# Experimenting with honey



## kuppcakes (4/11/16)

Hi everybody
I have been toying with trying a large scale honey brew (20L) and was hoping to pick some guru brains,
was thinking of throwing 4-5kg of wildflower honey, a cinnamon quill and some cloves in for a basic brew, probably using a champagne yeast. Anyone got any other suggestions to run in it?
I've run through the Jao recipe before but only in my 5L demijohn and was hoping for a slightly faster run time so as not to tie up the barrel for too long ( don't want to run out of beer )


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## barls (4/11/16)

champagne yeast can be fairly harsh for a long time in meads id look at ether d47 or sn9 as the yeast. as they will be drinkable sooner.
if you want to have it ferment quicker try a staggered nutrient addition. still I'm going to say 3 months minimum for fermentation.


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## boonchu (5/11/16)

Sorry barls but isn't sn9 a champers yeast?
You could try what they call a BOMM which I believe stands for Bealzibubs One Month Mead. 
I uses belgian yeasts to cover some of the quick and warm esters thrown by the yeast


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## Mardoo (5/11/16)

Go the TOSNA protocol if you want mead which is drinkable very soon. I've done it a couple times now and I'm definitely going to continue working with it.


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## boonchu (5/11/16)

boonchu said:


> I uses belgian yeasts to cover some of the quick and warm esters thrown by the yeast


 should read "it uses"
I am not a fan of covering issues with strong yeast flavours


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## Mardoo (5/11/16)

I pushed the temp on a TOSNA cyser ferment (honey and cider fermented together) to get more Belgian esters. Not recommended! After about 6 months in cold conditioning I can tell that it will be drinkable and good - in another year or so - but I definitely cut out any possibility of shorter ageing time.

There's a thread on gotmead.com detailing the yeasts tried in developing the BOMM (Bray's One Month Mead) protocol, which is very similar to the TOSNA protocol. The reason they chose the Belgian yeasts was the people judging the results, who were very experienced mead judges, preferred the flavour of the meads fermented with them. Edit: I should add that they were not comparing the BOMM meads to wine-yeast fermented meads.

Here's the link:
http://www.gotmead.com/forum/showthread.php/25759-Results-for-The-Great-Ale-Yeast-Mead-Experiment?highlight=Belgian%20Ale%20Yeast%20Experiment


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## barls (5/11/16)

boonchu said:


> Sorry barls but isn't sn9 a champers yeast?
> You could try what they call a BOMM which I believe stands for Bealzibubs One Month Mead.
> I uses belgian yeasts to cover some of the quick and warm esters thrown by the yeast


could be i was talking about ec1118 or 1888 which ever it is.
I've got meads that I'm made in 2007 that are just becoming drinkable.


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## barls (5/11/16)

barls said:


> champagne yeast can be fairly harsh for a long time in meads id look at ether d47 or sn9 as the yeast. as they will be drinkable sooner.
> if you want to have it ferment quicker try a staggered nutrient addition. still I'm going to say 3 months minimum for fermentation.


just went and checked what i have in the fridge and i meant 71b instead of sn9.


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## Mardoo (5/11/16)

71b is a solid mead yeast.


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## Airgead (6/11/16)

I like me some 71b. It's been my go to yeast for cider and mead for a good few years now.

I'm also a big believer in being patient with mead. Don't try to hurry it. Just let it do its thing. It will reward you.


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## NickyJ (7/11/16)

I've been using beer yeast only for my last few batches of mead for the logic behind the BOMM. It certainly produces a drinkable product a hell of a lot quicker than a champagne yeast.


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