Newbee setup recommendations

Hi Need for Mead - I'll offer a quick thought or two but others may have very different opinions. Many brewers and wine makers argue that it is just as easy to make 5 gallons as it is to make 1. And it is, but my argument is always to counter that by saying that it is far more difficult to swallow 5 gallons of meh mead (or beer or wine) than it is to swallow 1 and it is MUCH MUCH more difficult to swallow 5 gallons of poor mead than it is to swallow 1 (of course others say but if you make a good mead then you will kick yourself if you only made a single gallon - but I say a hole in one does not mean that you are a good golf player) ;D so I tend to recommend that beginners start small (1 gallon) and that means the amount of money you need to sink into mead making at the start is not great (2 gallon food grade buckets, a couple of gallon carboys) and when you can make a really good mead with your eyes closed and when you can make good sense of problems as they arise AND deal with them effectively then is the time to sink $$$ into this activity. My added thought is if you begin by making 1 gallon batches then you can make dozens and dozens of batches to gain skills, to get to better understand different processes, different yeasts, the effects of different temperatures, the flavors of different honeys and fruits and spices and herbs and..But if you focus on 24 L batches then my guess is that you might make one or two batches a year. I say that as someone who tends to start a batch every week and that means I can "experiment" with meads anywhere from about 5% ABV to about 15% (I think I have about 10 or 12 different meads fermenting on my fermenting table in my basement as I write this).

bernardsmith said:

so I tend to recommend that beginners start small (1 gallon) and that means the amount of money you need to sink into mead making at the start is not great (2 gallon food grade buckets, a couple of gallon carboys) and when you can make a really good mead with your eyes closed and when you can make good sense of problems as they arise AND deal with them effectively then is the time to sink $$$ into this activity. My added thought is if you begin by making 1 gallon batches then you can make dozens and dozens of batches to gain skills, to get to better understand different processes, different yeasts, the effects of different temperatures, the flavors of different honeys and fruits and spices and herbs and..But if you focus on 24 L batches then my guess is that you might make one or two batches a year. I say that as someone who tends to start a batch every week and that means I can "experiment" with meads anywhere from about 5% ABV to about 15% (I think I have about 10 or 12 different meads fermenting on my fermenting table in my basement as I write this).

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Seconded. I'd third and fourth if I had siblings.

I find it fairly easy to scale up a "knock it out of the park" mead, and really difficult to swallow 25 bottles of "meh" mead. And you can only make so much vinegar from that "meh" mead.

As a beekeeper, you can also use the cappings wash to make mead, leaving your honey for sale (if you do sell). If you want to do this, definitely invest in a hydrometer -- it doesn't work well without.

I would also add to write down the entire process you plan to employ as well as all the ingredients before you actually do make your first batch. So many recipes are junk that you will find on the web. We can steer you away from mistakes if you check with us first

Need for Mead - Squatchy's point is so right on all counts. Feel free to share your proposed "recipe" and method or protocol with the forum. Much of what is self published is plain wrong and much of the rest is a D minus.

Need for Mead said:

Thanks for your feedback and generous attitude! I’ve tried to reply a few times, but it hasn’t worked, so I try once more from my phone.

Since you all agree, I’ll go for smaller size equipment, and I’ll post recipes to get help �� I’ll start with tried and tested JAOM and BOMM recipes, though.

The smallest I’ve found in Norway is fermenting bucket of 3 gal, carboy of 1,5 gal and spring water bottle of 1,5 gal. To avoid excessive headspace later in the process, would you rather ferment in the carboy and add reserve must after most vigorous foaming or ferment in 3 gal bucket and transfer the whole content with lees to the carboy the last day aeration is called upon?

Shelley, I’m sure I’ll try cappings. How and when do you remove the wax? I’ll probably also try to rinse extracted frames of heather honey, as there’s probably 200 grams left after extraction. No point in feeding it back to the bees during the best honey flow �� Sulfiting would probably be necessary then.

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Make sure if you are going to make a JOAM to follow the advice EXACTLY or it won't turn out so well. That is a very special case where everything is there for an exact reason and every piece works synergistically. Mess up one fraction and it will upset the whole thing. Both of those types of meads were made to "supposedly" drink in short order. With modern science that we promote using now days. You can drink most things right out of the fermenter. So usually new methods are faster than these two styles. The JOAM is surely a novelty. I don't know many who make this more than once. You don't learn a thing that carries over to normal mead making except maybe sanitation and paitence. BOMMs are ok but are really not a one moth mead. And a no faster than modern methods now day. Slower in my personal opinion. Or at least not any faster. So I suppose one could say equall.

