Honey Mead. Some may call it Ambrosia

[spryzie]

And you would not carb it, yes? Because the yeast are dead?

And it takes a year?

I might make 2 wine bottles of it as I've got some empties.

Add yeast, ferment, decant off yeast after 1 month, wait a year, yes?

I'll do it in the bottles - don't own a demijohn.

 

[Airgead]

Whoa there.. easy boy...

For a start you are going to want way more than two wine bottles of this. I mean you are waiting a year. That's a long time for 2 bottles.

Second thing is that you do need to get it off the yeast once its finished and dropped clear. That means decanting it somehow. At the very least you will need a third wine bottle to decant into. The big problem you will have is that decanting into another bottle will leave a lot of head space. Headspace and wine/mead are not good friends. You want the minimum headspace possible while aging. Ina bottle, your volume is very low so the surface area exposed will be high. In a demijohn the volume is higher so the exposed surface area is proportionally lower.

I ferment in 5l demijons. I rack (transfer) once when it drops clear them age in a second demijohn for another few weeks to get it really clear (maybe a third time if its a fruit mead and has lots of sediment) then I bottle and let it age in the bottle. You really want to minimise contact with oxygen once its finished.

I would invest in a small demijohn or two. They are < $20 at your local brew shop. That will make about 6 bottles which is a better number to wait for. And you will have less headspace issues.

You could also use 2-3l glass juice bottles. They work well and ere even cheaper than demijohns.

Cheers
Dave

 

[spryzie]

Ah, OK, head space bad. Got it!

My problem is every purchase I make is an excuse for the wife to add to her handbag collection.

Consumables don't count.

I can buy more wine I suppose....

 

[Airgead]

Just buy flagons of sherry and port. Use them as small fermenters once you have emptied them.

That way you can claim to the wife that you are reducing costs by re-using stuff.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Thefatdoghead]

Good work. It must have been a fairly big batch to need a 5lt starter. Nothing other than fermented honey aye, sounds interesting.

Sorry I just wrote the ingredients like that because I wasn't writing the whole recipe down. It was 6kg of honey and water to make about 19 litters.

 

[Thefatdoghead]

So, if it's 100% honey, what's the water for?

I don't write water as a percentage of my ingredients when I'm making recipes. Do you?

 

[Airgead]

Sorry I just wrote the ingredients like that because I wasn't writing the whole recipe down. It was 6kg of honey and water to make about 19 litters.

The gotmead calculator (http://www.gotmead.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=745&Itemid=16) puts that at around 1.094. That gives 12.5% potential.

The wyeast sweet mead yeast has a tolerance of 11% so it would have fermented down and left the residual sugars. There would be about 0.7kg of unfermented honey left in the brew which would leave it nicely sweet.

Cheers
Dave

 

[WarmBeer]

I don't write water as a percentage of my ingredients when I'm making recipes. Do you?

No. But you also didn't indicate OG, volumes, or ratios, of ingredients .

Any of these methods would allow an experienced brewer to figure it out. A noob might take your post as gospel and pour yeast into 100% honey.

 

[Thefatdoghead]

No. But you also didn't indicate OG, volumes, or ratios, of ingredients .

Any of these methods would allow an experienced brewer to figure it out. A noob might take your post as gospel and pour yeast into 100% honey.

I thought the person asking the question had made Mead before. Your gravity as a rough guide will come down 1 point after fermentation. Generally you'll use 6kg of honey in a 19L batch, thats depending on whether your aiming for a dry mead, show mead, sweet mead or desert mead.
For the new guys getting into it there is a good book on mead making called "The Complete Meadmaker" by Ken Schramm which is great and covers just about everything. Better off reading that than reading my half pissed ramblings on here I spose.

 

[brettprevans]

All u need is kens book and airgheads jao thread. principle is the just the same. And if your half a brewer make 19L batches. If ur ageing the prick the last thing u want is to wait 2 yrs it be liquid gold and youve made 6 bottles (ie 5L). Im still spewing my 21 L of jao is now 3 yrs old and ive obly got 5 bottles left. My other mead of 19L and yrs old is gone. My pyment of 19L has about 2L left and is only 6 months.

Dont go big batches if u cant brew. If u havent read a brew book read one ffs. Learn then brew.

Amen.

Hmmm maybe ill have the last bottle of 4yr old barleywine I have... nah ill save that for the next collaboration brew day. Ill leave the 2yr old plum braggot also. Nice choc wheat porter I think....

 

[Airgead]

All u need is kens book and airgheads jao thread.

I claim no credit for the JAO thread. That was Brewer Pete's doing. My particular contribution to that one was limited to shuddering at the thought of using bread yeast.

Ken's book is a good read though.

Cheers
Dave

 

[mash head]

Sorry I just wrote the ingredients like that because I wasn't writing the whole recipe down. It was 6kg of honey and water to make about 19 litters.

I knew there was water added, just havnt seen too many recipes that aren't complicated with fruit or other additives. If some fool added yeast to some undiluted honey they would deserve the resultant failure.

 

[brettprevans]

I claim no credit for the JAO thread. That was Brewer Pete's doing. My particular contribution to that one was limited to shuddering at the thought of using bread yeast.

Ken's book is a good read though.

Cheers
Dave

shit it was too. My apols. Still u give good advice.

 

[spryzie]

What are the thoughts on raisins?

Google tells me they might help the yeast with some nutrients?

 

[brettprevans]

What are the thoughts on raisins?

Google tells me they might help the yeast with some nutrients?

meh sounds like hocus pocus. raisins are in JAO mead. raisens are dried grapes. its sugar. sugar ferments. leave a differant taste to grapes. they are good. but its still fructose. and yeast gets lazy if it eats too much sucrose and fructose first. its needs maltose first as maltose is harder to convert. its why belgian beers add most of their sugar throughout the fermentation and not just at the boil. the yeast gets fat an lazy on easy convertible sugaz and then wont ferment the maltose.

there is no substitute for proper yeast nutrients except yeast. boil up shitty dried coopers yeast etc and they are a pure nutriant. so bread yeast. other its DAP or similar.

 

[Airgead]

They used rasins back in the day for nutrients. Rasins are also covered in oils to stop them sticking together plus wild yeasts, bacteria and all sorts of stuff.

These days we have proper yeast nutrients. You can get them for a few bucks at the brew shop.

Cheers
Dave

 

[spryzie]

I racked after 5 weeks. A whole lot of new sediment formed. Still cloudy. Going to take a while to clear I think.

Tastes like honey flavoured petrol.

 

[Airgead]

Patience grasshopper... you must learn patience.

 

[spryzie]

Still hasn't cleared.

Tastes less like rocket fuel than before though.

 

[AshleyDoran]

Guys, also dont be afraid to spice your mead! You will be amazed how a few cinnamon sticks and some cloves add to the flavor!

Also, when bottling, put a vanilla pod in a few of them and save for special occasions... they are the best IMHO.