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First time mead question

Barrel Char Wood Products

eurobug

NewBee
Registered Member
Nov 23, 2016
39
0
0
Dear all,

Thanks for the load of interesting information, and the nice community you have going on this website. I have decided to try and make my first mead after receiving some old demijohns from my parents. I tried to read as much as possible, but I still have some concerns.

The recipe I used is the following:
- 14 pounds of store-bought standard honey. This is a rather hard (i.e., not liquid), light yellow polyfloral honey from non-EU sources (I live in Belgium).
- 1 packet of mead-yeast from Mangrove Jack's craft series.
- 15 grams of nutrivit

I sanitized everything with an oxygen-based cleaner, and I dissolved the honey in warm water, without boiling. Poured everything into the demijohn, and added the nutrivit. I added cold filtered tap-water (which is pretty pure and clean here) with a lot of splashing and shaking, and sprinkled the dry yeast on top, leaving about 4 inch headspace. After one night, this was bubbling very well (2-3 airlock bubbles a second), and you could see a layer of foam sticking to the glass in the headspace, glad I left so much space. I keep it in a dark basement, at a constant 63 degrees.

I then filled up the bottle with clean water to reduce headspace, and only then noticed a little mark on the glass telling me that this was a 6.5 gallon bottle, where I thought it was a 5 gallon bottle. Will this strongly affect the resulting mead, as I now have only 2.2 pounds of honey per gallon? Should I try to add more honey to it, although the bottle is completely full now?

Furthermore, I noticed a foul sulphuric odor after 24 hours of fermentation, and read about rhino farts and the need to add more nutrient. I added another 10 grams of nutrivit, which seemed to improve the foul odor after some hours. Nevertheless, now after 5 days of fermentation, the smell out of the airlock is still pretty awful, like a yeasty fart, with hints of honey and white wine aroma. Is this normal or should I be concerned, and add some more nutrients? The bubbling is now between 1-2 per second, and there is a load of activity in the bottle (lots of large bubbles, about half an inch of frenzied, clear bubbling foam on top).

I did not take gravity readings, as I wanted to give this a try first before buying more equipment. I intent to ferment until dry, stabilize with sulphite and sorbate, and age for a long time in bottles.
 

Squatchy

Lifetime GotMead Patron
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Nov 3, 2014
5,542
261
83
Denver
Hello and welcome to the forum.

Are you a cyclist? :)

First off go buy a hydrometer and learn to use it.

What yeast did you use and do you know what ABV tolorence level is stated for it. Also, do you know it's desired temp range?

You should have enough honey to make around 12% ABV. I doubt your yeast will go that far so , depending on what you want you should be fine. If you can tell us what ABV the yeast is listed at we can tell you how sweet you might end up at.

You really need to move quickly to try and get rid of the foul small. The sooner the better. Remove some of your must. Enough that you can stir the hell out of the must. What your trying to do here is to whip the shit out of it so the smell can be blown off by lots of degassing. You need to degass this every day regardless of wither you have stink going on or not. If you can, if you have another demijohn of the same size you can clean it up and splash rack into it. By splash racking I mean to let the must fall through the air and splash into the new carboy. We're trying to separate the smell through violent agitation. Continue this until you feel you have done this as much as needed to get a clean smell if you can. It might be too late to get it all out. If so, contact me when your ferment is finished and I can tell you have to use copper to maybe get the rest out.

Off flavors/odors are an indication the yeast are stressing out for one reason or another. They need food and controlled temps to keep them happy. Your yeast are unhappy and you need to make them more comfortable.

For future reference. Don't add your yeast by dry pitching onto your must. You kill off half of the yeast right off the bat and the rest are wounded. Rather, pitch them into a small container of 40c water. Sprinkle lightly, let it sit for 20 minutes. Now add small amounts of your must every 10 minutes to your yeast slurry to slowly bring the temps to the same. Once within 10c you can then add to the must.
 

eurobug

NewBee
Registered Member
Nov 23, 2016
39
0
0
Thank you for your reply! I am not a cyclist, but I like watching it from my sofa with a nice Belgian trappist in the weekend ;)

I will buy the hydrometer and use it in the future, I was maybe a little too impatient to have my first batch started.

