Mead For Newbe

[Asuly]

Hi everyone

Yes a new mead brewer

All i want to know is the basics, I want to make a medium to very sweet mead almost Sack mead
I was told by a home brew shop to use their wine yeast 5g for 20lt
and honey about 1.3-1.5kg to every 4lters :blink: which is app 7.5 -8kg


Any input will be appreciated I just want to start and have a first time go of it
all that i dont want to happen is for it to go real dry on me :angry:

Oh and also 2sp of nutrient

 

[Asuly]

ME again

For my next batch I'm going to use

YEAST STRAIN: 4184 | Sweet Mead
One of two strains for mead making. Leaves 2-3% residual sugar in most meads. Rich, fruity profile complements fruit mead fermentation. Use additional nutrients for mead making.





From an Australian brew supplier




I think with this yeast I cant go to wrong




Anyhow what i might do is an express brew before my 20lt just a 2lt of spring water 1kg honey and .5g of original yest if it goes pear shape well :lol:

 

[Airgead]

Asuly

I'd start with a couple of small (4l is the usual size) batches to get the recipe dialled in before risking 7-8kg of honey. 1.5 kg of honey in 4l would be about right. Should ferment out in 3-4 weeks at most if you oxygenate well at the start and add enough nutrients. Within a couple of weeks after that you should have something that will tell you whether your recipe is in the ballpark sweetness wise. It will probably take at least 6-12 months to get properly drinkable though.

Never used the sweet mead yeast so can't comment on that. Sack is really easy to do with a wine yeast. All you need to do is find out the yeast's maximum alcohol tolerance and add enough honey to go over that. With something really sweet like a sack it doesn't matter if you overshoot (making something semi sweet though is a real challenge).

Cheers
Dave

Edit - you will also probably want an acid test kit. Balance the acid after fermentation. Especially with a sweet mead you need the acid to give it balance otherwise its just lolly water.

 

[Sammus]

I did an awesome sack recently, read the JAO thread. Not everyone agrees with it, being a ridiculously simple recipe using bakers yeast. But I did it recently, and everyone I know who has tasted it, myself included, agree it is the best mead they've ever tasted. thats 1.6kg diluted to 3.8L at any rate. It'd be a little sweet if that's all it was, but its offset by the fruit and spices I think. top drop I reckon, defo a good place to start at any rate. :icon_cheers:

 

[EK]

From "The Compleat Meadmaker" by Ken Schramm: his recipes for a medium show mead contain 5.7-6.4 kg of honey for about 15L of water. OG 1.094-1.112.

I recommend "The Compleat Meadmaker" by Ken Schramm. It's a great book. You could also buy it from Book Depository (free worldwide shipping).

I did a medium mead...but couldn't get my hands on a mead yeast at the time...I used a wine yeast...it's ok, but it was my first mead so award-winning results cannot be expected (even if they are wanted). I do plan to make more mead soon...but I will be getting a proper mead yeast, most probably a Wyeast liquid one.

:icon_cheers:
EK

 

[Wolfy]

Any input will be appreciated I just want to start and have a first time go of it
all that i dont want to happen is for it to go real dry on me :angry:

Oh and also 2sp of nutrient

Other then the book linked above, you can also listen to Ken on the Brewing Network's mead show: http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/The-Jam...l-Show-12-01-08 for lots of useful information (and a recipe or two).

For a sweet mead you'll want a yeast that does not have a high alcohol tolerance - many American mead makers use dried yeast, but since that's hard to find here the Sweet Mead liquid yeast you've already researched is probably one of the better choices that is easily available.

 

[barls]

i actually use the sweet mead yeast that you mentioned, there is no difference between it and the white labs one.
it comes out really well and ages out quite nicely.

 

[gareth]

Make the JAO mead, you wont be disappointed.

 

[Wolfy]

YEAST STRAIN: 4184 | Sweet Mead
One of two strains for mead making. Leaves 2-3% residual sugar in most meads. Rich, fruity profile complements fruit mead fermentation. Use additional nutrients for mead making.

Don't be mislead by the name and assume that the yeast alone will create the sweet mead you're looking for.
While it is a 'Low Alcohol Tolerance Mead Yeast' and it will leave more residual sugars, creating a sweet mead, that's only true if you supply an abundance of fermentable honey to start with. The yeast alone will not create a sweet mead it will however start to die off at approx 11% alcohol tolerance - compared to about 18% for the Dry Mead yeast and many other sparkling-type yeasts often recommended for mead making.

Make the JAO mead, you wont be disappointed.

Actually, given that Asuly has indicated a preference for sweet mead, JAO is not something I'd recommend.
SWMBO likes some of the commercial (sweet) meads, and while admittedly our JAO ours was allowed to ferment at high temp, the end product was not something she liked at all.
IMHO if someone has already made at least one batch of mead and has investigated better (liquid and dry) yeast options then they are already beyond what the JAO recipe offers to beginners.

 

[Airgead]

Actually, given that Asuly has indicated a preference for sweet mead, JAO is not something I'd recommend.
SWMBO likes some of the commercial (sweet) meads, and while admittedly our JAO ours was allowed to ferment at high temp, the end product was not something she liked at all.
IMHO if someone has already made at least one batch of mead and has investigated better (liquid and dry) yeast options then they are already beyond what the JAO recipe offers to beginners.

JAO *should* come out as a sack mead which is really sweet. The problem I have with JAO is the use of the bread yeast which is notoriously variable. You really have no idea what the tolerance of any bread yeast is until you use it, or whether it will give off flavours, or what temp it prefers. They are optimised for making bread not wine.

The recipe is balanced for one particular brand of bread yeast available in the US and not here. Anything you use here is just pot luck.

Making the JAO recipe with a known low alcohol yeast (like the sweet mead) would be a much better bet.

Cheers
Dave

Edit - Your other option is a good clean fermenting beer yeast. Something with low ester production like a wlp001 would be a good bet. S05 seems to be popular as well. You could use any beer yeast but you would need to know what esters they produced and whether you wanted them in the finished product. Max tolerance for most beer yeasts is around the 12% mark which is what you want for a sweet mead.