Gallons Of Honey

[Her Lushness]

I email'd it to you

but if your struggling...

right click on this avatar



save to your PC (remembering where you put it)

then click on userCP (under the Wines at home banner )


click edit avatar

select option 2

browse your PC to find it

job done

DOH! I did all that and it won't dance for me... I'll keep trying, I'm good at being trying apparantly...

(SEE! It won't dance for me!)

[Zebedee]

slight technical hitch



Note: The maximum size of your custom image is 80 by 80 pixels or 19.5 KB (whichever is smaller).

that avatar is 94 by 119 but as its only 16.3 KB I though it would work

I'll have to shrink it down

[Zebedee]

OK I have shrunk it

this is what it looks like smaller

[Zebedee]

whoops forgot to post it

[Her Lushness]

whoops forgot to post it

YAYYYY, she works... Thanks Zeb... I don't suppose you could give her red hair could you... that'd make her even more like me...

[Zebedee]

red hair coming up

gimme a few minutes

[Zebedee]

[Her Lushness]

Thanks Zeb, that's fantastic.

Now, has anyone got any more advice for a novice Mead Maker?

[fatbloke]

Thanks Zeb, that's fantastic.

Now, has anyone got any more advice for a novice Mead Maker?

Yes.......

Honey has amazing "keeping" properties so get as much as he's prepared to part with.

I posted a basic mead recipe ages ago..... that should give you the method.

If you went for about 3lb per gallon (allowing for the honey being unadulterated as you said something about it being residue or something ???) that normally gives you a gravity of about 1080/1090.

If you can do, use RO (reverse osmosis) or distilled water to make the must.

I usually use either 71B or D47 yeasts (D47 is good but can sometimes need a fair amount of nutrient to start with i.e. it's quite "nitrogen hungry"), though I also use K1V as well.

All of those yeasts will ferment it to dry. Meads made with K1V can often taste very "rough" when young, but it does age very well.

Acid ??? Well I've made perfectly acceptable meads with citric, but after reading "Ashton and Duncan's" advice I tend to use 2 parts malic to 1 part tartaric as a mix and add it to about 3.5 pH.

If you found, that when the ferment has finished, that it tastes a little "medicinal" then don't worry about that. It just means that you need to age it (which you probably will anyway - I age mine for a minimum of 6 months, often a year plus).

You can also back sweeten with honey - some say it can make a mead go a bit cloudy, but that also usually disappears with ageing.

I prefer my meads medium sweet (1005 to 1010). If you search for my posts I did a comparative test of 4 commercially available meads - they were all "dessert" meads and incredibly sweet with gravities showing in the 1035 to 1040 range (from the bottle).

Oh and if your friend doesn't filter his honey, don't be tempted to do the "boiling" thing with the must - it (IMO) removes to many of the delicate flavours and aromas. I'd suggest that you mixed it as must i.e. just the honey and water, and then filter it yourself to remove any wax and other impurities. Then add the tannins/acids/nutrients etc....

Or, you could take a dig round http://www.gotmead.com/forum/index.php (there's links to their main site as well - subscription based but you can get some of the recipes etc) for ideas about melomels, cysers, pyments, etc etc. Personally, I've not had much luck with those, so the next time I try one it will be made as traditional (basic) mead and then the fruit will be then soaked in that after the fermentation. The fermentation does seem to kill off too much of the fruit flavours for my liking....


dunno if that lots any use to you....

regards

JtFB

p.s. Oh and PM me for another idea or two.....

[Her Lushness]

What you've said kind of fits in with what I was thinking anyway, I'm re-re-re reading the Compleat Meadmaker, and had already decided to pitch some fruit juice (Blackberry & possibly some strawberry in another) I'd saved from steam extraction towards the end of the ferment.

From what I gather the honey's going to come with water already, but I'll ask the chap if he can add as little as possible. I'd use bottled water as a matter of course, and can supply him with that for soaking off the honey, but can distill some extra if that will do as well as whatever he uses?

I'm all excited about it now - I love a new project!

Ageing is no problem, I've found out how much better everything tatses after 6 months to a year plus, so am prepared to be patient. Plus that way I know for next year what, if any, mistakes I make this year.

