Equipment And Additives For First Mead - Advice Please

[moovet]

Hi all,

I am a beekeeper getting started with meadmaking. I have some very aromatic tasty urban honey I think would make great mead but have been seriously confused about advice I have received today for brewing my first batch.

I have bought Ken Schramms book and was going to follow his instructions to the letter for my first batch. I bought a 20L plastic fermenter and a similar size carboy and was planning to initially ferment in the plastic container and then rack it into the carboy. I wasn't going to add any fruit or anything for my first one.

After I bought my stuff I went into a different winemaking shop where the lady told me the recipe in the book was wrong for the following reasons:

1) Need to add some acid before the yeast is pitched if not using Orange blossom honey as in the recipe
2) Should ferment in the glass carboy not a plastic container and minimise racking
3) Stir/oxygenate every couple of days when fermenting
4) Said a 1:1 ratio of honey to water should be used.
5) If I am going to rack, I should do it when the SG is >1.030 not between 1.010 and 1.030 as advised in the book as the yeast is unlikely to continue fermentation in the second container.

I came away pretty confused about what I should or shouldn't be doing. Have I got the right equipment to get started? Will the plastic fermenter be
OK for the task? The yeast I am using is the Lalvin 71b recommended in the book. Will that be Ok with a different varietal of honey?

I was going to put this batch down tonight as I am going to NZ for a week and thought I wouldn't need to do much with the brew in the first week anyway. She has me worried that I should be stirring and sampling it every couple of days until it is racked. She offers a pH test and taste test so see if it needs more acid but I read somewhere in this forum (Brewer Pete) I think that said that mead naturally becomes more acidic anyway or has buffer issues.

Anyway, I would really like to put down this brew from the book tonight if I could but otherwise I will wait till I am back. Alternatively I could set up two brews using both of these and then rack down to smaller demijohns and have a bit of a play with mixing and matching.

Any help and advice appreciated.

Cheers,


Geoff

 

[MHB]

People have been making mead longer that we have known how to write about it, so relax.
There are lots of approaches you could take, but for a first mead keep it simple and be patient. Most of the things other than honey water and yeast are all about making mead that you can drink sooner, the most basic meads can take years to peak and will keep for decades.
Generally for mead making you want the least flavourfully honey as when it ferments the sweetness is taken out and the floral flavours come to the fore, my favourites are clover and yellow box.

Make your mix (honey and water), sterilise it by giving it a gentle simmer, cool it and get the yeast in. (an OG of 1070 1080 would be good for a first attempt at a sweetish mead)
When you come back from NZ rack it, if the yeast doesnt carry over you can always add some more yeast and maybe a bit of nutrient to the rack and possibly some more honey depending on how well the yeast has done.

When you get back email me if you like and Ill send you some acid/nutrient/vitamins/trace-elements that I have premixed. (No charge just to get you started).
MHB

 

[///]

As per MHB, relax, dont worry ... have a beer/mead/braggot.

The acidification addition is a very much a 'winemaker' position. I have not made mead for a few years (captains log: brew mead soon), but the couple I have have all been different in flavour and profile.

Unlike beer, musts from grapes, pears, honey etc do not have a lot of naturally occurring nutrient. You can either let fermentation take place without additional nutrient and spend several months waiting for it to finish, or make a small addition of nutrient to make the process quicker (a 'fastner' like DAP)

Very often musts will keep fermenting to an SG of 1.002 or below, so ascorbic acid can be used to put the yeast to sleep at a SG that suits your taste preferences (ie sample then add to stop). This is different from the acid you were advised to use, this acid is to used to offset the flavour profile as a compensate for the low amount of residual sugar left if the resulting mead (a 'fixer') if left unchecked.

The best mead I have ever made was 8kg of Woolies variety honey with a dose of DAP and White Labs California Steam yeast with 20l of water. The mead was clean, sweet and still when bottled, but over 12 months took on carbonation akin to champagne. Every time I popped a bottle it was a lucky dip.

Fastners and fixers can be employed, but I reckon at least use some DAP to get the ferment thru and wait for the 'whats going to happen next'. A word of advise though, fruit meads can be interesting but do not choose watermelon; mine tasted like paint stripper and made paint bubble!

Also, the whole plastic and 'no rack' thing is a croc, I am still amazed at people using glass for fermentations, it is absolute and utter madness! (I do not have the nickname OH&S Scotty for nothing, and I would not even go that dangerous!). Extended yeast exposure is also not a good thing in some books.

As one hell of a gent, follow MHB's advise and he will see you thru. Although, send him an email as it can take some time to get off the phone from him ... :icon_chickcheers: MHB is guaranteed enthusiasm for all things fermentable!

Keep us posted and happy fermentations.

Scotty

 

[pdilley]

Lalvin 71b will pull a 1070-1080 mead must bone dry MHB, or did you have another yeast in mind for him to use or just force stop the fermentation?

