Summer Mead Experiment.

[Verbyla]

I started a JAO roughly 7 weeks ago and have been anxiously waiting, watching and reading about the entire process. I don't know what to expect but i'm still getting what people have referred to as the "mead bug" and want to experiment with different things before i do anything on a larger scale. Okay i want to first point out that i know that i'm getting very ahead of myself with this idea. I haven't tasted mead or even finished the JAO i started but i still enjoy the whole home brewing process of trying new things.

I just finished writing up my brewing schedule for the rest of the year and found that i have from the end of November until the end of February free. This left me wondering "what use could the fermenting fridge be put towards during those 12 weeks" ..... The answer..... a Mead Experiment!!!!!

Being a newbie i don't really know what fruits or other flavours would go nicely with a mead, i don't even know how much honey should be used or what yeast would go well, so i'm here looking for recipies. Even if they haven't been done before, and i'm going to choose a handful for the experiment. My creativity hasn't taken me very far but how does a kiwi fruit or passionfruit mead sound???

I'm thinking along the lines of trying 8 different meads. At the moment i've pencilled in Dave's Sweet Mead, Dave's Dry Mead and watchUburn's Strawberry Mead. I've got 5 more glass demijohns to fill. What would you like to see me try?????

 

[davewaldo]

Hi Verbyla,

A big mead experiment sounds like a GREAT idea! I can't wait to hear the results!

If you're new to mead I would strongly suggest spending some time reading over at gotmead.com You can learn a lot about mead recipes over there.

I would suggest spending some time researching different yeasts to use in your experiment. If your aiming for some sweet meads and some dry you may want to use different yeasts for each but it is the amount of honey used which decides sweet or dry.

Experiments like these are a great way to learn. Personally if I had 8 batches I would be looking at using a few different honeys (some varietal some wildflower), a few different yeasts and maybe a few fruits or spices. The combinations are endless!

One thing I would say though is, if your new to mead making you may want to get another batch or two under your belt before attempting 8 batches at once. It would be good to know you can produce a good healthy / clean mead before embarking on the experiment. It would be good to have a grasp of staggered nutrient additions and aeration too.

Good luck

Dave.

 

[davewaldo]

Oh I forgot to mention.... I have a passionfruit mead ageing at the moment and from the smells and samples I've had it seems to be a ripper! When working with fruit in mead you usually need HEAPS more fruit than you think you need. And its best to add the fruit after the bulk of primary fermentation has finished. This will preserve the character of the fruit better.

 

[pdilley]

Sounds like fun,

Be sure to include at least one Braggot in there. Airgead has a mild version and I have a strong version. You might want to try a few yeasts on a same recipe as an experiment, such as a wine yeast, US-05, or if further game (you will after taste a good made JAO) bread yeast. Vanilla is nice, but can overpower so you usually add in a sock so you can remove it after a week or two when small samples tell you through taste that its got just the right amount for your personal preference.

Whatever you do, I can run the numbers on it in the Mead Recipe Program and give you an idea of what you will be dealing with so you can pick yeasts, determine desired finish gravities and see what turns out.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[davewaldo]

So Brewer Pete... when will this program of yours be available? Need any beta testers on Mac?

 

[Verbyla]

Yeah i've had a read through the forums but really need to take the time to go through everything once more because 8 meads is a fair bit to do all at once and i want to be confident that i'm not just throw money at it for nothing. The JAO i've got underway at the moment seems to have gone perfectly, the fruit has just dropped and it is crystal clear. I can read a newspaper through it , so if it turns out well i reckon i'll give the 8 a shot. I've got enough 5L glass jars and enough fridge space so as long as i take the time to make educated decision on what i'll be doing it should be fine!

I think i understand which yeasts to use in terms of their tolerance and how to make things dry or sweet by changing the amount of honey added. Just wonder, are ale and wine yeast best in terms of the final outcome or does it come down to anything that has a description that suits what you're looking for??? I know that might sound like a dumb question.

How much passionfruit did you end up adding to the mead and how big was the batch???

I was considering trying different yeasts with the JAO but had a thought in the back of my head that maybe someone had done the testing and found the bread yeast the clear winner.

I might just take you up on that offer Pete

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[davewaldo]

I used about 1kg of passionfriut pulp. They were home grown passionfruits which I harvested every few days, scraped out the pulp and froze it in bags. It must have been close to a litre of pulp in a total batch size of 4.5L. I guess maybe about 60-80 passionfruits in total. The mead is an off-dry to semi-sweet mead.

 

[kevo]

Did you strain the seeds out of the p'fruit pulp?

Or just slop it all in?

 

[davewaldo]

Nope, just put all the pulp in after most of the primary fermentation was finished. Then I left it for a week before racking off the fruit. I was shaking the carboy everyday to keep the pulp wet and in suspension, otherwise it just sat at the top quite separate. I found 1 week to be enough, if I did bother to remove the seeds somehow I could have left it a bit longer. I've read that prolonged exposure to seeds should be avoided.

 

[chappo1970]

Oh I forgot to mention.... I have a passionfruit mead ageing at the moment and from the smells and samples I've had it seems to be a ripper!

errrr? Have you forgotten your biggest mead fan? <_< Did I mention I luv passionfruit?

 

[davewaldo]

:lol: Dont worry Chappo I haven't forgotten you! The Passionfruit mead is ageing still. I don't plan to bottle it for a fair few months yet. But if I take any more samples I'll save a bit for ya

 

[watchUburn]

Don't forget to leave a container or two spare so that you can rack the mead on and off of the fruit.
Very interested to hear how your strawberry mead turns out. I made mine with a very dark honey and I'm told that it might take a fair while before it 'comes good'. So if you make yours with a lighter colour, yours will probably finish first

 

[pdilley]

Or if you really are looking to maximise your Mead brewing for the number of containers you have, just hold only one back as spare. Rack into that then immediately clean the fermenter you racked from and use that to rack the next Mead, and so on down the line of fermenters.

Dave, got the program but have not worked on building installers for every separate program yet so if you want to try it you have to install it by hand. I just upgraded to the latest Snow Leopard and unfortunately still waiting for the cross-platform library to be ported to it so if you are on Leopard or earlier you can run it on a Mac, otherwise you will need to wait until the open source community catches up with the latest Snow Leopard.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete