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Cannot understand the maths!

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fatbloke

good egg/snappy dresser.....
GotMead Patron
Haha American values just confuse me. I convert everything to metric!

Sorry about strange quote with my own answers in between. I am replying from my phone and it isn't ideal
Well that's equally fine (which is one of the ways you can tell Canadians, Kiwi's and Aussies - if the grammar is correct but they use metric values, they're less likely to be Americans.... they like their imperial units. Metric units but with either wrong/incorrect grammar and/or syntax, often suggests English as a second language etc etc).

Making mediocre meads is easy, making good meads less so and takes a bit of patience - not to mention perseverance.

If you dig around locally, probably specialist off license or wine dealer places, you can find commercially made meads, just that a lot of them tend to be very sweet. There's a thread about UK available commercial meads you can search for. The best one I've currently tasted is Moniack Mead. Made in Scotland - still quite sweet etc, but better tasting from current experience.

The other biggest snag, is finding either the same ingredients as you see mentioned here or comparable equivalents. FermaidK is the nutrient (or is it energiser - the US members here like to have special names for everything) that's made by Lallemand (who make the Lalvin range yeasts), but it's bloody hard to find locally, I've had to just mail order it from the US to get some. Or DAP a.k.a. di-ammonium phosphate is another one often mentioned.

The most easily available equivalent to FermaidK here, is called "Tronozymol". DAP ? well the Youngs yeast nutrient is mostly DAP, with another ingredient that also provides nitrogen according to google, so is pretty close.

For honey ? I don't really like the supermarket stuff, even branded stuff like the Rowse range is most likely filtered and heated etc (they process it for eating tastes, which isn't necessarily the best for mead making), which removes too much of the character of the original, as it was harvested.

If you can find a local bee keeper and get it direct from them, especially if it's raw honey (don't worry about dead bees, bits of wax etc, that will come out during the making) then that's likely to be the best quality you'll find.
 

cosmogirl

NewBee
Registered Member
Sep 5, 2013
22
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0
Belfast Northern Ireland
I love moniack. It's the only brand that I have tried and what inspired me to make my own.

I think I will forget about measuring things too accurately for this batch. It's just a practice run to get a feel for it. I will add a cinnamon stick today and next week stir in another 600g honey or so.

When it stops bubbling i will transfer it to another clean container, then wait for it to clear. When it's clear then I will stabilise and figure out how to bottle. It is bound to give me something that I can drink, then my next batch will have bit more finesse
 

joemirando

Got Mead? Patron
GotMead Patron
fatbloke,

which is one of the ways you can tell Canadians, Kiwi's and Aussies - if the grammar is correct but they use metric values, they're less likely to be Americans....

So are you saying that Americans don't use metric values, or that we don't use correct grammar? ;D

Is you be sayin' we don't be talk good? ;)

Hahahaha

Joe
 

Chevette Girl

All around BAD EXAMPLE
Moderator
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Apr 27, 2010
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Ottawa, ON
I am not sure what this question is asking. I poured out some water from the five liter bottle, added everything... oranges raisins and honey... then poured enough water back in to leave about two inches at the top.

:) You answered the question even without being sure what was asked. Think about it, there's a difference between X amount of honey IN Y volume of water (gives you Y volume), which is what you did, and X amount of honey AND Y volume of water (gives you more than Y volume), and is what you'd get if you were using a fermentation bucket and added all the honey and all the water, there's still the volume of the honey.

...and yeah, some of us make sport of trying to guess where the new people are from based on their grammar (Americans drop the "u" in armour, neighbour, flavour but Canadians don't) and useage of units (Europeans and Aus/NZ generally work in metric, Canadians are half and half, Americans are generally imperial), and I'm still working out if it's just Brits or all Europeans who use the term "demijohn", which is not commonly used in North America.

Edit: yeah Joe, you 'mericains talk funny, ain't got no good English, stuff like "youse guys" and "I seen", and you spell worse, always forgetting the "u", not to mention the young folk's complete inability to process punctuation and proper sentence structure or tell the difference between to/too/two, or its/it's, then/than, lose/loose... (although that's not unique to US, I dunno what they're teaching in schools these days but it's sure not what I learned! And furthermore, get off my lawn! </old fart rant>)
 
Last edited:

GntlKnigt1

Got Mead? Patron
GotMead Patron
Mar 17, 2004
2,484
8
38
Chicago area formerly Netherlands
:) You answered the question even without being sure what was asked. Think about it, there's a difference between X amount of honey IN Y volume of water (gives you Y volume), which is what you did, and X amount of honey AND Y volume of water (gives you more than Y volume), and is what you'd get if you were using a fermentation bucket and added all the honey and all the water, there's still the volume of the honey.

...and yeah, some of us make sport of trying to guess where the new people are from based on their grammar (Americans drop the "u" in armour, neighbour, flavour but Canadians don't) and useage of units (Europeans and Aus/NZ generally work in metric, Canadians are half and half, Americans are generally imperial), and I'm still working out if it's just Brits or all Europeans who use the term "demijohn", which is not commonly used in North America.

