Hey folks,
I just started my first batch of mead this past saturday, and so far things seem to be going well, but I do have a couple of questions.
First the recipe:
This is essentially the basic semi sweet mead recipe given in Schramm's Compleat Meadmaker, I used a little more honey than his recipe(by accident) and left out the yeast energizer and 1 packet of yeast. Here's what I started with.
5~ gallons of tap water run through a couple of sanitized charcoal filter pitchers
12lbs of local, raw wildflower honey(dark amber in color, rich with lots of interesting aromas and a bit of a sweet straw sort of flavor in the background)
3lbs 10oz of a local, non varietal unfiltered honey. This stuff is wild, it is honey gathered in the "old way", comb and all. At room temperature it is a thick paste, almost a peanut butter consistency. The flavor is unreal, very complex and nuanced with a slight spiciness on the back end.
2tsps of yeast nutrient
1 packet of Lalvin D.47 rehydrated in 2oz of filtered, 92~% tap water
The process:
We sanitized all of our equipment with a light solution of no rinse sanitizer.
We then warmed 2 1/2 gallons of water to around 140 and allowed it to cool back down to about 110 before stirring in the honey and yeast nutrient.
After pouring the must in to a 5 gallon food grade bucket, topping it up with room temperature filtered water and allowing it to cool to room temperature we pitched the yeast and then stirred, sloshed and otherwise agitated the mix for about 10 minutes to get it oxygenated.
We took an O.G reading of 1.108 at room temp. and pulled out enough must to have a little pre fermentation taste test. The must was sweet, rich, and spicy with a flavor that really filled up your mouth and nostrils, very very tasty stuff.
After capping and placing the filled air lock the primary was moved to my back cellar where it is currently enjoying temps in the mid 60s.
By the next morning I was noticing slow bubbling in the airlock, and by last night the airlock was seeing a riot of activity. The smell of the must has also permeated the room. It's not immediately obvious, but if you get close to the fermenter there is a smell not unlike a sweet bread with that same spicy character we noted in the must lingering in the background, really delicious.
All in all I'm very happy with how things are going, but I do have a few concerns/questions:
1. I used 10oz more honey than my recipe called for, my thinking is that this will just result in a sweeter mead than intended...whats the risk of this winding up 'too' sweet, and if so, what can be done about it?
2. I tried to avoid using any chemical additives, but caved to fear and used the yeast nutrient after reading about D47's poor performance without the addition of outside nitrogen. More reading lead me to understand that urea is an undesirable ingredient in mead's, and it is listed as the second or third ingredient in my nutrient. Is this going to cause a problem? If so, what kind?
3. Along the same lines, the unfiltered honey is described as being rich in mineral and micro-nutrient content due to the inclusion of comb bits, bee pollen etc., any way to figure out if this nutrient content is sufficient to keep yeast happy in the future without adding additional nutrient?
4. And related to that last question, I've been kicking myself for not straining the must into the primary. I'm sure it has lots of 'bits' floating around from the unfiltered honey. I'm hoping that this stuff settles to the bottom or floats on the top, but if it doesn't, is there a good way to strain my mead without risking excess oxidation going in to the secondary?
Whew, I think that's it....thanks for reading and for any suggestions.
EDIT for bad math
I just started my first batch of mead this past saturday, and so far things seem to be going well, but I do have a couple of questions.
First the recipe:
This is essentially the basic semi sweet mead recipe given in Schramm's Compleat Meadmaker, I used a little more honey than his recipe(by accident) and left out the yeast energizer and 1 packet of yeast. Here's what I started with.
5~ gallons of tap water run through a couple of sanitized charcoal filter pitchers
12lbs of local, raw wildflower honey(dark amber in color, rich with lots of interesting aromas and a bit of a sweet straw sort of flavor in the background)
3lbs 10oz of a local, non varietal unfiltered honey. This stuff is wild, it is honey gathered in the "old way", comb and all. At room temperature it is a thick paste, almost a peanut butter consistency. The flavor is unreal, very complex and nuanced with a slight spiciness on the back end.
2tsps of yeast nutrient
1 packet of Lalvin D.47 rehydrated in 2oz of filtered, 92~% tap water
The process:
We sanitized all of our equipment with a light solution of no rinse sanitizer.
We then warmed 2 1/2 gallons of water to around 140 and allowed it to cool back down to about 110 before stirring in the honey and yeast nutrient.
After pouring the must in to a 5 gallon food grade bucket, topping it up with room temperature filtered water and allowing it to cool to room temperature we pitched the yeast and then stirred, sloshed and otherwise agitated the mix for about 10 minutes to get it oxygenated.
We took an O.G reading of 1.108 at room temp. and pulled out enough must to have a little pre fermentation taste test. The must was sweet, rich, and spicy with a flavor that really filled up your mouth and nostrils, very very tasty stuff.
After capping and placing the filled air lock the primary was moved to my back cellar where it is currently enjoying temps in the mid 60s.
By the next morning I was noticing slow bubbling in the airlock, and by last night the airlock was seeing a riot of activity. The smell of the must has also permeated the room. It's not immediately obvious, but if you get close to the fermenter there is a smell not unlike a sweet bread with that same spicy character we noted in the must lingering in the background, really delicious.
All in all I'm very happy with how things are going, but I do have a few concerns/questions:
1. I used 10oz more honey than my recipe called for, my thinking is that this will just result in a sweeter mead than intended...whats the risk of this winding up 'too' sweet, and if so, what can be done about it?
2. I tried to avoid using any chemical additives, but caved to fear and used the yeast nutrient after reading about D47's poor performance without the addition of outside nitrogen. More reading lead me to understand that urea is an undesirable ingredient in mead's, and it is listed as the second or third ingredient in my nutrient. Is this going to cause a problem? If so, what kind?
3. Along the same lines, the unfiltered honey is described as being rich in mineral and micro-nutrient content due to the inclusion of comb bits, bee pollen etc., any way to figure out if this nutrient content is sufficient to keep yeast happy in the future without adding additional nutrient?
4. And related to that last question, I've been kicking myself for not straining the must into the primary. I'm sure it has lots of 'bits' floating around from the unfiltered honey. I'm hoping that this stuff settles to the bottom or floats on the top, but if it doesn't, is there a good way to strain my mead without risking excess oxidation going in to the secondary?
Whew, I think that's it....thanks for reading and for any suggestions.
EDIT for bad math
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