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Advice appreciated

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Horsequick

NewBee
Registered Member
Feb 24, 2020
3
0
0
Tennessee
www.melissasharvest.com
Hello everyone. I used to make wine and beer almost 20 years ago and always had decent success (All from kits though). Since the wife and I are beekeepers I thought maybe it would be cool to start a batch of mead. I didn't know about this group and probably all the vast knowledge I could obtain here. Especially the recipes! The recipe I started was the first one I came across and it was from the lifehack website. Now that I've looked at other recipes I see this one uses the least amount of honey as any one I've seen. The recipe is:

10 lbs Honey

4 gallons water

2 teaspoons yeast energizer

2 teaspoons yeast nutrient

2 packets of lalvin k1-v1116 yeast

Well the first day I didn't hydrate the yeast. I can't every remember doing that with wine kits but maybe I did. It's been a LONG time. It bubbled barely for 24 hours then shut down. So I pitched more yeast, this time hydrating it. The air lock is now bubbling and has been for a couple days once every 20 seconds. I know from reading on here this morning that airlock activity is no indication and I should take a hydrometer reading. I still have a few old hydrometers. So what should I be looking for? I know it's bubbling so there's some type of activity (not much). Is this recipe a failure or do you think it will turn out decent? It's been fermenting for a total of 10 days. Thank you in advance for any advice. I would like to get good at it because I think we will have a lot of honey this year.
 

4give

Honey Master
Registered Member
Jan 1, 2018
402
76
28
Montrose, CO
Welcome Horsequick. Good to hear a fellow beekeeper's colonies are looking good this late in the winter. Mine have been hit hard this winter for a variety of reasons.

Anyway, it's hard to predict how your batch will turn out as it doesn't appear that you're following more modern protocols. What you should be looking for is your specific gravity (SG) readings on your hydrometer continues to go down. When it's the same for 3 days in a row, it's stalled, or finished (usually < 1.000).

I know the Spring is coming and you likely have a lot of work to do if you have any number of hives to work, but I'd encourage you to invest the time to study the craft. Following recipes can work, or fail. Knowing why you do what you do, how to test/experiment, and generally give each batch of mead the best possible chance of success, is worth the investment. I'm sure you did the same when you started keeping bees, right, or at least along the way. Bees, and what's needed to keep them is expensive these days, and I hate to lose honey because I messed up a mead.

Courtesy of EricHartman on this forum, consider the following compiled resources:

The GotMead Modern Mead Making Podcast series on the procedure of making mead right:
9-5-17 Ryan Carlson - Modern Mead Making - Yeast in Mead: 9-5-17-ryan-carlson-modern-mead-making-yeast
9-12-17 Ryan Carlson - Modern Meadmaking - Making Happy Yeast: 9-12-17-ryan-carlson-making-modern-mead-yeast-keep-happy
9-19-17 Making Modern Mead - SNA, Racking, Stabilizing and Aging: 9-19-17-ryan-making-modern-mead-snas-racking-stabilizing-aging
9-26-17 Making Modern Mead - Sulfites and Sorbates: 9-26-17-ryan-tom-repas-moder-mead-making-sulfiting-sorbating
11-14-17 Ryan Carlson - Modern Mead Making - fine tuning mead: 11-14-17-ryan-carlson-science-fine-tuning-mead/


The only significant, procedural question, you be left with by the end: How exactly do I cold crash?
Either Vicky or AJ on the podcast 9/25/18 define it as: Cold crash - place your mead (still in primary but gravity no longer changing thus no longer fermenting) in a fridge around 4C for 1+ weeks (generally 1-2 weeks). Helps with flocculation - or clearing the mead by getting yeasts/proteins to stick together.

*some dated information in those podcasts is the concept of degassing. They advise degassing routinely (2-3 times daily) but it is now generally accepted that degassing is only needed to avoid mead eruptions when adding nutrient additions rather than helping the yeasts avoid a toxic environment. So generally it is not done on a schedule but just prior to nutrient additions.

That's probably 10-12h of podcast. Quite a bit of it is banter/filler... but there is gold in there, even in the banter. I've listened to each of them at least twice; taking detailed notes!

The modern mead making series continues from there but they dive into specific meads like pyments, cysers, Sessions, Braggots and I've not dived deeply there yet.

The primary - the period when the yeast are fermenting the honey
9-25-18 Ryan Carlson - Pairing Yeast to Meads: 9-25-18-ryan-carlson-pairing-yeast-to-meads
10-2-18 Ryan Carlson – Pairing Yeasts to Meads – Part 2:10-2-18-ryan-carlson-pairing-yeasts-to-meads-part-2

The secondary - the period when the mead has been racked off of the "gross lees" (sediment from primary) and the mead flavor is adjusted/augmented
6-5-18 Ryan’s Rants – Balancing Your Mead Podcast on factors that balance a meads flavor
Forum post on adjusting acids: Squatchy on acid adjustment/additions for balance

Oaking
8-29-17 Ryan Carlson - Oaking Your Mead: 8-29-17-ryan-carlson-oaking-mead
that oaking podcast is well supported by this supplement: https://morewinemaking.com/web_files...nfopaper09.pdf
Loveofrose detailed oaking experiment: http://www.gotmead.com/forum/showthr...mic-Experiment


Extra goodies I've found helpful:
A very help glossary: https://morewinemaking.com/articles/wine_terminology - fermenters talk weird sometimes!

https://morewinemaking.com/articles/SO2_management additional information on how to sulfite stabilize your mead

https://www.bjcp.org/mead/Mead_Study.pdf - basically a book on this stuff. Some seems out of date but you'll be able to spot it after understanding the podcasts. very helpful section on "balance" & mead faults.