I think you are confusing Squatchy with the Canadian Sasquatch. Not the same...........

If you watched the blood orange series (6 episodes?), then you should also watch the BOMM video and the 9 episode Meadology series.

Need for Mead said:

I see I have to read up on BOMM vs other modern recipes to decipher the difference. Btw, I saw your blood orange clip on youtube, and it’s nice to see how you do things, not just read about it, so thanks for sharing ��

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As was said above I'm a different Sasquatch. But. If you start listening to the podcast I did here on Gotmead life you will learn the most modern science and how to use it step by step. I think it started on 9/5/17

Need for Mead said:

Shelley, I'm sure I'll try cappings. I've read about squeezing wax to a ball after some time to remove it from the must. Do you also filter the wax out of the must or just deal with it by racking? At a later point I might try to rinse frames of heather honey after extraction, as 200 grams are easily left in each frame. Not much point in feeding that back to the bees during the best honey flow of the year Sulfiting would probably be a necessary step, then. At some point I'll also try adding pollen, but first I'll try to just generally make good mead

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Heather honey makes the BEST mead as far as I'm concerned!

When I extract my honey I have cappings left in a tank. I rinse those cappings in a 5 gallon bucket, then strain out the honey water from the wax. (The wax I then process, or dry out to process later.) Then I measure the gravity and go from there. I do use campden tabs right away -- if you don't it'll start a wild ferment immediately.

With leftover honey in the frames, I'd try dipping the frames in a bucket of water and let the honey dissolve. I always let the bees clean out the frames, since my honey flow is followed by winter. Hives that I haven't extracted from sometimes can use that boost.

Greetings, NeedforMead and welcome to the mead-making community!

Based upon your questions and decisions, and the advice you've gotten so far, you're off to a good start. I wanted to address your concerns about head-space.

The problem with head-space, of course, is that it it presents the risk of exposing your mead to oxygen. This is really not a concern during the first 1/2 of the fermentation process; the yeast actually want all the oxygen they can get during this period. After this period, however, oxygen becomes inimical to the taste of your mead, introducing sherry-like flavours and other off-notes. The yeast generates CO2 as fermentation proceeds and CO2, being heavier than air, tends to form a protective layer over the mead, shielding it from exposure to any oxygen in the head-space.

I use the word 'tends' advisedly; in my experience, it is not adequate protection. I have had more than one batch ruined by exposure to oxygen in the head space, even though it should, in theory, have been protected by the CO2 in the vessel. Two batches of the best mead I've made (a strawberry and a blueberry) were ruined by O2 in the fermenter while it was aging and I can tell you it's a terrible experience to taste the ambrosia you made three months ago and find that it has become a sherry-like, unappealing brew. So here is what I do and what I advise you to do:

Get a tank of CO2, a CO2 regulator and a Ball Lock Cornelius Keg Beer Line Assembly, which you can buy for about $15.00 online. Unscrew the hose from the ball-lock fitting and screw the hose onto the fitting on your regulator. Adjust the regulator to about 10psi (48kg/m2). Now you have a perfect supply of pure CO2 that you can dispense by simply opening the fermenter (as little an opening as possible), pointing the picnic-faucet on the end of the hose into your vessel and pulling the trigger.

10psi (48kg/m2) will deliver 1 gallon (3.8 liters) of CO2 in 3 seconds. So, in theory, if you have 2 gallons of head-space in your fermenter, you can pull the trigger for 6 seconds to fill the head-space with CO2. In practice, however, turbulence sucks some of the outside air in, as well, and dilutes the amount actually delivered. Therefore, I double the dose, delivering CO2 for 6 seconds per gallon of head-space. The CO2 costs a fraction of a cent per dose and is cheap insurance against oxydization.

