good to know theres a forum just for mead

james93711 · Sep 30, 2011

hey all
i got a 5gal batch going, using 12 lbs honey and lavin 1118 yeast and watermelon chunks in the primary. its bubbling once every 2 seconds or so. should i wait till it bubbles once every 15 or 30 seconds to rack? not getting much info from the homebrew forum.. id buy a hydrometer but i dont wanna expose it in the primary.

also gonna make another batch of caramel apple mead using about 10lbs of honey and 2lbs or more of brown sugar. is using brown sugar a good or bad idea? thanks all...

triarchy · Sep 30, 2011

Id recommend using a hydrometer, even in the primary. If you are worried about infection, just make sure you sterilize before each use. I think you will find that most everybody here does this with good results. Air lock activity just isnt a good way to judge fermentation. A few (or more) actually primary ferment without a cover on the fermenter, just a sterile cloth to keep stuff out, myself included. Im not much of a beer brewer but I get the impression that beer is a lot more apt to spoilage than mead.

Regarding the brown sugar, I see plenty of recipes calling for it. I usually dont add sugar to my ciders and add honey to my cysers so I cant say what kind of flavor impact it will have, but it will produce more alcohol

And welcome to GotMead!

Loadnabox · Sep 30, 2011

If you want to avoid too many things being exposed to your mead, use a sanitized turkey baster as a wine thief and just take a small sample into the plastic tube that the hydrometer came in.

This way if you're afraid of putting the brew back into the fermenter you only have a small sample that you can drink after you're done testing it

Remember that fermentation can be continuing even if there's ZERO airlock activity visible.

Dan McFeeley · Sep 30, 2011

james93711 said:
. . . also gonna make another batch of caramel apple mead using about 10lbs of honey and 2lbs or more of brown sugar. is using brown sugar a good or bad idea? thanks all...

If it works, ferments out and finishes well, and you like the taste, it's a good idea. ;D

--

dave_witt · Oct 1, 2011

james93711 said:
also gonna make another batch of caramel apple mead using about 10lbs of honey and 2lbs or more of brown sugar. is using brown sugar a good or bad idea? thanks all...

I'd be careful using that much brown sugar. That's almost 17% of the fermentables. If you use that much, the sugar will lighten the body drastically and only add alcohol to the end product. I personally use 1.25 cups of brown sugar for a 5 gallon batch, because I want a hint of the molasses flavor, and to lighten the body just a bit (and it goes along with my grandmom's apple pie theme).

If you want the flavor without lessening the body, add some molasses in the boil. Alternatively, you can add about a cup or so of raisins in the primary for the color and a rather healthy fermentation. I find that the raisins don't change the flavor profile too much, but it really does darken the mead.

AToE · Oct 1, 2011

dave_witt said:
I'd be careful using that much brown sugar. That's almost 17% of the fermentables. If you use that much, the sugar will lighten the body drastically and only add alcohol to the end product. I personally use 1.25 cups of brown sugar for a 5 gallon batch, because I want a hint of the molasses flavor, and to lighten the body just a bit (and it goes along with my grandmom's apple pie theme).

If you want the flavor without lessening the body, add some molasses in the boil. Alternatively, you can add about a cup or so of raisins in the primary for the color and a rather healthy fermentation. I find that the raisins don't change the flavor profile too much, but it really does darken the mead.

I also think that's a bit much brown sugar because it might cover up a lot of the honey character - but I think you're thinking of beer, where adding sugar means you're adding 100% fermentables so they really do mostly just contribute alcohol - but that's what honey does too, also pretty much 100% fermentable so I'm not really quite sure where you're coming from! Also I think you're thinking beer because you mention "the boil" which we don't normally have with mead!

dave_witt · Oct 1, 2011

AToE said:
I also think that's a bit much brown sugar because it might cover up a lot of the honey character - but I think you're thinking of beer, where adding sugar means you're adding 100% fermentables so they really do mostly just contribute alcohol - but that's what honey does too, also pretty much 100% fermentable so I'm not really quite sure where you're coming from! Also I think you're thinking beer because you mention "the boil" which we don't normally have with mead!

LOL, yeah, sorry, I've been reading a lot of beer brewing books lately.

Medsen Fey · Oct 2, 2011

james93711 said:
should i wait till it bubbles once every 15 or 30 seconds to rack? not getting much info from the homebrew forum.. id buy a hydrometer but i dont wanna expose it in the primary.

