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First batch of mead made last night

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Bobubak

NewBee
Registered Member
Apr 21, 2017
18
0
0
Cincinnati, Ohio
Hello everyone. This is my first post and I started my first batch of mead last night. I have my ingredients and process below. My question is about aeration of the must in the beginning. I have read some say do not touch it at all and some say aerat it 2 times a day for the first 3 days. I know those are the extremes but how do I know which method? Does it depend on the recipe, honey, or some other factors? Please let me know.

Honey - raw unfiltered, unpasteurized, unheated orange blossom honey
Water - store bought spring water
Yeast - Lavin D47
Yeast energized
Yeast nutrients

1. Everything was washed with hot soap and water the I used 1 step no rinse sanitizer per direction on package.
2. Heated spring water to 150 degrees and added nutrients, energized, and honey. Mixed till blended.
3. Added water till S.G. was 1.118 on a refractometer. Total volume was about 1.2 gallons
4. Allowed must to cool to 80 degrees
5. Rehydrated 2g yeast in 25ml spring water at 105 degrees for 15 minutes.
6. While yeast was dehydrating I used an air stone and pure oxygen to aeriate the must for 15 minutes
7. I pitched the yeast at 80 degrees
8. I sealed the fermenter and used spring water in the airlock.

Thanks for your help and any advice on my process, recipe, or the aeration question above would be appreciated.
 

caduseus

Lifetime GotMead Patron
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Aug 20, 2016
675
2
18
Cincinnati
Hello everyone. This is my first post and I started my first batch of mead last night. I have my ingredients and process below. My question is about aeration of the must in the beginning. I have read some say do not touch it at all and some say aerat it 2 times a day for the first 3 days. I know those are the extremes but how do I know which method? Does it depend on the recipe, honey, or some other factors? Please let me know.

Honey - raw unfiltered, unpasteurized, unheated orange blossom honey
Water - store bought spring water
Yeast - Lavin D47
Yeast energized
Yeast nutrients

1. Everything was washed with hot soap and water the I used 1 step no rinse sanitizer per direction on package.
2. Heated spring water to 150 degrees and added nutrients, energized, and honey. Mixed till blended.
3. Added water till S.G. was 1.118 on a refractometer. Total volume was about 1.2 gallons
4. Allowed must to cool to 80 degrees
5. Rehydrated 2g yeast in 25ml spring water at 105 degrees for 15 minutes.
6. While yeast was dehydrating I used an air stone and pure oxygen to aeriate the must for 15 minutes
7. I pitched the yeast at 80 degrees
8. I sealed the fermenter and used spring water in the airlock.

Thanks for your help and any advice on my process, recipe, or the aeration question above would be appreciated.


I am not sure why anyone would say not to aerate. Those of the "pitch and leave" method basically pitch and ignore their must. Only problem is that it is not drinkable for a year or more.
Aerate= stirring the top of the must to get oxygen in
degas- stir at the bottom to get the carbon dioxide out

Aerate at least 2x/day for 3 days.
Then degas at least once/day until fermentation is complete.
Then degas 2x/week for 30 days after fermentation is over- this last step helps the yeast clear the must for you so you have less to clear later.

1) you should not have heated the honey that high. you lose beneficial aromatics that way. If you need to warm at all place the honey in a closed container in sink and fill with hot water so it becomes more fluid
2) Heating water makes it easier to dissolve honey but also removes oxygen. To make it easier to dissolve honey without losing all the oxygen, i only heat 1/3 the spring water
3) unless it is a short mead (<10% expected abv) which yours is not, NEVER add all the nutrients up front; read up on staggered nutrient addition
4) You dont say which nutrients you use or how much?
5) There should be <20 degree F between must and yeast; if not you killed some of your yeast
6) did you rehydrate with go-ferm
7) read the newbee guide and meadmaderight.com
 

Bobubak

NewBee
Registered Member
Apr 21, 2017
18
0
0
Cincinnati, Ohio
Thank you for the advice. I probably should have read up a little more before I made my batch. I had read a few things before finding this site. Other sites, Ken Schram's book, and stiff like that. I did not realize how much information was here in one place.

The nutrient I used was called yeast nutrient maybe a little generic. That is where the brew store directed me. The energized was called yeast energizer. Looking at the ingredients yeast nutrient is food grade urea and diammonium phosphate. The energized is diammonium phosphate, Springcell, and magnesium sulphate. I used 1 tsp of nutrient and 1/2 tsp of energizer.

I rehydrated the yeast at 105 degrees for 15 minutes. I pitched it into 80 degree must. I did not take a reading but my yeast may have cooled below 80 but I do not think it was 60 degrees. I did not use go ferm. I will read up on it.

This batch was made Saturday night. I think my post was delayed because I am new. On sunday I did aeriate twice and I aerated this evening. The must has been going for about 48 hours now. When I opened it today I could smell the yeast and there were a lot of small bubbles coming to the surface. When I mixed it the foam nearly filled the bucket.

The temperature of my must has been about 72 each time I checked. While the airlock is not bubbling yet I see signs of fermentation in the bucked. Hopefully I have not messed it up too much. I did take a s.g. reading and it was 1.103 so 15 gravity points in 2 days. Not sure if that is good or not.

Thanks for the advice caduseus.
 

Bobubak

NewBee
Registered Member
Apr 21, 2017
18
0
0
Cincinnati, Ohio
A quick update, last night was the end of day 6 (my previous post took a couple days to show up). Temp has been about 72 to 74 degrees. Currently my SG is 1.063 with a refractometer.

I have a question on aeration and degassing. I just want to be sure I understand. In aeration for the first 3 days i mixed the must and aerated with pure oxygen. After day 3 I read that I should degass. Does this mean just shaking the must with the lid on? I ask because I read that too much oxygen can create vinegar.

Thank you,
 

caduseus

Lifetime GotMead Patron
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Aug 20, 2016
675
2
18
Cincinnati
Stir with a spoon with spoon towards the bottom. It is better to use an official degassing wand
 

Squatchy

Lifetime GotMead Patron
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Nov 3, 2014
5,542
261
83
Denver
You are going to have a lot of fussels with this batch. That strain of yeast doesn't do well over 68 degrees. 62 is ideal. You'll need to age it for a while to get rid of the heat and the off flavors.
 

Bobubak

NewBee
Registered Member
Apr 21, 2017
18
0
0
Cincinnati, Ohio
You are going to have a lot of fussels with this batch. That strain of yeast doesn't do well over 68 degrees. 62 is ideal. You'll need to age it for a while to get rid of the heat and the off flavors.

Thank you for the heads up. I will be sure to age it for a while.

I am going to start a BOMM tomorrow and do it "right". Any advice on controlling the temperature? I do not have a basement. I would prefer not to add a window air conditioner to that room. Typically the house is 74 and the back room is 70 to 73. Are there any devices that cool a ferment?
 

caduseus

Lifetime GotMead Patron
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Aug 20, 2016
675
2
18
Cincinnati
Thank you for the heads up. I will be sure to age it for a while.

I am going to start a BOMM tomorrow and do it "right". Any advice on controlling the temperature? I do not have a basement. I would prefer not to add a window air conditioner to that room. Typically the house is 74 and the back room is 70 to 73. Are there any devices that cool a ferment?

1) it is best fermented at 68F. But denard has said it USUALLY is not bad as long as you don't go above 74F (correct me if I am wrong Bray).
2) Use A/C to cool the room. Open the vent wide open and turn the ceiling fan on full blast. You can also put the bucket in a much larger container of water to reduce temperature fluctuation. Long term you want a cooling mechanism in place
 
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