Hello,
I am going to try brewing mead for some Xmas presents...
Noble plan, but not the best for doing ones first Mead. It is better to do a simple Mead as your first and just get used to the process on all your new equipment.
It is moving into cold brewing months so you adding an additional stress factor on the yeast, which could lead to an error in the fermentation process if you do not already have the ability to control the fermentation environment from equipment and experience gathered from brewing, say beer or another fermented beverage.
Meads are notoriously slow fermenting and aging in their nature without the assistance of a controlled fermentation process with a Standard Nutrient Addition scheme applied. Don't promise this Christmas, maybe not even the next Christmas, keep it a happy surprise to show up with a few bottles if all goes well in the first few times. Get comfortable with yourself and your equipment in a few seasons to know how they will react and change fermentation times.
This is my plan but I may be incorrect...
- ok, so I add water + honey + yeast + nutrient(?) to a 5L demijohn
- after it has finished fermenting (check SG, i guess) do I syphon to a second demijohn and try to leave as much of the sediment behind?
- add some spices , fruit, etc. to this second demijohn
- wait for some (unspecified) time until it is clear
- then syphon to bottles
- let sit for 2-6+ months
- open and drink
On the water, just add in Boiled and then cooled water. Chlorine, just from the residual taste perspective of a Mead fermentation alone, has the ability to bind with the residual tars and saps and form medicinal tasting compounds. Some Eucalyptus based honeys have enough medicinal throwing capability without enhancing it further.
On the additional spices, fruit. This is the next level of Mead making to save after making your first one, more so with the fruit. You open up a whole can of worms of how does the fruit change acidity levels, what source did the fruit come from, what level of ripeness is the fruit currently at, how do you adjust how much quantity of fruit you add. You won't get much joy from supermarket fruit. You get better outcomes from fruit frozen at the peak of ripeness, or tree/vine/bush ripened on older varieties of fruits that used to be the norm but no longer make it on to Supermarket shelves. Blending fruit to achieve a perfect balance is the "art form" portion of Mead making where you can add and add to achieve a better result but suddenly cross the line and are unable to remove it and back up to before you started.
It is rather difficult to mess up a plain Mead in that only the choice in Honey and the technique you use to ferment it out: yeast selection, temperature control, nutrients or not, starting Gravity a.k.a. how much ABV are you trying to reach in the finished Mead -- all these can change the final taste of your Mead which is plenty enough for the very first Mead(s) to play with and worry about.
Syphoning to another vessel ("racking") and away from the residual yeast that settles is an important part of all forms of brewing so you will definitely be doing that.
Time to clear is dependent upon your fermentation control choices you decided to use if you are clearing naturally. If you force the clear then there are products to help you do that.
Aging time again is dependent upon all the factors you chose to implement in the fermentation process all mentioned above. General rule is higher starting gravity and higher resulting ABV level the longer the aging before drinkable. Old recipes versus the modern controlled fermentation with Standard Nutrient Additions and the longer the aging will be before drinkable. And in all cases no matter what you decide to do in making your Mead, aging even longer generally improves the Mead to a point even more.
2-6 months is a very/too short aging time if you are doing a standard recipe without SNA process. Even with SNA you will see improvements when aging 9 months as your lowest end of the spectrum. You want to hold bottles in reserve for years (4+) tagged with a code on the bottle cap or label that you can refer back to the original recipe and fermentation notes to see how well it holds up and improves with age.
Finally on the 5L demijohns you will need to be able to very accurately measure your SNA if you wish to do modern Mead making techniques with SNA additions. The smaller the fermenter the smaller the amounts you need to measure so if you have a spring loaded kitchen scale immediately toss it back into the kitchen cupboard as it will no longer serve you well. An electronic digital pocket scale should not cost you a fortune if you buy overseas from a retailer who is close to the factory in China. It will cost you a bomb if you buy local because many people got their hands on it and doubled the price at each handover in the supply-chain.
I use a 1000g digital scale with 0.1 gram resolution. It will serve you well for all your Mead making as well as a great hop scale for use in beer brewing. Get it from China for $13.88 including shipping to Australia. They have a newer model than I got but
this is basically what I ordered. Because it is so inexpensive ordering direct from China/HongKong I also got a 3kg digtal scale at the same time for the kitchen and use it for larger measurements of grains and so on for beer brewing, honey weighing for Mead making, and of course kitchen uses like making bread.
If doing SNA/modern Mead making techniques you also have to consider how you will oxygenate your Mead during the first parts of fermentation. I have a very large paint stirrer that goes on the end of a battery/power drill that I use in my large fermenters. You would need a small one that fits through the demijohn such as a Wine Lees Stirrer. Or make your own if you are handy with a drill, its very simple to make. Two paddles on a pin placed through a hole drilled in a stainless rod.
If not doing SNA then don't worry about any stirrers.
1. racking to a secondary
- well, not even sure what this means...
- Is that where I syphon into the second demijohn?
2. Do I even need to syphon to a second demijohn? can I just ass the spices, fruit, etc to the first demijohn after a week or two?
