Adding Extra Honey Following Racking

[user 19400]

We did a first racking of our first ever mead, and the result was a tad watery with a slight sweet flavour and about 4% alcohol after a three week ferment (folowing a 5L, dry mead recipe). Plenty of sediment. We wanted a higher alcohol content so, following a sweet mead recipe, added more honey (the recipe didn't specify how).

In order to avoid diluting the brew even more, I added straight honey rather than dissolved honey - which sank straight to the bottom of a fairly full carboy. I'll try gently agitating each day to mix it up, but not sure how long things will take to homogenise. I don't have any fancy stirring gear that can get through the carboy neck and reach the bottom.

Any thoughts on how best to homogenise the brew? Would it work better if I just let it sit as is? Is there a better way to add the second lot of honey when making a sweet mead on a 5L scale? I have read a recipe where you just add all the honey at the outset, but another recipe recommended against this as it reckoned the yeast won't tolerate that level of sugar in one go.

Thoughts appreciated!

Matt

 

[Airgead]

We did a first racking of our first ever mead, and the result was a tad watery with a slight sweet flavour and about 4% alcohol after a three week ferment (folowing a 5L, dry mead recipe). Plenty of sediment. We wanted a higher alcohol content so, following a sweet mead recipe, added more honey (the recipe didn't specify how).

In order to avoid diluting the brew even more, I added straight honey rather than dissolved honey - which sank straight to the bottom of a fairly full carboy. I'll try gently agitating each day to mix it up, but not sure how long things will take to homogenise. I don't have any fancy stirring gear that can get through the carboy neck and reach the bottom.

Any thoughts on how best to homogenise the brew? Would it work better if I just let it sit as is? Is there a better way to add the second lot of honey when making a sweet mead on a 5L scale? I have read a recipe where you just add all the honey at the outset, but another recipe recommended against this as it reckoned the yeast won't tolerate that level of sugar in one go.

Thoughts appreciated!

Matt

Diluting in hot water is really the only way I have found to get honey thin enough to mix in easily. I suppose you could try heating it till its really runny. You don't need much water to thin it down sufficiently so I wouldn't worry too much about diluting the brew. You are adding a lot more honey than you are water.

Be careful when stirring or agitating as you don't want to introduce oxygen as that can spoil the mead before the yeast kick back into l8ife and start using it up again.

Once fermentation picks up again it should dissolve of its own accord... eventually... as diffusion and the yeast churning mix things up. Unless its a really, really thick honey and things are kept cool. Warming things up a bot will soften things and help with the mixing.

Cheers
Dave

 

[user 19400]

Diluting in hot water is really the only way I have found to get honey thin enough to mix in easily. I suppose you could try heating it till its really runny. You don't need much water to thin it down sufficiently so I wouldn't worry too much about diluting the brew. You are adding a lot more honey than you are water.

Be careful when stirring or agitating as you don't want to introduce oxygen as that can spoil the mead before the yeast kick back into l8ife and start using it up again.

Once fermentation picks up again it should dissolve of its own accord... eventually... as diffusion and the yeast churning mix things up. Unless its a really, really thick honey and things are kept cool. Warming things up a bot will soften things and help with the mixing.

Cheers
Dave

Thanks Dave, your thoughts are appreciated. Will try the warming approach every few days, along with a little agitation - there's very little headspace, so I don't think oxygenation will be a big problem.

 

[Tanga]

Some info for adding the honey next time. When I made my mead I added 250mL of hot water to about 760g of honey and that was enough to get the mixing done.

 

[user 19400]

Some info for adding the honey next time. When I made my mead I added 250mL of hot water to about 760g of honey and that was enough to get the mixing done.

Thanks Tanga, I'll bear that in mind. We added the straight honey last weekend, and a week later, the fermentation is just starting to pick up and lees are forming. I've been popping the carboy in warm water every couple of days, but I reckon there's still about a third of the honey unmixed. Guess if there's any honey left after then next racking, I can dissolve that in hot water, cool it and add it to the ferment? How resilient is champagne yeast to all this abuse anyways??

 

[Airgead]

Thanks Tanga, I'll bear that in mind. We added the straight honey last weekend, and a week later, the fermentation is just starting to pick up and lees are forming. I've been popping the carboy in warm water every couple of days, but I reckon there's still about a third of the honey unmixed. Guess if there's any honey left after then next racking, I can dissolve that in hot water, cool it and add it to the ferment? How resilient is champagne yeast to all this abuse anyways??

If you are going to abuse any yeast, champagne yeast is the one to pick. Its pretty resilient.

Cheers
Dave

 

[KudaPucat]

+1 Champagne is a pretty hardy yeast

regarding some honey left in the carboy at racking, I'd give it an almighty shake up a day or so prior to racking (leave the bung in)
atm, the honey is being eaten off the bottom by the yeast. It's not being dissolved much, as there's no real movement. The yeast will ahev eaten most of the dissolved honey, so a shake up should get it in there.
What's left after you rack, I'd dissolve and pasteurise, then make more mead ;-)

 

[user 19400]

+1 Champagne is a pretty hardy yeast

regarding some honey left in the carboy at racking, I'd give it an almighty shake up a day or so prior to racking (leave the bung in)
atm, the honey is being eaten off the bottom by the yeast. It's not being dissolved much, as there's no real movement. The yeast will ahev eaten most of the dissolved honey, so a shake up should get it in there.
What's left after you rack, I'd dissolve and pasteurise, then make more mead ;-)

Thanks folks, that's very useful - glad to hear champagne yeast is so resilient!

Um, is there a glossary of acronyms on this forum? What does "atm" mean?? My old chemistry lessons would say "atmosphere", but that don't make sense!!

 

[barls]

at the moment

 

[felten]

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...;showarticle=17

 

[user 19400]

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...;showarticle=17

Many thanks, felten and barls!