New mead maker

[Kalium]

Hi all.

I've just entered the world of mead making. I currently have two batches going (my previous and first batch got drunk after about 7 weeks...), one that is just using wild yeast from the honey, and another with some bought yeast (sn-9). I have also used drasticly different honeys in them, so that will be interesting. They have been going along for a couple of months now and taste unsurprisingly awful so far.

I am waiting for them both to finish primary fermentation before i move them from a plastic vessel to a glass one. Does that sound right?

Anyway, I am not strictly following any recipes, just making it up as i go along and hoping to get something interesting at the end of it

Cheers

P.S I keep bees, so i always have plenty of honey around to try different things.

 

[butisitart]

never done mead but looking to do it for this winter. don't suppose you're interested in selling any of your honey???
that is, if you can get up off the floor after knocking over a whole batch of mead :beer:

 

[TimT]

Welcome! There's a few of us - mead makers and beekeepers - on board here

Very interested in hearing more about the wild yeast one. How long did it take for the yeast to really start fermenting appreciably? Any noticeable sours/vinegar tastes/signs of lacto-bacilli adding something to the mix?

 

[TimT]

Gotmead.com is a good resource and has an excellent and helpful forum. If you hit me up on facebook (I'm in the Timothy Train in Melbourne) I'd be happy to direct your way to the mead forums there too.

 

[TimT]

I've got a strong sack mead brewing away at the moment - one and a half weeks and still going strong. I thought maybe of ageing that over a couple of raw almonds when primary ferment is done to get a kind of almond essence along with the beautiful mead smells when it's aged. But at the moment it's just honey and water and yeast.

 

[spog]

There are podcasts from The Brewing Network ,Basic Brewing Radio and I think BeerSmith about mead they may be worth down loading for a listen.
Moonlight Meadery was one of the guests .

 

[TimT]

Such a neglected style. Hopefully homebrewers can help it revive!

 

[Kalium]

Oh I am glad I am not the only meadist around then So far the wild yeast batch has none of the vinegar tones in it (unlike my commercial yeast, which is kind of like rocket fuel at the moment...). It took about a week for it to get going. Daily stirring is involved. My first batch was also wild and very green when i drank it. It was just like a really sweet cider.

One noticeably difference between the current wild and my commercial yeast batch, is that the wild batch doesnt really bubble through the airlock. Instead it just foams a lot when i stir it.

I will check out those resources online as well.

Butisitart,

I am on the north side of brisbane and my honey is unfiltered and unheated. Most of it is from the area, so its a bit different to bush honey. PM me when you are after some and I will sort you out (and anyone else in brissy).

 

[barls]

your most definitely not alone here.

 

[Mardoo]

And if you join gotmead.com as well you'll have yet again more. There are some great mead threads on AHB if you dig around a bit. Check out the one on bochet, burnt honey mead. Fantastic stuff.

 

[TimT]

Do you do anything to encourage the wild yeast? My understanding is you'd have to get past several lines of defence that stop the honey from fermenting naturally - ie, you've got to dilute the honey so the yeast can move about freely, and you may have to do something about the enzymes and natural bacteria that live on the honey that produce preservatives (eg peroxide) that deter microbial organisms like yeast - and dose the wild yeast with nutrient at several points in the process.

 

[Kalium]

Do you do anything to encourage the wild yeast? My understanding is you'd have to get past several lines of defence that stop the honey from fermenting naturally - ie, you've got to dilute the honey so the yeast can move about freely, and you may have to do something about the enzymes and natural bacteria that live on the honey that produce preservatives (eg peroxide) that deter microbial organisms like yeast - and dose the wild yeast with nutrient at several points in the process.

Mate, just water and honey I started adding a bit of nutrients and/or fruit once I read enough to realise that it needs some food.

 

[butisitart]

Oh I am glad I am not the only meadist around then So far the wild yeast batch has none of the vinegar tones in it (unlike my commercial yeast, which is kind of like rocket fuel at the moment...). It took about a week for it to get going. Daily stirring is involved. My first batch was also wild and very green when i drank it. It was just like a really sweet cider.