This may seem like a lot of trouble to go through but it's actually very beneficial, especially later on. During the course of racking, aging and adjusting your meads, you'll find it necessary to remove the cover of your fermenter a number of times; each time presents a risk of oxygen exposure. Being able to predictably fill your fermenters' head-spaces with CO2 will ensure that this risk is minimized or eliminated. When I rack a mead, I fill the receiving fermenter with CO2 beforehand, so I know that, even if there is some splashing, I have nothing to fear. The amount of head-space in the fermenter is no longer a concern, as it is filled with CO2, so you don't have to rack into a smaller vessel. And I routinely administer CO2 after opening the fermenter to test and sample meads, make adjustments, etc.

The tank cost me about $70; a used regulator cost about $30 on eBay and the Beer Line Assembly was about $15, so I my initial investment was about $115. The charge for filling the tank is $12.00 and I have only had refill it once in the three years (8 batches) since I put this rig together. And I have not had one problem with oxidization since then. Here is a photo of my rig; click it for a larger version:



For an excellent introduction to mead-making techniques as we understand them now, I would follow Squatchy's advice; listen to the "Making Modern Mead" series of podcasts on GotMead Live. You can find and listen to them HERE. They start with the 9/5/2017 show and go, on and off, through January (so far). They are not only an excellent introduction to mead-making, using the latest knowledge and techniques we know of, but are a comprehensive treatise on mead-making. You won't be sorry you did.

One other note; this one about temperature. You mentioned that you will be brewing in an environment with temperature swings. Yeast does NOT like temperature swings. Period. You can see, in the photo above, how I deal with that problem. I do my fermenting in the most temperature-stable space I can arrange. Then, I wrap each fermentation vessel in a heavy sweatshirt or a beach towel, which insulates the vessel to some degree and slows and evens out any temperature variations. I keep a thermometer in the room and one of those stick-on thermometers on each fermenter, so I can track the temperatures; when they're blanketed like this, the variations are minimal. I would NOT use wet towels; the temperature swings are too unpredictable; instead, just use the yeast strains that are comfortable in your room's temperature range. Covering your fermenters in this way will also protect your vessels from exposure to light, which yeasts do not like and which is not good for your fermentations.

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Eärendil
Miruvor Maker and Eternal NewBee
Mithlond Meadery, Grey Havens, Eriador

My friend, you need only lose one batch to oxydation to know that you don't want to do it. That one batch acts as a side-by-side to all your other meads. You don't gain anything in flavour by the use of CO2; you DO avoid LOSING the flavour you wanted in your mead in the first place.

That said, I will say that I had a pineapple mead oxydize and, although it was basically a sherry, I used that batch as cooking sherry for years after that. And I must say that chicken or other fowl, baked in pineapple sherry, is a very appetizing dish.

Personally, I always ferment in carboys unless I'm making a melomel or other style that has large fruit additions and I see no reason not to do so. You would avoid at least one racking, that way. The only time I use open-top fermenters is when I am making a melomel. Trying to get the fruit out a narrow-necked carboy is an experience that you only need undergo once to recognize the wisdom of avoiding it in the future.

I respect your desire to avoid plunging in too far, too fast. I started eleven years ago and used only the most basic equipment for the first three years or so. By that time I knew I was hooked. When I found out about oxygen additions, I got my oxygen tank and it was not until I lost a batch or two to oxydation that I got the CO2 tank. It has stood me in good stead.

By all means, DO cover your vessels to minimize temperature fluctuations and use yeast strains that are happy in your temperature range. You don't want to struggle with fusels, sulpher compounds and the other nasty problems that occur when yeast is not within its temperature range. I would use a room thermometer to observe both the average temperature of the room you're working in and also the maximum swings each way from that average. Then pick yeasts that are comfortable within that entire range. Yeasts do not like temperature variations but swings that take them out of their range will be particularly problematic.

You're right; it would be neat if all of the information we are learning could be incorporated in the NewBee Guide, and eventually I expect that it will, but that will take time, more research and experimentation and a lot of effort. When I first read the NewBee Guide, ten years or so ago, it contained a good deal of information that we now know to be antiquated. I have saved all the text in the NewBee Guide as a word processing file and for the last few years, I've gone through it, adding all that I learn and all the research I can find to that document. So far, I have added about 14 pages of text, as well as excerpts and citations to almost 50 books, articles and research papers, to it.

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Eärendil
Miruvor Maker and Eternal NewBee
Mithlond Meadery, Grey Havens, Eriador