Hi all!
well, i have tried a couple of meads, well melomels, but they failed as I did not sterilise the fruit enough...
I have decided to go back to first principles: honey, water, yeast
will try a metheglin next.
And i was going to try different strains/manufacturers of yeast ( I ahve 2 x 15 L containers for this).
My considerations:
- my house is not well insulated so the temperatuure can vary widely. With the cooling temperatures now i guess the temp can drop to 10-12 degrees at night and get up to 30 degrees during the day but hotter if the days are very hot in Melbourne.
- I want a dry-ish mead. I have no real experience drinking mead (well, just a little) so do not really have an idea about this.
In terms of wine- i like dry whites, as well as semi-sweet wines. Sweet wines are ok, too, but not sure what that would be like in a mead.
The yeasts I have are:
- EC-1118
- Vintner's Harvest SN9
both are the same strain and have broad temperature range tolerance. But they ferment very dry, I believe. In a cider, the EC-1118 was too dry to drink...
Questions:
1. how dry is dry when talking about these yeasts? any comparison to a dry wine will be appreciated (easy way to gauge, i guess)
2. Should I compare two similar yeasts (SN9 and EC-1118) or just use one and try something like the D47 or the Vintner's Harvest equivalent CY17. My LHBS does not sell the D47. The temperature range for the D47/CY17 is not as broad as the others so am a little concerned about that.
thanks for any feedback.
well, i have tried a couple of meads, well melomels, but they failed as I did not sterilise the fruit enough...
I have decided to go back to first principles: honey, water, yeast
will try a metheglin next.
And i was going to try different strains/manufacturers of yeast ( I ahve 2 x 15 L containers for this).
My considerations:
- my house is not well insulated so the temperatuure can vary widely. With the cooling temperatures now i guess the temp can drop to 10-12 degrees at night and get up to 30 degrees during the day but hotter if the days are very hot in Melbourne.
- I want a dry-ish mead. I have no real experience drinking mead (well, just a little) so do not really have an idea about this.
In terms of wine- i like dry whites, as well as semi-sweet wines. Sweet wines are ok, too, but not sure what that would be like in a mead.
The yeasts I have are:
- EC-1118
- Vintner's Harvest SN9
both are the same strain and have broad temperature range tolerance. But they ferment very dry, I believe. In a cider, the EC-1118 was too dry to drink...
Questions:
1. how dry is dry when talking about these yeasts? any comparison to a dry wine will be appreciated (easy way to gauge, i guess)
2. Should I compare two similar yeasts (SN9 and EC-1118) or just use one and try something like the D47 or the Vintner's Harvest equivalent CY17. My LHBS does not sell the D47. The temperature range for the D47/CY17 is not as broad as the others so am a little concerned about that.
thanks for any feedback.