients, but I don't know how a mead of 1.018 is going to taste. Maybe I need to use more honey?

US-05 will attenuate 80% on a "standard wort". Mead is not a standard wort. There are very few dextrins. Its mostly just simple sugars and the yeast will happily chew on that way past the 80% mark. Its usually alcohol tolerance or nutrient depletion that stops them in a mead rather than running out of things they can eat.

Cheers
Dave

 

[watchUburn]

US05 seems to have an alcohol tolerate of about 12%
I've tried to find some instructions on how to balance the honey content to the tolerance of the yeast, but I haven't had much luck.
I think I'll stick with 1.5Kg honey and us05, let it ferment out, then sweeten as necessary.

 

[Airgead]

US05 seems to have an alcohol tolerate of about 12%
I've tried to find some instructions on how to balance the honey content to the tolerance of the yeast, but I haven't had much luck.
I think I'll stick with 1.5Kg honey and us05, let it ferment out, then sweeten as necessary.

The one thing you will have to watch with that is re-fermentation. If the finished wine is < the alcohol tolerance of the yeast when you sweeten it will start fermenting again. That's OK if you're still in a carboy but not so OK if you have already bottled.

To get a sweet mead, what you want to do is target your initial wine to slightly greater than the alcohol tolerance of the yeast. Say 13% in this case. When it finishes it should stop with some residual sugars. If it does this means the yeast can't take any more and it will not re-ferment so its safe to sweeten it up to whatever level you like. If it finishes dry (1.000 or lower) you need to add some more honey (enough for another 1% ABV) then let that ferment out. If it finishes sweet you are OK, if not add some more and repeat until the yeast can't take any more. You don't want to aim to add too much honey at each stage because if you do finish the yeast off with that addition you are likely to end up with a finished product that is too sweet. Add little bits.

Once you have done it once, write down the final amount and use a little bit less than that as your starting amount next time. You use a bit less as the continual small additions can push the yeast past its normal tolerance.

BP may already have some figures for US05 for a sweet finish. I don't as I tend to use wine yeasts and ferment dry. If I do sweeten its usually to do a liqueur and I'll fortify with brandy or similar to push it up to 20-25%ABV to stop re-fermentation.

Cheers
Dave

 

[watchUburn]

Might have to put this mead on hold. Went into the LHBS and asked for US05, got a blank look in return.

 

[Airgead]

Might have to put this mead on hold. Went into the LHBS and asked for US05, got a blank look in return.

Clicking on pretty much any of the sponsor links at the top of the page should have some in your hot little hands within a couple of days...

no affiliation etc etc.

Cheers
Dave

 

[watchUburn]

True. I like to at least try to support the LHBS. It gets a little expensive shipping one thing at a time up to Darwin

 

[pdilley]

You will end up with 5.0526 litres of liquid volume in the fermenter @ 1.0885 OG which is 21.267 Degrees Brix RDS and you should also make sure that at minimum you have a 7.21 litre fermentation vessel to ferment in for the primary.

For US-05 in a Mead, my experience with nutrient and 1/3rd Sugar Break method:
Original Gravity: 1.098
Final Gravity: 1.009
Initial Gravity (Brix): 23.31 B RDS
Final Gravity (Brix): 2.31 B RDS
Real Extract: 6.1 B
Apparent Attenuation: 90.1%
Real Attenuation: 73.8%
Alcohol By Volume (ABV): 11.9%
Alcohol By Weight (ABW): 9.3%
Joules per 350mL: 1,304

This does not take into account any additional changes over the bulk aging period.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[watchUburn]

make sure that at minimum you have a 7.21 litre fermentation vessel to ferment in for the primary.

Is this to allow the mead room to foam?

 

[pdilley]

Yes.