3. How long can you leave mead in the bottle?
4. do you recommend bottling with glass or plastic?
5. If bottling in glass, should I use a cork or a cap (like beer)?
- if with cork, do i need to lay the bottles on their side for long- or short-term storage
1. Racking already talked about above.
2. Yes you need to syphon. In most cases, leaving it on the yeast that falls to the bottom is not desired so you rack away to a new vessel. This also helps the Mead with the clearing process.
3. Thats a very open ended question, depends on the recipe, your technique and cleanliness during the process, bottle choice, sealing device for bottle choice. etc. 100 years aging is not unheard of in some recipes but aging vessel choice will impact here.
4. One of the myriad of choices when done with a recipe is what to bottle in. If you are trying to make a still Mead I always prefer glass. If you are trying to make a sparkling Champagne style of Mead then you ask yourself if you are doing it for the first time or have done it before. Initially safer to start with plastic when doing your first fizzy ones and use of quality glass bottles highly recommended if you do glass, doing Champagne bottles if reusing is good as they are designed for high pressures of the style you are aiming for.
5. If you are brewing beer and have a capper and beer bottles, by all means go for it. Nothing wrong with Mead in beer bottles. You can age quite a number of years in them and if you are good at measuring out priming sugar amounts and have good quality glass bottles you can do sparkling Mead without a worry. If you are a wine brewer and have a corking machine, by all means go for it. Nothing wrong with Mead in wine bottles. You can age quite a number of years depending or cork choice and if you have your Champagne making techniques down you can easily apply them to Champagne style Mead.
6. Honey
- can I just use honey from the supermarket?
- or does supermarket honey have preservatives, etc.?
- or is the taste just not that good even with spices added and I should use market-bought honey (can get a bit expensive...)?
7. how do I "sanitise" the honey?
- do I boil it?
- do i dissolve it in hot water and add some sort of sanitising agent to the mix? then add it to the demijohn, sanitising agent and all?
- do i need to worry?
8. Nutrient
- i have Yeast nutrient but some recipes recommend DAP, too. Is that necessary?
9. or do i just go with the JAO?
10. To bentonite or not to bentonite?
- and if i use it, do i add it to the secondary (if I have a secondary) or if I make in one demijohn, do i add it to that near the end before bottling?
11. i am sure there are/will be more...
6. Yes. But its not the best choice. For utmost aroma and flavour you need unpasteurised honey. That rules out both Supermarket honey and boiling your honey. Buying Supermarket honey is buying Super-Mark-Up honey. A large batch of Mead you will find yourself with over $200 of honey in the fermenter when you would only be having $75 of honey in fermenter if you bought it wholesale from a packer or better yet straight from the Farm. I get my honey from the Farm direct from a very large beekeeping family with a lot of large flatbed trucks that drive hives all across the state chasing different types of flowering trees at different times of the year. I get my honey fresh and in a large plastic bucket. I know exactly what varietal of honey I have and know that no dodgy blending has been done in the background before bottling as you can not always be so sure of with some of the Supermarket honeys I have tried.
If worried about costs and freshness you can always simply join the ranks of Australia's backyard beekeepers. There are over 600 in the ACT alone. It will net you up to 120kg of honey a year so its a natural progression for a Mead maker to consider but not a complete replacement of farm honey as you will be collecting what is essentially local wild-flower variety of honey unless you start a small-business and drive your hives to farmers with a specific crop making a little side money and getting a specific variety of honey in the end to make Mead or sell as you see fit.
7. Honey is antibacterial and antiviral. It lasts almost forever, it breaks down slowly but during the process it produces natural hydrogen-peroxide! Its the most amazing stuff on the planet. That said freshest is best when making Mead as you want honey at its peak for flavour and aroma. Save the old stuff for toast and cooking. So you will not sanitise your honey. You simply need enough warm water to help it start dissolving then pour that into the fermenter with cold water up to the level of water you need for your recipe. Boiling, skimming, an all that is very old school and will ruin your aroma and flavour contribution from that farm fresh honey you went to all that trouble to get.
8. If the recipe calls for nutrient add it. If you are doing it the modern controlled fermentation way with SNA then you add it. If you don't add it, you simple are making Mead the old time honoured way. Emphasis on
TIME 
Fermentation can take sometimes up to a year almost and aging a year or two after that.
9. JAO is designed for the utmost beginner. The actual target audience of JAO is a person who has made a cake or muffins in their kitchen and that is all their experience. They have never made a single fermented beverage in their life, no beer, no wine, no Mead they understand absolutely nothing about making anything fermented and all the intricacies and nuances of selection of ingredients or advanced techniques. It is also helpful for a brewer of other beverages to try without getting to the expense of a lot of equipment when they have never tasted a Mead and just want to see if they like it before going all the way into kitting out to make a whole lot of recipes and start experimenting with blending with spices, fruits, wines, and beers.
10. Clearing already discussed above.
11. I am sure there will be
Cheers,
Brewer Pete