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[Airgead]

Hi all,

I am a beekeeper getting started with meadmaking. I have some very aromatic tasty urban honey I think would make great mead but have been seriously confused about advice I have received today for brewing my first batch.
<snip>
1) Need to add some acid before the yeast is pitched if not using Orange blossom honey as in the recipe
2) Should ferment in the glass carboy not a plastic container and minimise racking
3) Stir/oxygenate every couple of days when fermenting
4) Said a 1:1 ratio of honey to water should be used.
5) If I am going to rack, I should do it when the SG is >1.030 not between 1.010 and 1.030 as advised in the book as the yeast is unlikely to continue fermentation in the second container.

OK... There is a lot of pretty old and very bad information out there on mead making. Its about 20 years behind home brewing as far as accurate brewing information is concerned. I have been doing some tests on common mead making techniques . So from the best of my (limited) knowledge -

1 - I usually add acid after fermentation. Acid can inhibit yeast activity so I add it after fermentation is finished. I use an acid test kit on the finished mead and balance the acid to match the style I am after. I did a test with identical meads, one adding acid before fermentation and one after. The after fermentation one fermented faster and cleaner. They both tasted good though.

2 - I ferment my meads in plastic. I really, really hate active fermentations in glass. All it takes is a blocked airlock and you can end up with some pretty horrible glass shrapnel. Once fermentation is complete I will rack to glass and age. For me its a safety thing. Cheap glass and any hint of pressure is a Very Bad Thing.

3 - I don't. Brewer Pete does. Yeast needs oxygen during its growth phase but of you oxygenate too late (once it has finished growing and started churning our alcohol) you will ruin the mead. BP works off a 1/3 sugar break theory which you can read up on here. I just oxygenate well before I pitch the yeast. Horses for courses. BP's method may ferment out a bit quicker but if you get it wrong you can oxygenate the mead and spoil it.

4 - Depends on the honey and how strong you want to make it. 1:1 will be very strong. Last batch I used 1kg of honey to 3l water or thereabouts for a total volume of 4l and an OG of 1.070 (abpout 10% assuming it ferments out dry). Start with 1kg of honey and test with your hydrometer. Add more honey or more water to end up at the strength you want.

5 - I rack when fermentation is completely finished and maybe once again if its throwing a heavy sediment or I'm racking off fruit pulp. The more tiomes you rack the more likely you are to spoil the mead through oxygen exposure.

Hope this helps (though I'm sure BP has beaten me to the reply. He always does. i suspect he sits on the computer all day just waiting for questions in this forum...)

BTW - where are you based? Beekeepers are always popular on a mead making forum...

Cheers
Dave

 

[pdilley]

No Dave I am working all weekend and we've been up until 4am and then back the next day at 9am trying to get a new government system up and running, so I'm too tired. Best leave it to you to cover me while i'm away

EDIT: See I can not even compose a single sentence in my current state without typos, oh an Kudos on giving acid advice properly and specifically for saying test your pH first before blindly throwing in acid. I only caught this post as my sleeps all disrupted and doing something on phone waiting for body to drop off but what I've seen advice given to this poor beginner is disgusting, its not 20 years ago, is back in the dark ages.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[dr K]

1. Take MHB's advice
2. I have been fascinated by mead for over 30 years, ever since I tasted this insane drink made by a Mr Dutton in Manilla (NSW). Our 15 year old is known to some as the mead baby (long story).
3. I have made mead but was fortunate enough to meet about a decade or so ago an apiarist just recently moved to the area who was also a champion mead maker, as well as a passable brewer, so make no more ! Anyway my friend used to make his mead from the cappings (?). From memory he would take the drained cappings and heat them in a certain qty of water, I think the idea was to dissolve the sugars off but keep the cleaned cappings for bees wax, or candles or whatever, two birds really. He was of the opinion that the mead made from cappings was superior to that from just the honey itself, his meads were spectacular so he may have been correct.
4. HDPE is very oxygen permeable, this is what plastic fermentors are generally made from. Two or three weeks in one, hardly enough oxygen to make a difference, two or three months..yes, not good. For mead you really do need glass or SS, even a wooden barrel lets less oxygen through than HDPE.
5. If you wanting to get into mead as an apiarist contact me, my old hippie mate may be able to help you.

K

 

[brettprevans]

+1 to above is all I can add.

Where are u located.? Plenty of local brewers would be willing to help u out in person I'm sure. ESP in exchange for some of the that liquid gold u have

 

[Airgead]

4. HDPE is very oxygen permeable, this is what plastic fermentors are generally made from. Two or three weeks in one, hardly enough oxygen to make a difference, two or three months..yes, not good. For mead you really do need glass or SS, even a wooden barrel lets less oxygen through than HDPE.

It is but I still use it for primary fermentation. If you oxygenate well and use plenty of nutrients it will ferment out in 3-4 weeks which is fine from an oxygen through HDPE perspectinve. After all we pretty much all brew beers for that long in HDPE with no oxygen damage.

Once primary is finished I rack to glass for aging.