The yeast is called M05 Mead Yeast by Mangrove Jack's craft series. The instructions state that "This yeast has high alcohol tolerance and ferments well over a wide temperature range. Suitable for all styles of mead. Sprinkle directly on up to 23 L (6 US Gal) of wort. For best results, ferment at 15-30 degrees C (59-86 degrees F)." I will try the proposed method next time (this is the "yeast starter" and "rehydratation" method if I am not mistaken, no?).

I do not have a second demijohn yet (will get one this weekend), so I will try the stirring method, with a long sterilized glass cane. I hope it is not too late after 5 days fermentation. Should I add some more nutrients? I also read about adding boiled bread yeast or bee pollen as nutrition. I have both available.

Thanks again!
 

bernardsmith

Got Mead? Patron
GotMead Patron
Sep 1, 2013
1,611
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Saratoga Springs , NY
Hi Eurobug - and welcome! Not sure that I would use a glass cane unless you are very sure that the glass is strong enough to stand up to the stresses you will put on it as you whip the must. Do you perhaps have a drill? Could you hack say a piece of heavy gauge wire that you could attach to the drill and bend the end to form a C shape (could be made from a metal clothes hanger) that will still allow you to put the wire inside the carboy? Failing that, if you have a home brew store nearby (or online) you might find that they sell long heavy duty plastic spoons or other stirrers, and failing that you might look for a piece of wooden dowel - I am just anxious about using a glass rod with as much force and energy as you will need to whip air into the must and whip the hydrogen sulfide gas out...
 

eurobug

NewBee
Registered Member
Nov 23, 2016
39
0
0
Thanks for the welcome!

The glass cane is a pyrex stirring rod, a leftover from my chemistry past, so it is made for this. I would indeed not recommend using a regular glass rod. The tip with the power drill is nice, I never thought to use power tools in brewing.

I just stirred the must vigorously, and it bubbled like hell, a lot of gases seemed to dislodge. I must say that it now smells pretty good from inside the bottle (honey, alcohol and yeast), most of the sulfury smell is gone. Is it possible that the water in the airlock absorbs a lot of the smells?

I also got a hydrometer and a "thief" (I have a brewing supply store in walking distance), and measured the SG at 1.030. It is still bubbling very well, so I guess that all things are going as they are supposed to go. Thanks a lot for all the help.

One more question: Would you add sulfites and/or sorbates to the mead when it is finished, before bottling?
 

djsxxx

NewBee
Registered Member
Jan 18, 2016
212
0
0
United kingdom
I've got a 26L batch of traditional on the go that I've used M05. Seems like a very nice yeast so far. Think it likes a warmer temperature, around the 18-20 C mark. Mine's been sitting at 16-17 C and it's taken about 3 weeks to get through 100 points.

No off flavors though, so happy.

If you're mead reaches 1.000 or less, and you don't plan on back sweetening, then there is no real need to sulphite/sorbates.

If you still need to splash rack, you could just grab a bucket, give it a good clean and sanitize it

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk
 

eurobug

NewBee
Registered Member
Nov 23, 2016
39
0
0
Thanks, good to know that this yeast is a good one for mead.

I will let the fermentation go until it stops completely. As I have 6.5 kg (14 lbs) of honey in a 25L (6.5 gallon) batch, the mead calculator tells me that it can reach 10.5 ABV. As stupid me did not take an initial gravity reading, I have to trust this number.

I was worried that this ABV might be too low for the self-preserving aspect of alcohol to show up, and to add sulphite/sorbate mix (stabivit) just to be sure. On the other hand, not adding this would allow me to create a sparkling mead as well with half of the batch, so good to know!