YouTube video on Spirit indication test for determining the final ABV when additional sugars/liquids have been added or the original SG is unknown

TOSNA - Tailored Organic Staggered Nitrogen Additions calculator honey is nitrogen poor so mead needs nitrogen additions to support the yeast

https://morewinemaking.com/articles/...hed_white_wine Information on agents used to help clear your mead. The BJCP "book" has information on this as well.

https://morewinemaking.com/articles/wine_bench_trials - how to perform a bench trial
 

bernardsmith

Got Mead? Patron
GotMead Patron
Sep 1, 2013
1,611
32
48
Saratoga Springs , NY
Hi Horsequick and welcome. Not quite sure whether your recipe is in fact suggesting that you are making 4 gallons of mead or 5. Always better, in my opinion to provide us with the starting gravity rather than the amount of water you have to make the mead. ten pounds of honey to make 5 gallons altogether is about 2 lbs of honey to each gallon which would give you a likely starting gravity of about 1.070 (a potential ABV of about 9%) . Ten pound of honey to make 4 gallons (so you would be using less than 4 gallons of water) would use about 2.5 lbs of honey /gallon and that would be a starting gravity of about 1.090 (very approximately) and that would have a potential ABV of about 11-12%.

I don't know what "energizer" is or what nutrient you are using but let's assume for the moment that it will provide the yeast with the compounds the yeast need but which are missing from honey. Your question is whether this "recipe" is OK.. Here's the secret: recipes are not really important because a recipe is honey, yeast, (nutrient) and water. And honey, yeast, nutrient and water makes a good mead... or not. And the .. or not does not really depend on the ingredients but on your protocol: Does the yeast have enough oxygen when you pitch? Have you pitched the yeast so that you have a large enough viable colony? Are you fermenting the mead at temperatures that stress the yeast? is there enough nutrients in solution to feed the yeast? Is the concentration of sugar in the must so high that this will cause osmotic shock? Are you monitoring the drop in gravity so that you know that there are no hidden problems (honey cannot buffer the pH and the pH can sometimes drop precipitously low enough to stall a fermentation); Later, before you bottle, you may want to check whether the mead you've made has enough (or too much) acidic zing (too little can make it taste flat and blah). you may also want to taste to see if the mead is astringent enough (enough tannin in the mead).
In summary, then your recipe is fine.. but you are not telling us very much about your processes and mead making is really all about processes rather than recipes.
But one last point - and I tend to be a contrarian when it comes to this. Let's say you have an enormous amount of honey from your bees and let's agree that it is as easy to make 5 gallons of mead as it is to make 1... but if you make 5 gallons once a month then you might make 12 batches in a year. However, if you while you are learning and developing your processes and practices you make 1 gallon every week then you will make 50 plus batches in the same period as you made 12..and if you used each previous batch to make the next batch better (that is you deliberately learn from what you are doing then you might make about 40 teachable batches in that year... so all in all by the end of 12 months you will have become a far better mead maker making micro batches (1 gallon batches (5 bottles a batch) than you would become making 5 gallon batches... but as I say, I am a contrarian when it comes to making micro batches vs thinking we are commercial mead makers making mead for the state rather than for a few friends and family.
 

Horsequick

NewBee
Registered Member
Feb 24, 2020
3
0
0
Tennessee
www.melissasharvest.com
Wow 4give thank you for such an incredible reply!! I'll take the time to study all of this so that I'm better informed for my next batch. In the meantime I will begin to take readings on this first batch and go from there. I do enjoy learning and I tend to read all I can. For some reason I started my this first mead batch on a whim. Not smart.
Yes, our hives are looking good so far with no deadouts. We have some trees blooming and the bees are gearing up.
Seriously, thank you for that incredible reply with direction! Off to study it now...
 

Horsequick

NewBee
Registered Member
Feb 24, 2020
3
0
0
Tennessee
www.melissasharvest.com
Bernardsmith that actually makes perfect sense. I could have really gotten better hands on experience with several one gallon batches. I think instead of starting another 5 gallon batch, my next will be as you suggest, and learn from smaller batches until I am satisfied with the end products. Then on to trying melomels and such. Thank you for the insight!
 

EricHartman

Lifetime GotMead Patron
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Mar 4, 2019
498
162
43
Indiana
I noticed that a lot of the links in my link blast were broken... Gotmead doesn't always copy and paste very well. Since the links are the most important part I thought I'd shoot it again. I know it's a big post but I really want you to have the links.