Thanks for your advice, you're a star.

[Her Lushness]

I'm now the proud owner of 5 gallons of mead.... with the promise fo more to come later on....

I'll keep you all posted of my progress.

[Sandy]

Lush

You may want to check how he is washing the combs. Some use a steam or hot water process so your "honey" may well be sterile. Go for the highest SG he can offer as you can always dilute, concentration would be much harder.

Good luck

[fatbloke]

Lush

You may want to check how he is washing the combs. Some use a steam or hot water process so your "honey" may well be sterile. Go for the highest SG he can offer as you can always dilute, concentration would be much harder.

Good luck

The sterile thing will only be an issue if you were looking for certain properties from the honey i.e. aroma or flavour etc.

There's a table in Brother Adams "Bee-Keeping at Buckfast Abbey" book as it seems he used to make his meads with capping and comb washings. I'd have thought that steam would melt the comb anyway and warm(ish) water would be better/safer for retaining cell structure of the comb.

The table in Brother Adams book explains how to work out how much honey is in "the must" by SG i.e. a Quart of "must" weighing 2lb 11oz is a 3lb per gallon mix and will have a gravity of 1.075 (and contain, coincidentally, 18.13% sugar).

If a "varietal" type flavours being sought, then it can always be back sweetened with honey of the variety you're trying to get, though the mead may go a bit cloudy when it's added and it might take a long time to age (Brother Adam was, apparently, a great believer in 5 years plus).

Of course, I can see what you're driving at, but if it's being used for melomels, pyments, cyser etc then often it's the fruit that's going to be the primary flavour. If you wanted a "good" traditional mead then add more of whatever honey you're using for flavouring and then let it back down with water to the required SG - oh and according to BA, only the softest water, or distilled water should be used.

regards

JtFB

[Her Lushness]

We used bottled water to wash the combs with, and I plan to use some more of the original honey to back sweeten the 2 gallons of mead that I'm doing.

How's your melomel coming along John? Mine are all doing nicely, and I'm looking forward to our swap!

[fatbloke]

-----%<----
How's your melomel coming along John? Mine are all doing nicely, and I'm looking forward to our swap!

Well I sulphited the mixed fruit juice and was just making my mind up (consulting a fellow mead making ally - who shan't be named - he's banned........) to decide how I'm gonna tackle it.

Yesterday, amongst other jobs, I sanitised a bucket and warmed 3lb of cheapo supermarket honey (I don't want the honey as the main flavour), which was mixed with 1.5 litres (approx) of the juice and then topped up with distilled water. I just added 1 tsp of tronozymol and 1 tsp of my "mead acid mix" (from Ashton and Duncans "Making Mead" - 2 parts malic to 1 part tartaric).

I rehydrated a pack of D47 (I didn't hold out much hope for it as it didn't really bubble or seem to do anything).

I took a quick sample to find that the gravity was sitting at a comfortable 1.100 - and pitched the yeast.

Now I should point out, that the intension is to aerate once a day (maybe twice) until I hit about 1.020 and then it will be racked into a DJ and airlocked. At the moment it's 1 gallon in a 10 litre bucket and I've never seen a must foam so much. First thing this morning just before setting off for work it had blown the small blob of cotton wool out of the grommet. This evening, it's done the same again and has also foamed out over the lid of the bucket.

I haven't made my mind up whether I'll add a half teaspoon of Fermaid-K at the 1/2 or 2/3 sugar break - either way, I'll ferment it dry and then back sweeten it with the rest of the juice - I'm not sure what the gravity of the juice is on it's own, but either way, it's currently a very lively ferment....

If I can get a gravity difference of 100 then it should be about 14% though by the time it's back sweetened it will be less, and hopefully tasting mainly of strawberries, with a hint of grape, blackberries, raspberries and blueberries.....

Watch this space.....

</saga>
regards

JtFB

p.s. I've just chucked an airlock on the bucket instead of the cotton wool - on the basis that even if vinegar flies can smell it fermenting, they can't swim and I can still lift the lid to aerate etc etc...