This will be my first time tasting mead as well, so I am quite curious. I hope that lady bug will like the taste as well, she can be a finicky critter :)
 

eurobug

NewBee
Registered Member
Nov 23, 2016
39
0
0
This stuff has now been fermenting for 10 days, and the SG is down to 1.002. There is still a lot of activity, like one bubble every 2 seconds. Tasted a sample from the winethief, and this tastes already nice, nothing like honey and water, more like a white wine. My wife (almost never drinks alcohol) describes it as a "cheap white wine". I believe this is going to turn out great eventually. Thanks for the advice, I will keep giving info about making mead in Belgium, with the ingredients that can be found here.
 

eurobug

NewBee
Registered Member
Nov 23, 2016
39
0
0
An update which might help other people, one day after previous post: The sulfuric smell is gone. I decided to add more honey, as I initially only had 2.2 lbs/gallon. The mead was 11 days into fermentation, and at 9.996 SG. I added 0.7 lbs/gallon additional honey, by siphoning 1.5 liter out of the demijohn (DJ) to make room, and directly pouring the liquid honey into the DJ. After 24 hours, there was not much activity, and the SG was only 1.000. The honey was apparently at the bottom, hidden below the yeast cake, so I slowly stirred for a minute (I could feel significant resistance at the bottom of the DJ initially), which raised the SG to 1.02. I also added a tablespoon of bread yeast, boiled for 5 minutes in a little water, as a simple nutrient. 24 hours later, the activity was again very high, one bubble a second.

I also put the 1.5 liter I removed in the fridge to test cold crashing. This was almost entirely clear in 2 days, with a thin crust of solid yeast at the bottom. The taste was like a yeasty dry white wine, blended with a little paint thinner. The taste improved even over one day (could be me acquiring the taste though), but I guess describing the taste of a 11-day old mead is an exercise in futility.

Next: Patience, rack of the lees before 3 months, and much more patience. Thanks for the help, and I will keep you informed about my other experiments (ginger wine and JAOM, with Belgian ingredients)
 

Squatchy

Lifetime GotMead Patron
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Nov 3, 2014
5,542
261
83
Denver
So I am an advocate for not racking too soon. I would say that any time one has any type of issues during the ferment, this would be the exception. Lees of a troubled batch should get racked off of as soon as the fermentation is over.
 

eurobug

NewBee
Registered Member
Nov 23, 2016
39
0
0
Thanks, that would make sense in this case. I will rack it once the SG seems stable.

My lessons learned so far:
- The M05 Mangrove Jack yeast requires a lot of nutrients, and produces a lot of sulfur compounds when stressed. Give the maximal dose of nutrients from the start. I didn't, only 50%, and regretted this within 24 hours.
- Adding liquid honey to a batch does not seem to cause any trouble, but it will pile up at the bottom, and you have to stir to dissolve, do not assume that the yeasties will find everything. They might eventually, but it will take a long time. Even a little short stir raised the SG from 1.00 to 1.02, 24 hours after adding the additional honey.
- Boiled bread yeast seems to be a great nutrient when far into the fermentation, and adding additional honey.
- This yeast seems to clear quickly in the fridge, almost completely clear after 3 days, and forms a solid yeast cake which is difficult to disturb.
 

djsxxx

NewBee
Registered Member
Jan 18, 2016
212
0
0
United kingdom
That's interesting you had trouble with nutrients. I followed TiOSNA with a medium requirement and mines turned out great!

I did however use 2 packs of yeast for my 26L batch, so I wonder if you under pitched and they struggled.

Anyway, hopefully you'll end up with a good tasting mead!

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk
 

eurobug

NewBee
Registered Member
Nov 23, 2016
39
0
0
Well, learned another thing today, TiOSNA... :)

I do not have the usual nutrients available which are commonly used in the USA, such as fermaid or go-ferm, but we have alternatives which are probably similar. The formula's designed for fermaid/go-ferm then do not apply. I used some sort of all-in-one nutrient, called nutrivit, and followed the instructions on the box, which state to add 0.5-1 gram per liter. I should have added the 1 gram, not less. I will try to source the USA nutrients, they are available over online retailers, as this will make life much easier in the future.

I used only one pack of yeast on my 25L batch, sprinkled dry on top of the must, which might have been the problem. That would explain the initial stress. Everything is peacefully bubbling away now, one blub every 4 seconds, and the airlock smell evolves every day.