Welcome to GotMead James!

You can get a lot of good information from the NewBee Guide (see link in the column to the left).

Any definitely do get a hydrometer. There is essentially zero risk of contamination in testing gravity if you use basic sanitation. There is great risk of problems like bottle bombs using that yeast if you aren't sure where your gravity ends up.

AToE · Oct 3, 2011

Just to add to that, while I do NOT recommend do as I do, lately I've been really busy in real life and have been making a lot more beer than mead - and beer is was more likely to get infected due to the lower alcohol content...

Long story short I've been doing lots of batches without even sanitizing my racking equipment, secondary carboy, bottles... you name it and I didn't sanitize it! No problem yet! Plus I've done dozens of batches of all kinds of things with lots of testing for SG and various levels of sanititation and not one contaminated one yet.

Like I/Medsen said, DEFINITELY sanitize everything, but I figured that info about my recent recklessness might help reassure you! ;D

james93711 · Oct 3, 2011

i sanitized my equipment pretty well, used bleach but rinsed till there was no bleach smell. i'm talking about oxygen being exposed to my mead, doesnt that ruin it? a few days ago i gently shook it around a bit, it was bubbling like crazy after i did that but now its only bubbling once every 5sec or so. just ordered a hydrometer off amazon so im gonna check it when ever it gets here. how do i know that its done and ready to rack?

AToE · Oct 3, 2011

Nope! Check out the newbee guide for sure, it will explain a lot of this kind of thing.

The yeast actually need O2 during the first 1/3-1/2 of fermentation, most of us go to great lengths to whip the crap out of the surface of the mead to aerate it during this period and get the O2 to the yeast.

Even during the rest of fermentation O2 is fine as long as you don't sit there splashing it around for minutes, the CO2 being produced constantly by the fermentation is a pretty decent sheild. It's really only during aging that you worry about O2 because yes at that point you do want to keep it to a minimum.

james93711 · Oct 3, 2011

tahnks for telling me about the newbee guide, i didnt even aerate mine at all. i though o2 was the enemy. could this cause a big problem in my finished product? its been bubbling away till a few days ago.

AToE · Oct 3, 2011

You should be fine, aeration is just part of refining the process in the quest for ever better meads, you can get away without it in some cases for sure. Check the SG though, if it's not past the 1/2 mark I'd definitely aerate it to help it ferment.

james93711 · Oct 3, 2011

i just did it, added some yeast nutrient and shook the hell outta it.its still producing gas so thats good. think i might rack it soon though i got watermelon chunks in there and it been 3-4 weeks so far. doesnt smell bad and doesnt taste nasty so might rack it next weekend

AToE · Oct 3, 2011

Wait wait, what was the SG?!

If this is 3-4 weeks in it's probably way past the point of adding nutrients and aerating, unless it's a really sickly ferment (a normal ferment should really be done in around 10 days or so).

As for racking, I wouldn't rack it until it's done fermenting, which may have already happened, or maybe not.

james93711 · Oct 3, 2011

i dont have a hydrometer yet, should i just rack it? its bubbling once every 10 sec or so. it doesnt smell great just smells like a winery

AToE · Oct 3, 2011

Oh ok, I thought you meant you'd opened it to get a hydrometer reading and did those other things... hopefully the nutrient additions don't cause you problems (I doubt the aeration will do much damage if any).

Bubble rates are almost meaningless, but if it's still bubbling that often then it's almost certainly still fermenting, so no I wouldn't rack it until you can gget a hydrometer and figure out what's happening in the ferment.

james93711 · Oct 3, 2011

what should i be at with the hydrometer reading at about 1? should i put some potassium sorbate in it to stop the fermenting?

Medsen Fey · Oct 3, 2011

No just let the fermentation stop and wait for the gravity to stop dropping. When it remains stable, the fermentation is complete and you can rack it to another container.

james93711 · Oct 5, 2011

made my second batch, used about a cup of light brown and regular sugar and boiled it with apple juice came out pretty caramely and apples and a vanilla bean in the primary. smells kinda like a vanilla chi tea. im gonna aerate like you guys told me to, should only aerate it during the first week or so? i got some yeast nutrient and i used alittle, i put some in my hand and tasted it and it taste like crap... dont think im using that stuff anymore, is that stuff even necessary?

good to know theres a forum just for mead

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