One noticeably difference between the current wild and my commercial yeast batch, is that the wild batch doesnt really bubble through the airlock. Instead it just foams a lot when i stir it.

I will check out those resources online as well.

Butisitart,

I am on the north side of brisbane and my honey is unfiltered and unheated. Most of it is from the area, so its a bit different to bush honey. PM me when you are after some and I will sort you out (and anyone else in brissy).

woo hoo!!! i'll do some research this weekend - might need to get another fermenter. one of the reasons i haven't done before is cos it's not easy to get honey as i remember it as a kid. i might have to smear some around a mixing bowl just for old time's sake.

 

[jewwie]

Hey Kalium, good to hear there are at least a couple of us here in Brissy. Good luck with your mead. I'd be very interested too to hear how it turns out. I've got a few meads going at the mo, the oldest one is about a year old. They do definitely get better with age.
Cheers.

 

[rass]

I bottled my first mead at the beginning of the year. I followed the JAOM recipe, but managed to mess up when siphoning, so I only got about 3 litres out of it

Currently ignoring it; I really want to give it a try, but it's still immature. I want to do a much larger batch soon.

 

[KangarooJumpsd]

Hi new mead maker, beer brewer and member to the site .

I began my brewing about 6 weeks ago.
Everything I read said it'll take 2-4 weeks for primary stage of fermentation. I started with some honey from my neighbor (his is a mixed blossom) 5 days my SG dropped from 1.086 to 1.00 so after some advice from Facebook groups I transferred to a glass fermenter (carboy?)
It's had one more racking since than (about 3 days ago)

But I'm an impatient fool so I decided to make more batches just to stop myself tampering with the original (even though it taste pretty nice, I'm trying to do as directed and leave it be)

So my next batch (2 X 5 litre batches) are made with blue gum, all the sites I read said stay clear of eucalyptus honey. But well I figured this is Australia good luck with that! Lol but seriously that batch has now been racked and it has a different taste to it, not bad but bit rocket fuel to it, so I'm guessing that'll need aging to tone down (just going off what I've read)

My third batch also became two 5 litre batches these are a strawberry melomel they taste pretty good one is a dry and the other is a medium (not desert but not dry) they smell awesome taste yum and are 2 weeks old.
I primary 3kg of strawberries crushed and 3kilo of honey (10 litres in total of liquid) than I split it after a week and I added another 1.5kg of strawberries to each 5litres. fermenter 1 got the strawberries pulped but my blender died so fermenter 2 got their strawberries crushed. Fermenter one also got 1/2kg extra honey.

My next back will be a blueberry melomel I'm using 3kg of honey (stage feeding it) and 3kg of blue berries (also stage feed) bringing it to 5 litres
I'll add a clove and a cinnamon stick (it was tose up between that or vinilla)

Pretty much I'll have about 30 litres of mead fermenting away in my cupboard by the end of the week

My beer well it's not going as good for some reason the fermentation has stopped I've moved it to a warmer location hoping that'll help but not sure

I want to use wild yeast down the track for the meads, I also want to make wines for fun

Pretty much this is quite a fun hobby watching the outcomes and differences that can occur from different processes or ingredients.

 

[TimT]

Welcome aboard! Yeah I've been asking around about the advice that you should never use eucalyptus honey and it sounds like it's a myth. It may have had something to do with the sort of honey they sold in the US for a while, honey that had been adulterated with eucalyptus oil to give it a super-eucalyptus flavour. Unsurprisingly the oil remained after fermentation had subsided and the results tasted, well, a bit crap.

Good luck with your meads! I'm sure they'll taste fine - so long as you're patient enough to give them a few months or a year or so to age.

 

[Airgead]

Yep. What Tim said.

I use nothing but eucalypt honey for meads and have done so for 20 years. They make great meads.

Eucalyptus honey in the states is a very diferent beast to what we get here.

Cheers
Dave