Thanks again for all the help, I couldn't do it without you people (or at least severely mess it up).
 

djsxxx

NewBee
Registered Member
Jan 18, 2016
212
0
0
United kingdom
Even if you can't get the fermaid stuff I would still recommend doing SNA (staggered nutrient additions) instead of giving all the nutrients up front.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk
 

eurobug

NewBee
Registered Member
Nov 23, 2016
39
0
0
This was my first mead. I just bottled it.
I have learned a lot by doing this, and wished I read more before starting this one, I would have avoided some common mistakes. The mead is now 3 months old. I tried to clear it by putting it outside (around freezing) for a month, but that didn't work. I tried bentonite, but alas. Racked and added superkleer, works like a charm.
As I have no point of reference because mead is non-existent over here in Belgium, I might just as well ask it here. The mead looks like white wine, and tastes like a buttery, young white wine (like e.g. chardonnay) but with a honey scent. If I would give this chilled to my friends without telling them its mead, they would probably not realize it is not white wine. I read over and over that mead takes ages to mellow, to be acceptable, but this stuff right now is actually pretty good. No harsh tastes or anything, pleasantly drinkable, at the same level as a store-bought bottle of young wine. Does this sound about right?

To be fair, I am not a wine snob (I mostly buy boxed wine, and have been known to drink it from the tap), but I also recognize garbage, and this is definitely not garbage. The mead is made with cheap wildflower honey from Lidl, mangrove jack craft series mead yeast, and some generic all-in-one nutrient (see above). I used 2.9 lbs honey per gallon (I added a couple lbs a week into the fermentation, when I realized I didn't use enough).

I would attach an image but I go over some quota it appears, even for a 30kb image.

By the way, I am completely hooked. This was my first mead, but dozens, if not hundreds, of batches will follow :D
 

Squatchy

Lifetime GotMead Patron
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Nov 3, 2014
5,542
261
83
Denver
This was my first mead. I just bottled it.
I have learned a lot by doing this, and wished I read more before starting this one, I would have avoided some common mistakes. The mead is now 3 months old. I tried to clear it by putting it outside (around freezing) for a month, but that didn't work. I tried bentonite, but alas. Racked and added superkleer, works like a charm.
As I have no point of reference because mead is non-existent over here in Belgium, I might just as well ask it here. The mead looks like white wine, and tastes like a buttery, young white wine (like e.g. chardonnay) but with a honey scent. If I would give this chilled to my friends without telling them its mead, they would probably not realize it is not white wine. I read over and over that mead takes ages to mellow, to be acceptable, but this stuff right now is actually pretty good. No harsh tastes or anything, pleasantly drinkable, at the same level as a store-bought bottle of young wine. Does this sound about right?

To be fair, I am not a wine snob (I mostly buy boxed wine, and have been known to drink it from the tap), but I also recognize garbage, and this is definitely not garbage. The mead is made with cheap wildflower honey from Lidl, mangrove jack craft series mead yeast, and some generic all-in-one nutrient (see above). I used 2.9 lbs honey per gallon (I added a couple lbs a week into the fermentation, when I realized I didn't use enough).

I would attach an image but I go over some quota it appears, even for a 30kb image.

By the way, I am completely hooked. This was my first mead, but dozens, if not hundreds, of batches will follow :D

Congrats on your success. I believe what you now know your will continue to get better and better as you learn more from hanging around here. I think your mead sounds about right. Obviously it can range from ok to really amazing. And yes, these are based some on personal opinion. I think the first thing we all try to accomplish is to me able to make things without off flavors. A clean ferment in and of it's self is a great goal to pursue initially. I like to encourage people to start first to learn how to make a good traditional. In a trad there is nothing to hide behind. What you taste is what you get. Once you can learn to make this style it will raise your game for every other style you make. Feel free to ask next time before you start something to make sure you get off to the best start you can. I hope you learned how to rehydrate your yeast correctly now. Add to that SNA's with the proper amount of YAN and temp control and you will have at least a very basic approach.

I think most of us use a phone app called Tapatalk. It makes the picture thing much easier.
 

