Questions about mead making tutorials

[StockeyDAW]

Thank You Bob, Mam and DB. Thank you for the encouragement. I will put something together for making the labels with these software programs. Cheers DAW

[Mamgiowl]

Can't wait - thank you

[goldseal]

I know this thread hasn't been touched for a while, but I have a few questions as a mead-making newcomer.

I started my gallon of Simple Mead (as per the tutorial) 25 days ago, then basically forgot about it.

It appears to have cleared, it's down to 0.998, but there is still a little airlock activity (several streams of small bubbles coming up from a 3/4 inch layer of lees. Taste - very promising

Now, should I have racked at around 1.010? Should I rack now or let it ferment out completely? My calculator says 15.4% alcohol, but I thought D47 dies at 14%.

Racking - I don't have any means of testing for free SO2, but do I use 5ml 10% meta every other racking as per wine?

Ta

[Mamgiowl]

I would rack it now then leave or a few days to see if anything happens, as racking sometimes stuns the yeast and it takes time to recover. If all is quiet after a rest I would say it's stopped.

Don't add a camden tablet at this racking as it will add to the stunning process.

If after a decent interval nothing wakes up, proceed as normal.

As for the higher alcohol percentage than expected - these things sometimes happen.

Having said all that I am no expert so I am ready to be contradicted, it's just the way I do things.

[goldseal]

Thank you!

[Duffbeer]

Jan is right, the D47 like most yeasts can go higher than recommended if the conditions for the yeast are good, the airlock activity is probably co2 being released, but follow Jan's advice to be sure.

[goldseal]

Oddly, although airlock activity continued for another day or two, SG has actually risen to 1.001. In fact, I took three other SG readings this morning, on three wines I think have finished. All three showed SG rises of between 0.001 and 0.003. I have no idea why. Temperatures are comparable, it's the same hydrometer, and as far as I can tell barometric pressure wouldn't make any difference.

My original question was whether to treat mead as any other wine re: racking, sulphiting, maybe stabilising, and degassing, at the appropriate points. I'm a mead novice and the tutorial isn't clear.

[fatbloke]

Oddly, although airlock activity continued for another day or two, SG has actually risen to 1.001. In fact, I took three other SG readings this morning, on three wines I think have finished. All three showed SG rises of between 0.001 and 0.003. I have no idea why. Temperatures are comparable, it's the same hydrometer, and as far as I can tell barometric pressure wouldn't make any difference.

Hum? Curious

My original question was whether to treat mead as any other wine re: racking, sulphiting, maybe stabilising, and degassing, at the appropriate points. I'm a mead novice and the tutorial isn't clear.

As far as I understand, I can't think of any reason why it should be affected by treating it any differently.

If it were me, I'd just leave it. At most, rack it off the lees. Once it's cleared (naturally), rack it again and then bulk age it. "Fresh" meads can taste completely bleedin' awful. Of the batches I've made (about a dozen or so), none of then have been nice to drink young. I tend to age then in bulk for between 6 months and a year. If they've improved after that time, then I think about whether I return them to the DJ or whether I'll bottle them. If they haven't improved much/enough (to meet my expectations/impatience) then I process them further *.

I don't tend to stabilise them, just in case I decide that I want to prime the bottles that they'll end up in - and once they're ageing in bulk, they're sealed in the DJ so I don't de-gas either. I tend to do that before serving them i.e. I de-gas with a vacuvin, a bottle at a time. Though I've been thinking about some of the de-gassing methods that Bob has suggested in his tutorial for de-gassing in bulk. I'll think about that further when it's time for the "taste test".

Mead doesn't seem to oxidise in the same way that "normal" wine does, though that might be more about the properties of honey than the actual mead.

regards

JtFB

p.s. * = PM on it's way.

[anhyzer]

Question about Mead Making tutorial.

Hi,

Im still a complete noob, so apologies for my question in advance.

In the beginners mead tutorial you mix all the ingredients plus a campden tablet, then what seems like 30 mins later (3 posts) you pitch the yeast.

Wouldn't the campden tablet kill the yeast off after such a short period?

Not trying to be smart here but its messing with one of the fundamental understandings I have.

BTW, thank you for the excellent tutorials, tried no's 1 ,2 and now trying to try Mead- Hence the question.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

AH

[NorthernWiner]

Wouldn't the campden tablet kill the yeast off after such a short period?

No. Campden has a minimal affect on commercial yeast strains. In fact, it doesn't actually kill feral yeast for that matter, but rather simply "stuns" them while the commercial strain takes over the fermentation.

[anhyzer]

Mead Making questions answered

Thank you very much Steve. Consider me edumacated a little more.

AH

[fatbloke]

Hi,

Im still a complete noob, so apologies for my question in advance.

In the beginners mead tutorial you mix all the ingredients plus a campden tablet, then what seems like 30 mins later (3 posts) you pitch the yeast.

Wouldn't the campden tablet kill the yeast off after such a short period?

Not trying to be smart here but its messing with one of the fundamental understandings I have.

BTW, thank you for the excellent tutorials, tried no's 1 ,2 and now trying to try Mead- Hence the question.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

AH

If you're in doubt, do everything except adding the yeast, leave the must for a day or two and then pitch the yeast. As Steve pointed out campden stuns the yeast, rather than kill it.

In the same way, if it ferments dry, too dry for your taste, you would normally stabilise it with sorbate. Sorbate doesn't actually kill off any remaining yeast cells (and you'd be surprised to find out how many there can be left in the mead/wine when it's finished), what it does is stop them reproducing and start a re-ferment if you add some honey (or whatever other fermentable sweetener you might wish to use - you can get non-fermentable sweeteners).

In truth, it was the first tutorial I'd written (ha! only one) and it all made sense to me - but the idea was to make it a "get you started" type thing.

If I could get my backside into gear, I should have written a newer/more UTD one (I wrote it as we didn't have one at the time).

Plus, with "traditional" mead i.e. unadulterated, the 2 factors that have the main effect on the end flavour are the honey and the choosen yeast. I tend to suggest Lalvin yeasts as my local HBS only keeps the Youngs brand ones and I get the Lalvin ones mail order - some of us here at WAH like to use the Gervin ones because that's what they can get locally (I don't mind going further afield).

As for the honey, if you can get it, try raw unprocessed honey, failing that, see if you can find a local wholesaler and get it in larger tubs as it's often cheaper like that (I often get the 1.36kg/3lb tubs as that's about right for a gallon and cheaper than 3 x 1lb jars).

Yes some of the supermarkets stock varietal honey - but it tends to work out dearer again.

A good place I've found are the likes of Lidl and Aldi. They often have some that's not quite what would be considered varietal, but it's better than cheapo supermarket processed stuff (I got 1.5kg of "Summer Blossom honey with "Wild Blossom" from Lidl at the weekend - it's quite dark orange/caramel in colour and is quite aromatic - about £2 per 500grammes. Plus one of the better traditional meads I've made was from Lidl's "Greek" honey - it was good, but probably more by luck than judgement).

If all you can get easily is the cheapo supermarket stuff, then what the hell........ just don't expect it to be a prize winner, it could be, just don't expect it.....

Good luck

regards

JtFB