Edit: yeah Joe, you 'mericains talk funny, ain't got no good English, stuff like "youse guys" and "I seen", and you spell worse, always forgetting the "u", not to mention the young folk's complete inability to process punctuation and proper sentence structure or tell the difference between to/too/two, or its/it's, then/than, lose/loose... (although that's not unique to US, I dunno what they're teaching in schools these days but it's sure not what I learned! And furthermore, get off my lawn! </old fart rant>)

Dahbodeaahuse bees wrong. and fur dang sake, y'all quit hijacking duh poor youngun's thread !!!
 

fatbloke

good egg/snappy dresser.....
GotMead Patron
fatbloke,



So are you saying that Americans don't use metric values, or that we don't use correct grammar? ;D

Is you be sayin' we don't be talk good? ;)

Hahahaha

Joe
No, it's just that you get used to spotting the slight differences, in spelling especially, but also syntax and some of the terms/words being used.

Hell, you only need to visit here, to follow how the accents change quite quickly for a relatively small difference.

Ha! if only you could make it to grapefest, weekend after next. It's in Yorkshire, but it's run by a "geordie", with the locals being from the Wakefield area-ish, but then likes of me from the south east and the London/"Estuary" accent, some from the West midlands and their "Brummie" speak, a few from the South West and their "Yokel" sound, with an element from "the Northern Skirt wearers".......

Some systems/OS actually allow about 6 or 7 versions of "English"/GB/US/IE/CA/SA/AUS/NZ etc etc.

Maybe it's like the German speaking part of Switzerland. They're taught "high" German in school, but spoken is "SwizerDeutsche" (sorry, crap spelling most likely).

Hence you might not be able to tell the exact location/accent, but you get a fair idea......
 

GntlKnigt1

Got Mead? Patron
GotMead Patron
Mar 17, 2004
2,484
8
38
Chicago area formerly Netherlands
No, it's just that you get used to spotting the slight differences, in spelling especially, but also syntax and some of the terms/words being used.

Hell, you only need to visit here, to follow how the accents change quite quickly for a relatively small difference.

Ha! if only you could make it to grapefest, weekend after next. It's in Yorkshire, but it's run by a "geordie", with the locals being from the Wakefield area-ish, but then likes of me from the south east and the London/"Estuary" accent, some from the West midlands and their "Brummie" speak, a few from the South West and their "Yokel" sound, with an element from "the Northern Skirt wearers".......

Some systems/OS actually allow about 6 or 7 versions of "English"/GB/US/IE/CA/SA/AUS/NZ etc etc.

Maybe it's like the German speaking part of Switzerland. They're taught "high" German in school, but spoken is "SwizerDeutsche" (sorry, crap spelling most likely).

Hence you might not be able to tell the exact location/accent, but you get a fair idea......

Rats. Wish I had know sooner. Later this month will be going to Koblenz, Germany for castles and wine, but it could have been UK. Please, let me know if/when other events happen there... maybe I can make one and see something of the UK at the same time....
 

cosmogirl

NewBee
Registered Member
Sep 5, 2013
22
0
0
Belfast Northern Ireland
My husband must think I am a losing my mind as I just burst into laughing reading this thread! I thought I had of all the slang terms for the various English regional accents, but obviously not! What on earth is a Northern Skirt Wearer!
 

fatbloke

good egg/snappy dresser.....
GotMead Patron
I was always under the impression that American English is closer to Queens' English than..well.. English English..
That sir, is very, very far from the truth.......

The best English spoken here, is believed to come from the Inverness area of Scotland.

A strong accent, yet clearly annunciated, with few, if any, dropped consonants...
 

joemirando

Got Mead? Patron
GotMead Patron

kudapucat

NewBee
Registered Member
Dec 2, 2010
2,383
10
0
Bundoora, Melbourne, Australia
What gave me away as not being American? :)
I live in Northern Ireland.

I will look into buying what is necessary to stabilise things in a home brewing shop. That's good advice.

Is there another yeast I could try that is less temperamental? I did mean to type d 47, sorry about that!

You said maths, not math.
Cosmo is a women's magazine in this country, and Cosmogirl is a term for a fan of the mag.
Also your English was good, you use metric, I guessed maybe UK because you spell liter the US way and not the French (litre) like we do.
 

kudapucat

NewBee
Registered Member
Dec 2, 2010
2,383
10
0
Bundoora, Melbourne, Australia
As for the maths.
SG is density. It is given as kg/litre or g/ml
Hence: water is 1.000
Honey on average has a gravity of 1.6

Mead has starting gravities of 1.060-1.160 depending on how strong and how sweet you like it.
Simply weigh the honey, measure the water, add them together, measure the total after mixing, the divide the weight by the volume for SG.

ie
SG = kg of honey + litres of water / total litres

(We don't need to weigh the water because we know its 1.000 kg/litre)

Now it starts getting a bit more complex.
First, your yeast has a tolerance. This should be on the packet or in the info sheet.

Second, this tolerance is a guide, not a rule.

Now we use a magic number. 135 (well that's the number I use - it's more suited to higher alcohol than for beer)

If your mead starts at 1.100 and finishes as 1.000 I say it's dropped 100 points.

So taking the tolerance of D47 (14%) we divide by 135 to get 0.104
So D47 should be able to drop your mead 104 points.
So for a dry mead start at 1.100 or less
For a medium about 1.115
For a sweet 1.130
For a dessert 1.140+

Does that help?
 

cosmogirl

NewBee
Registered Member
Sep 5, 2013
22
0
0
Belfast Northern Ireland
Cosmo is my husband's nickname, though I can see how it could get confused with the magazine!

This batch seems to be doing okay. I don't have a hydrometer as amazon is taking time with the delivery. It went quite frothy but it has settled down now. It's bubbling away. I added in a cinnamon stick and 650g of honey. I have no idea what I am really looking for. I really regret starting without a hydrometer as it is impossible to track progress.
 
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