Dadux

Worker Bee
Registered Member
Jan 5, 2016
725
3
18
Spain, Europe
A bit late to the party and i have read what you said about M05. Just some comments
I started using M05 a few months ago and i find it really really good. If you have off flavours is because you did something wrong because I have already done a few batches and it has, according to mangrove, a low nitrogen requirement
If properly fed it will just eat pretty much about anything. Its one of the strains that get to 18% easily. It also resists at a wide range of temps (12-30ºC) and has a great flocculation.
From what i have seen nutrivit is basically DAP. its not good to add much of it, specially if you add it all at once. Try getting some wyeast nutrients, they are the equivalent of fermaid K i think. Or search for light brown colored nutrients. white powder is usually just DAP or DAP and DAS.
If you used m05 you probably feel your mead is a bit thin because it probably fermented well under 1.000 (i had one ferment from 1.127 to 0.990!). next time try backsweetening to get it to 1.000-1.005 and it will give it a more honey-like taste and a sweet touch.
About your mead, white wine seems like allright. Let it sit another 3 or 6 months and you will find it much better i belive. Mead can have a lot of different tasted, specially with certain honeys or if you ad fruit/spices so you can do a wide variety of them.
Congrats on your first mead!
 

eurobug

NewBee
Registered Member
Nov 23, 2016
39
0
0
Wow great analysis and information. I really like the mead so far, chilled it is like a good white wine. I indeed did many things wrong (dry sprinkling of yeast, bad nutrients and nutrient management, no aeration nor degassing for first 5 days, etc...). This gave enormous rhino farts, but I cannot notice anything about that in the mead now. The honey was pretty light colored as well, so not much nutrients. I do have better stuff now, (Erbslöh vitadrive and vitaferm F3 ultra, these seem like fermaid and goferm clones. They are a very fine powder, dust almost, and brown in color).
Flocculation was indeed very good. M05 seems to create a rather thin, solid crust at the bottom, which is difficult to disturb. The mead is indeed thin, it feels like it is watered down with like 10-20% too much water (great legs in the glass though, and it gets you tipsy quite fast). I already planned on upping the initial gravity on the next one, but if you state that this is due to the yeast, I will probably end up with thin mead again, just higher in alcohol? Is it an option to use better honey (partly), like 80% of the cheap stuff, and 20% heather or buckwheat, to improve the taste in the final product? I really don't care about sweetness, I like this thing dry as it is very much. I will also experiment a couple times more before moving to expensive honeys. Orange blossom, clover, and many other common honeys found in mead recipes are quite expensive here (>10 euro/kilo), while some others can be found relatively cheap (like colza/rapeseed, balsam, wildflower, ... 4-5 euro/kilo), and the import stuff is very cheap (chinese, eastern European or south American wildflower, < 3 euro/kilo)
 

Dadux

Worker Bee
Registered Member
Jan 5, 2016
725
3
18
Spain, Europe
What you refer to as "thin" is the body. M05 is a powerful yeast. that has benefits and problems. Benefits are, it produces good results and low off flavours. It usually wont taste harsh or hot. But dryness is relative. Your meads with it will be what is considered very dry or maybe brut/extra brut. If you add more honey it will ferment it anyway most likely and you will just have more alcohol. What you may want is to stabilize (search for it, you'll need sulphites and sorbate) and then backsweeten, which is adding more honey that wont be fermented. This can be used to get sweet meads but if you dont add much you can still get a dry mead (1.000-1.005) but it will have more honey flavour and more body. Also if you keep using that yeast try to ferment at cool temperatures (15-18ºC) for more aroma.
Using cheap honey is ok for begginers but there is nothing like good raw unheated honey. It is worth the money and you can find cheap deals if you go to certain places. I find mine at 6-8 euros/kilo and very good quality
Heather honey is considered a bit bitter. If used to backsweeten it will add more body and less sweetness. You can try, but be careful. Not everyone likes this. Some people add some (10-20%) buckwheat to the ferment and say it also provides unique flavour. I have tried other dark honeys but not heather or buckwheat. Also you should probably beware of such cheap imported honeys...
About sweet mead, well i'd recomend giving it a try at some point (if done properly it wont be cloying and it can be pretty refreshing. plus you can slowly add honey until you like the taste. Meads are usually categorized as Dry, semisweet , sweet and dessert). If you keep making mead, explore the different varieties. There are lots of things to try.
 
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