Hello All,
I know that I am an extreme novice at this and started my first batch of Mead about 4 months ago with the following recipe and technique that was bestowed upon me by the local homebrewing store.
1. 3lb Wildflower Honey
2. 1 pack(5g) of Lalvin 71B-1122 wine yeast
3. a pinch of Wyeast Brewers Yeast Nutrient
Here are the steps I followed;
1. Sanitize everything with IO Star
2. Warm honey in the jug in a warm water bath
3. Pour honey into 1 Gallon Glass Jug
4. Whip honey with a Whip Wine Degasser for 3-5 minutes using drill
5. Add 3 quarts water, whip again to mix the must
6. Add a pinch of Nutrient
7. Add the yeast (i just poured in the dry yeast) it slowly mixed
8. Cork with a airlock
I let it sit in the dark for 4 months, all the Flocculation was accumilated at the bottom of the bottle. I used an autosiphon and racked to a new sanitized gallon jug. I mixed in 1oz of sweet orange peel and a few cinnamon stick. I tasted the mix at this time and it was not bad...I could certainly taste alcohol. Here is a link to what it looks like now;
Last night I made two new batches following the same method but in each I added frozen fruit that I mashed, 1 strawberry and 1 rasberry - no additives. They look like this this morning after 12 hours;
Here are my questions;
1. Should I have prepared the yeast differently? added it to water then poured into the must?
2. Do I need to gently stir the yeast formed at the top with the fruit mix to avoid a cap? how often?
3. Have I made poison ?
Any advice is much appreciated, I am new so please go easy on me.....
I know that I am an extreme novice at this and started my first batch of Mead about 4 months ago with the following recipe and technique that was bestowed upon me by the local homebrewing store.
1. 3lb Wildflower Honey
2. 1 pack(5g) of Lalvin 71B-1122 wine yeast
3. a pinch of Wyeast Brewers Yeast Nutrient
Here are the steps I followed;
1. Sanitize everything with IO Star
2. Warm honey in the jug in a warm water bath
3. Pour honey into 1 Gallon Glass Jug
4. Whip honey with a Whip Wine Degasser for 3-5 minutes using drill
5. Add 3 quarts water, whip again to mix the must
6. Add a pinch of Nutrient
7. Add the yeast (i just poured in the dry yeast) it slowly mixed
8. Cork with a airlock
I let it sit in the dark for 4 months, all the Flocculation was accumilated at the bottom of the bottle. I used an autosiphon and racked to a new sanitized gallon jug. I mixed in 1oz of sweet orange peel and a few cinnamon stick. I tasted the mix at this time and it was not bad...I could certainly taste alcohol. Here is a link to what it looks like now;
Last night I made two new batches following the same method but in each I added frozen fruit that I mashed, 1 strawberry and 1 rasberry - no additives. They look like this this morning after 12 hours;
Here are my questions;
1. Should I have prepared the yeast differently? added it to water then poured into the must?
2. Do I need to gently stir the yeast formed at the top with the fruit mix to avoid a cap? how often?
3. Have I made poison ?
Any advice is much appreciated, I am new so please go easy on me.....