Hi would anyone mind offering a critique/advice on this recipe i think i have calculated right that this should give me a medium-sweet mead 14% abv with roughly 0.018 final gravity but i'm very new to this so i may be wrong. I have made the JOAM and its sitting happily fermenting in my cupboard at home but i wanted to give myself as much time as possible to get advice before i start to buy the equipment and ingredients for this mead.
Vanilla Oaked Mead, (1 Gallon Yield)
Ingredients:
4.5L bottled water
1.36Kg Rowse Honey
25ish raisins
1 vanilla pod
150g American Medium oak chips
Meadmaking process:
Issues/Questions
So my main issue is that i am only at home Friday evenings Saturdays and Sundays as i work away in the week so i can only aerate for two days and i believe this means i cant do the staggered nutrient additions properly (hence the raisins in the recipe to try and account for this)
Could i still add nutrient and be okay? if so how is it best for me to do this?
Would leaving the fermentation open to the air for the first two days covered in cheesecloth or another fine cloth help with the aeration issue of only having 2 full days of me psychically whisking air into it?
Any advice and guidance would be greatly appreciated i have spent a lot of time reading before posting this up so i hope i haven't suggested anything too stupid, but if i have feel free to point it out and correct me.
Thanks
Vanilla Oaked Mead, (1 Gallon Yield)
Ingredients:
4.5L bottled water
1.36Kg Rowse Honey
25ish raisins
1 vanilla pod
150g American Medium oak chips
Meadmaking process:
- Create must by combining honey into 2L slightly warm water
- Transfer this to fermentation bucket with one split vanilla pod
- Wait for this to cool
- Rehydrate yeast in warm water as per packet instruction
- Whisk the hell out of the must to add air before pitching the yeast
- Pitch yeast and add the rest of the water
- Aerate the must every 3-4 hours for the next 2 days
- leave for two weeks to allow to ferment
- Rack into demijohn with 150g oak chips
- Leave for 1 week
- Rack into another demijohn and allow to age tasting at 3 month intervals after the first 6 months.
Issues/Questions
So my main issue is that i am only at home Friday evenings Saturdays and Sundays as i work away in the week so i can only aerate for two days and i believe this means i cant do the staggered nutrient additions properly (hence the raisins in the recipe to try and account for this)
Could i still add nutrient and be okay? if so how is it best for me to do this?
Would leaving the fermentation open to the air for the first two days covered in cheesecloth or another fine cloth help with the aeration issue of only having 2 full days of me psychically whisking air into it?
Any advice and guidance would be greatly appreciated i have spent a lot of time reading before posting this up so i hope i haven't suggested anything too stupid, but if i have feel free to point it out and correct me.
Thanks