Mead

[capretta]

i went to bathurst for work and there was a small fruitshop/stall on the left hand side as you go towards bathurst around kelso area. the guy i was with thought i was a bit gay buying honey, but then he stopped at a carpet shop to look for rugs.. with indians on them! he wanted one for his wall!!!!

i was going to use about 8 litres of pearjuice and add the 3kgs honey and water up to 12ish litres more or less depending on OG and give it some cinnamon sticks and almond essence and irish breakfast teabags for tannin on top or a red star montrachet wine yeast.. anyone got a better source for tannin? or wouldnt bother?

 

[Chad]

.. anyone got a better source for tannin? or wouldnt bother?

Your LHBS should stock it. That's where I get mine from.

 

[tangent]

i'm planning a very much split batch.
6x2Lt flagons with airlocks fitted.
1/5kg of honey and wyeast nutrient with 1.5L of water per flagon.
3 with Wyeast sweet mead yeast
3 with Wyeast dry mead yeast
2 with satsuma plum pulp added into secondary
2 with sour cherries added
2 just honey

should be interesting...

Anyone have an idea what SG 1/2KG of honey into 1.5L of water works out to?
I read 300gms per L is a good guide.

 

[Chad]

Anyone have an idea what SG 1/2KG of honey into 1.5L of water works out to?

Will get you to around 1.100, that's roughly the ratio I work to.

 

[pint of lager]

Tangent, the problem with the 2 litre flagons, when you go to rack them, starting and stopping the syphon is tricky while trying to limit oxygenation.

Plus you end up with headspace that needs filling.

Even 5 litres is a hassle. Found that 15 litre batch sizes for mead and wine easier to handle. The head space is the same (top up witha good wine or fruit wine) plus the weight of a 15 litre glass fermenter full easier to shift around.

Capretta, that fruit shop at Kelso is pretty good. Plus the HBS on Keppel St Bathurst has plenty of the basics for wine making. I always use tannin if the recipe recommends it. Plus nutrients too.

 

[tangent]

been playing around with this in beer alchemy
i'm now planning to ferment 2 batches with the different yeasts in plastic fermenters, then add the fruit to the flagons which should top them up to full with the racking.
they should keep a bit more fruit aroma and colour (hopefully).

 

[tangent]

in my research, it's interesting how some people have been telling me "oh no! sweet meads are OK, but I love a good dry champagne style mead, they're amazing!"
and then the next person says "I love a syrupy vanilla mead with dessert! Those dry meads taste like nothing!"

 

[barls]

ive found that my cysers with 4.8L of apple/pear juice comes out at 1040 and with a kg of honey brings it to 1090. i then ferment with champagne yeast it ferment right out to 990 but retains some sweetness due to the pear juice

 

[capretta]

did a "brew" today,
1x apple cranberry 2l
1x apple blackberry 2l
1.5kg goldfields honey
2.7g citric acid
35g french oak chips

and
2x celyon orange tea bags
1x cinnamon stick 2.3g
steeped in 1 cup boiling water for 10 mins

on a red star white wine yeast

called it a summer fruit mead for christmas dessert. hopefully its pretty drinkable but at 1128 OG i will be bottling it in stubbies not king browns!!

 

[tangent]

http://www.hydrobrew.com/Mead.htm
Thought this was interesting. Especially about yeast choices.

 

[dpearce]

Nice link Tangent.

It seems people are pretty evenly split when it comes to boiling the Honey (from both books & the net). I'll stick with the smaller batches and experiment till I find something that works.

One thing I have noticed is the addition of a strong tea at bottling time. What dose this do? Dose it act as an antioxident like absorbic acid (vitamin C)? or is there another role it plays?

 

[capretta]

i have used tea to provide tannins to the mead so it has a little more body / flavour etc
its meant to act like grape skins in wine from what i understand..

 

[Cortez The Killer]

Hey Cam

Do you have the recipe of the mead you brought to IB5?

That was a nice drop

Cheers

 

[capretta]

oh cheers dude, it was a bit of a mongrel mead actually..

summer mead
1x apple and cranberry juice 2l
1x apple and blackberry 2l
1.5kg goldfields honey
35g french oak chips
2.7g citric acid
in pot add water to roughly 5 litres

1 cinnamon stick + 2 ceylon orange teabags + bay leaf steeped in 2 cups water for 10 mins

on a litre starter (fruit juice) of red star white wine yeast.
og1128
fg990
bottled 7/10/07 with a bout .5g/1g per 375ml sugar to hopefully suck up any O2 from bottling.