My first batch...

What kind of yeast?

Added honey slowly while stirring vigorously. Maintained heat at 170F (although it sunk to as low as 140 during honey addition) for one hour while continuing to stir vigorously. Skimmed small amount of surface scum during the hour.

Click to expand...

Since it is your very first batch of mead, I have a few comments. The quoted procedure is OK but really not necessary.The heat for that long just gives up a lot of honey aroma and kills any useful enzymes left in the honey. If it is wild yeast or bacteria that concerned you, less than 5 minutes at that temperature would have sufficed.The scum usually contains some proteins that are good for the yeast. I would recommend that if you aren't going to add nutrients then don't heat the honey to 170F. In fact, only enough heat to help dissolve the honey is all that many of us use. If you do heat for an hour then you might as well add nutrients to insure a good fermentation because you just destroyed any natural living nutrients. Heating for a hot and cold break is simply not required for clearing with mead as it is in beer. The choice is always yours and this input is only meant to get you to think about why you do what you do and to challenge your thinking. In no way should it be taken to to infer that there is only one way to do things.

And by the way ... I enjoyed your mead tale...

Hope this is helpful,
Joe

I too enjoyed your mead tale.

One other enhancement I'd like to suggest is that your must may not have been as oxygenated as it could have been. You might like to try what's called the shaker method. What this entails is that you add your warmed must, some cooled water and penty of headspace, probabaly about a gallon left of water to add... Shake the tar out of it once it's cooled and stoppered the carboy. Then once you feel it's oxygenated enough, add the last of your cooled water and then pitch your yeast.

In my personal experience, I've found that when I pasturized it was necessary to re-add oxygen to the mixture as the warming process had removed most of it.

Your mead sounds wonderful and I look forward to hearing how it tastes.

Talon.

I was thinking it was a leeners kit you got...

I'm doing another "kit" with 6 lbs of leeners clover honey I had left over. I did a cold mix and shaker method with it and it's turning out beautifully! It's done it's primary ferment in 2.5 weeks! So, I can attest that when following their recipe it works. I figured experiment with a recipe I'd had experience with and next experiement will be the same, but without the sulfites.

Good luck with your kit.

If you want to get daily SG readings, its best to leave a hydrometer in the carboy. They make small ones just for such a purpose. It keeps one from constantly exposing the must to oxygen. Otherwise, As long as it is bubbling away a reading once a week is more than enough and not really necessary unless you want to keep periodic SG records.
Different yeasts have different sediment looks. Some are lighter and some are grainier and some are crustier. The way a yeast packs lees is called:

Flocculation: Name given to the process of coalescence and settling of yeast cells into a firm deposit.

And it is different with each yeast. More than you might want to know is available at this White labs site:
http://www.whitelabs.com/terms.html

Joe

Welcome to the club,

While i do not use your methods, i'd certainly advise you to follow them since you have living people on hand whose product you have tasted (and like) for your first efforts.

About pasturization... it is a closer method to surviving periode recipes than some ot the others. though boiling would have been more typical. At least according to digby . anyway nice to see some improvements... like no egg hydrometers or bread pitched to reintroduce yeast .

I encourage you to experiments with some small batches and varying methods before you become set in your ways though. Have fun.