The GotMead Modern Mead Making Podcast series on the procedure of making mead right:
9-5-17 Ryan Carlson - Modern Mead Making - Yeast in Mead: 9-5-17-ryan-carlson-modern-mead-making-yeast
9-12-17 Ryan Carlson - Modern Meadmaking - Making Happy Yeast: 9-12-17-ryan-carlson-making-modern-mead-yeast-keep-happy
9-19-17 Making Modern Mead - SNA, Racking, Stabilizing and Aging: 9-19-17-ryan-making-modern-mead-snas-racking-stabilizing-aging
9-26-17 Making Modern Mead - Sulfites and Sorbates: 9-26-17-ryan-tom-repas-moder-mead-making-sulfiting-sorbating
11-14-17 Ryan Carlson - Modern Mead Making - fine tuning mead: 11-14-17-ryan-carlson-science-fine-tuning-mead/


The only significant, procedural question, you be left with by the end: How exactly do I cold crash?
Either Vicky or AJ on the podcast 9/25/18 define it as: Cold crash - place your mead (still in primary but gravity no longer changing thus no longer fermenting) in a fridge around 4C for 1+ weeks (generally 1-2 weeks). Helps with flocculation - or clearing the mead by getting yeasts/proteins to stick together.

*some dated information in those podcasts is the concept of degassing. They advise degassing routinely (2-3 times daily) but it is now generally accepted that degassing is only needed to avoid mead eruptions when adding nutrient additions rather than helping the yeasts avoid a toxic environment. So generally it is not done on a schedule but just prior to nutrient additions.

That's probably 10-12h of podcast. Quite a bit of it is banter/filler... but there is gold in there, even in the banter. I've listened to each of them at least twice; taking detailed notes!

The modern mead making series continues from there but they dive into specific meads like pyments, cysers, Sessions, Braggots and I've not dived deeply there yet.

The primary - the period when the yeast are fermenting the honey
9-25-18 Ryan Carlson - Pairing Yeast to Meads: 9-25-18-ryan-carlson-pairing-yeast-to-meads
10-2-18 Ryan Carlson – Pairing Yeasts to Meads – Part 2:10-2-18-ryan-carlson-pairing-yeasts-to-meads-part-2

The secondary - the period when the mead has been racked off of the "gross lees" (sediment from primary) and the mead flavor is adjusted/augmented
6-5-18 Ryan’s Rants – Balancing Your Mead Podcast on factors that balance a meads flavor
Forum post on adjusting acids: Squatchy on acid adjustment/additions for balance

Oaking
8-29-17 Ryan Carlson - Oaking Your Mead: 8-29-17-ryan-carlson-oaking-mead
that oaking podcast is well supported by this supplement: https://morewinemaking.com/web_files/intranet.morebeer.com/files/oakinfopaper09.pdf
Loveofrose detailed oaking experiment: http://www.gotmead.com/forum/showthread.php/27970-The-Barrel-Mimic-Experiment


Extra goodies I've found helpful:
A very help glossary: https://morewinemaking.com/articles/wine_terminology - fermenters talk weird sometimes!

https://morewinemaking.com/articles/SO2_management additional information on how to sulfite stabilize your mead

https://www.bjcp.org/mead/Mead_Study.pdf - basically a book on this stuff. Some seems out of date but you'll be able to spot it after understanding the podcasts. very helpful section on "balance" & mead faults.

YouTube video on Spirit indication test for determining the final ABV when additional sugars/liquids have been added or the original SG is unknown

TOSNA - Tailored Organic Staggered Nitrogen Additions calculator honey is nitrogen poor so mead needs nitrogen additions to support the yeast

https://morewinemaking.com/articles/Fining_finished_white_wine Information on agents used to help clear your mead. The BJCP "book" has information on this as well.

https://morewinemaking.com/articles/wine_bench_trials - how to perform a bench trial
 

4give

Honey Master
Registered Member
Jan 1, 2018
402
76
28
Montrose, CO
...but as I say, I am a contrarian when it comes to making micro batches vs thinking we are commercial mead makers making mead for the state rather than for a few friends and family.

I agree with bernardsmith to at least some extent. I do make larger batches, but only of Traditionals and other's that I've already experimented with that I have a pretty good idea of how they will/should turn out (nothing is guaranteed). There's also a time component involved. As much as I'd like to be making mead every single week (and I guess I am if I'm still letting some age, etc.), I don't have the time to pull out all my gear every week, and I don't have a dedicated/permanent 'mead space', so it takes time that I don't necessarily have.

When I do make mead, I always work in at least one small batch, so I'm doing at least 2 at a time. Sometimes I plan on breaking up a 5 gallon batch for 5 different experiments once it's done fermenting and stable. One thing many on this forum will encourage you to do is to learn how to make a good Traditional - even if you experiment with other stuff in different batches along the way. I'm always working on a Traditional when I'm making batches mead - different yeast, tweak to technique, etc.
 
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