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I am New! - Honey in Secondary

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The Prince

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 17, 2017
1
0
0
Hey there everyone. First post!

Started my first mead three days ago. Bubbling pretty good now. 1 gal spring water/1lb orange blossom/2lb MI wildflower/D47... I intend to just secondary this and let it sit but I have questions for my next batch.

I have never brewed or fermented anything before.

If I understand this right honey added at the start is mostly consumed and turned into alcohol.

So I was thinking of making a two gal batch next with 6lbs of wildflower. Let it finish primary and then rack it into two separate secondary fermenters. One with a single lb of Bavarian forest honey and the other with a lb Acacia honey.

Was just wondering if there was anything fundamentally wrong with this plan and secondly if I could realistically expect a difference in flavor.

Sorry if its a super newb question but I am super newb so not sorry.
 

Dadux

Worker Bee
Registered Member
Jan 5, 2016
725
3
18
Spain, Europe
Hi there The Prince and welcome to the forums

Yeah there a few things "bad" with your current batch and your next plan. Not to worry you too much, but you really should read the newbee guide.
We all sor of do the same old mistakes. You are missing yeast nutrients (basically yeast food. Honey is very defficient in some things wine and beer are not, and the yeast will miss them. Nutrients such as Fermaid O, K, and other, will give it to them).
Its also good practice to rehidrate your yeast (nothing to do now, but for next time, here is a link on how to do it http://www.scottlab.com/uploads/documents/downloads/59/YeastRehydration_Lallemand.pdf). It calls for Go-Ferm, if you can get it good, if you cant, just skip that.
You also need to shake or stir your carboy, speacilly the first days, since the yeast also needs some oxigen, and too much CO2 is bad. By shaking you liberate the CO2 and introduce oxigen.
You are right your honey is mostly sugar and will be converted to alcohol. In your case you should have a 10-11% mead when the ferment is over

How to do this things and more are in the newbee guide. I recommend you read it first. Dont get too overwhelmed.
Also you should get a hydrometer (with it you can measure the density of the emad, and that in turn lets you know how much alcohol it will have when the ferment is over), and put your fermentation vessel in a somewhat cool place (15-18ºC would be great), with somewhat constant temperatures and away from direct sunlight.
Sorry if all this is a bit too much. Everyone does more or less the same mistakes so we are just used to pointing all out in one go. Your mead will be drinkable nonetheless, but it will take longer to get better (mead, like wine, benefits a lot from ageing)
 

bernardsmith

Got Mead? Patron
GotMead Patron
Sep 1, 2013
1,611
32
48
Saratoga Springs , NY
Hi The Prince - and welcome. Dadux's point about adding nutrient is important but I am not sure that that gets to your question which , if I understand it correctly is , is there any advantage about adding more honey to the mead in the secondary? Yeast does not care when you provide it with sugar: if the concentration of sugar you provide is within the tolerance of the yeast to be able to transport the dense liquid through their cell walls or the level of alcohol is within their tolerance for alcohol then the yeast will convert any additional sugar (read: honey) to alcohol. So, I am not sure I can see any obvious advantage to adding more (different) honey to the secondary. You could add this honey to the primary, assuming you have enough space in the primary

Where there can be significant advantages to adding fruits, herbs, spices, nuts etc to the secondary is when you want to preserve the aromas and flavors which are more likely to be "blown off" if the fermentation in the primary is very aggressive. In addition, the alcohol in the secondary, can act as a better solvent than say, fruit juice or water in the primary, to extract colors and flavors and aromas from these fruits and spices. But I cannot really see that aspect of the secondary really giving you a significantly different result if you are simply adding more honey. But others on this forum may have a different understanding...
 

caduseus

Lifetime GotMead Patron
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Aug 20, 2016
675
2
18
Cincinnati
1) If this is your first fermentartion: find a recipe, give it to us, and let us critique it. Dont create your own if you are a Newbee
2) Read the Newbee guide
3) Watch the Meadology series on Youtube
4) What is the reason for adding in secondary? Backsweeten? Flavor profile?
5) If you dont have one, get one: HYDROMETER!
6) What is the temp where the must would be located?
7) Nutrients?
 
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