Like I said above, for me its a safety issue. I can just about bring myself to ferment a 4l test batch in glass but there is no way I am fermenting 20l in glass. Especially if I have fruit or anything like that in there. All it takes is a blocked airlock (which is super easy to get if fruit pulp gets pushed up into it.. or even just heaps of foam from a very vigorous fermentation) and you will be picking shards of glass out of the walls (or yourself).

Stainless would be ideal but until I win the lottery, I'll stick with HDPE for primary and glass for secondary.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Tyred]

After I bought my stuff I went into a different winemaking shop where the lady told me the recipe in the book was wrong for the following reasons:

1) Need to add some acid before the yeast is pitched if not using Orange blossom honey as in the recipe
2) Should ferment in the glass carboy not a plastic container and minimise racking
3) Stir/oxygenate every couple of days when fermenting
4) Said a 1:1 ratio of honey to water should be used.
5) If I am going to rack, I should do it when the SG is >1.030 not between 1.010 and 1.030 as advised in the book as the yeast is unlikely to continue fermentation in the second container.

I came away pretty confused about what I should or shouldn't be doing. Have I got the right equipment to get started? Will the plastic fermenter be
OK for the task? The yeast I am using is the Lalvin 71b recommended in the book. Will that be Ok with a different varietal of honey?


Cheers,


Geoff

Sort of answer questions as asked. A lot of this has already been covered. Just adding my viewpoint on things. Hopefully this won't confuse the issue further.

1. As already said, check acidity first before adding acid.

2. Personal choice here. As already said you could get blockages which can be worse in glass than plastic. A lot depends on the type of yeast used however. I haven't had any problems with any of the meads I've made with yeast getting close. Most of my meads I only rack 2 or 3 times. Firstly after the initial ferment appears to have completed. Second racking is after the mead has cleared quite well. Then I generally leave it alone for a few months.

3. I personally don't oxygenate after the yeast has been added. Occasionally I might give it a swirl but normally I leave it alone. I do however oxygenate well before pitching yeast.

4. Ratio of honey to water. I seem to use about 1.5kg of honey and top up to about 5 liters. That usually give an SG around 1.1. Most of my meads appear to ferment out to 1.0.

5. Racking. I believe the idea of racking at slightly higher S.G. is to allow a layer of CO2 to form and protect the mead. This could be from further fermentation or CO2 coming out of the mead. I doubt that there would be no further fermentation in secondary as some of the yeast roused by racking and are likely to restart fermentation.

Sounds like you have the correct equipment to get started.

Plastic should be fine for primary ferment. If aging however, I would use glass.

I don't know much about that strain of yeast as I haven't used it.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is use of yeast nutrient. As honey lacks in the nutrient department I would add nutrient (as per specifications) to the mix.

 

[moovet]

Thank you all for your advice. I am glad to see I pretty much have everything to get started and can ignore a lot of the secondary advice. I may still utilise the free pH meter service of these guys but after primary fermentation and will consult the forum/MHB again for what additions to make. I did buy yeast nutrient with the yeast. I would probably prefer a medium to medium dry mead for my first as I will need to convince the missus of the impending hobby and expense. Therfore I may add a little more honey but still use the same yeast.

I am based in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne - Blackburn South, and as I have just started beekeeping in this country my two hives wont produce a massive crop of honey this year. Should have more to spare next season after I split the hives. Speaking of which, I will be looking for more space to have hives in my area (only allowed two per property) so if there is any meadmaker in the Eastern Suburbs that doesn't mind a couple of hives in their backyard, I am sure we can arrange sweet liquid payment.

Will put down the must when i get back next week and get back in touch with the group.

Cheers,


Geoff

 

[moovet]

Just a bit of an update. I have bought one of the Ebay thermostats for a brew fridge and as we have a spare fridge I thought I might as well get set up properly before I put the first brew down. Will buy the equipment for the gadget but get a sparky to wire it up etc.

It is a fridge/freezer and I see some folk are using these as brewfridges successfully which is great cos I don't want to have to get another one just yet.

Tonight I'd thought I would measure it for size and I was rapt to find out that it will house my 30L fermenter and 6x 1 gallon Demijohns above it (with airlocks) perfectly.

To start off with, I was thinking of doing the beginning recipe from Schramms book and put it into 4 of the demijohns, 3 of which I may play round with a bit. The other 2 demi-johns I will do a JAO.

No doubt I will after some advice once the fridge is up and running.


Cheers

 

[Arginal]

I have just recently started mead making and my first attempt has gone quite well, but for my future batches I will be taking some of the tips from here away.

When got the itch to make mead I looked around the net for ages and finally found this site which helped me a great deal

http://www.meadmadecomplicated.org/mead_making/

I followed this guide for sanitation and it seems to have worked as described

http://www.meadmadecomplicated.org/mead_ma...sanitation.html

Cheers

 

[moovet]

I have just recently started mead making and my first attempt has gone quite well

What did you use as your reference for your first brew Arginal? A book or this forum?

Cheers