Mead

[awalker]

At last we have taken all of the honey out of our hives.
Managed to get 75lbs of honey for bottling.

Removing the cappings

Liquid gold

Mead


Washed the cappings which produced a solution of SG1.130.
So did not even need to add any honey to it.
Added oranges, lemons an yeast and nutrients.

[simple one]

Fantastic. I'll have to bend your ear reference the hives and the mead when I come back down south.

[awalker]

Fantastic. I'll have to bend your ear reference the hives and the mead when I come back down south.

No problem at all, should know a bit more by then.
You got the bread maker yet?

[simple one]

Ha! Not yet, but will do. My car blew the head gasket when I travelled down to Col for a wedding. It was on the cards for ages, pretty much had been nursing it around for months. Anyway that car is scrap bound.
So have a few expenses to cope with before I buy the wife a "gift".

But on the plus point my wife has given the green light for both my brick shed (10x20!) and my/a/our hive!

[fatbloke]

What yeast did you use ? As you'd appreciate, 1.130 is quite high.

Me ? I'd be aerating/stirring daily, until it hits the 1/3rd sugar break and then hit it with a little more nutrient, particularly organic sources like boiled bread yeast.

regards

fatbloke

p.s. and for info, the late Brother Adam (Buckfast Abbey) also used to use comb and cap washings. He originally used "Maury" yeast, which seems to be the same as Lalvin's D21, but when that because unavailable easily, he moved over to using (as far as I could find out) Gervins Varietal "E", which is the same as Lalvins K1V-1116

[awalker]

What yeast did you use ? As you'd appreciate, 1.130 is quite high.

Higher than I am used to with my beers!
I used a Lalvins yeast, I think it was EC-1118 champagne yeast (not sure until i get home)

Me ? I'd be aerating/stirring daily, until it hits the 1/3rd sugar break and then hit it with a little more nutrient, particularly organic sources like boiled bread yeast.

p.s. and for info, the late Brother Adam (Buckfast Abbey) also used to use comb and cap washings. He originally used "Maury" yeast, which seems to be the same as Lalvin's D21, but when that because unavailable easily, he moved over to using (as far as I could find out) Gervins Varietal "E", which is the same as Lalvins K1V-1116

Thanks for the heads up on the dried bread yeast boiled as a nutrient.
I will add a small amount and give it a rouse to keep it going.

Interesting information, thanks fatbloke

[fatbloke]

Higher than I am used to with my beers!
I used a Lalvins yeast, I think it was EC-1118 champagne yeast (not sure until i get home)

Ah, that's a bit of a shame. I try to stay away from EC-1118 and other champagne yeasts. They just seem to blow too much of the aroma elements and some of the finer, more subtle flavour elements straight out the airlock.

Thanks for the heads up on the dried bread yeast boiled as a nutrient.
I will add a small amount and give it a rouse to keep it going.

Interesting information, thanks fatbloke

Ok, so with that all in mind, if it manages to ferment dry i.e. about the 1.000 or less (well OK, so presuming your start of 1.130 and a finish of 1.000), that would be a drop of 130 points which equates to 17.66% ABV. So it's very likely that it'll taste "alcohol hot" (and like most meads straight off the yeast, bloody horrible). That being the case, take a gravity reading, then stabilise with campden/sulphite and sorbate, then back sweeten with honey (I usually make it a syrup of 50/50 honey and water). Do that before you clear it, as honey has a habit of causing a haze, if the brew has already been cleared.

The back sweetening with some of the original honey, will normally restore the aroma/taste lost by the fermentation with a champagne yeast, as well as assisting in giving it a little more body/mouth feel. I generally back sweeten to 1.010 - more than that is invariably too sweet, and lower than that too dry.

Then clear it, with with racking and time, or finings

regards

fatbloke

p.s. Oh and as well as the "boiled bread yeast" trick, you can even use a teaspoon of marmite for nutrient - the only issue with marmite is that you have to be careful about campden/sulphite levels as marmite contains a fair amount of salt and any over use of campden tablets (sodium metabisulphite) can leave you with a slightly salt/metallic type off flavour.

[awalker]

Thankyou fatbloke.

Only used that yeast as I had it already.
Quite the strong mead, forgot about that possible drop to 1.000, eek .

I like the idea of back sweetening it, will try that when it finishes out.

Should have some extra honey available after bottling so will try another batch from scratch as you have already out lined.
Thanks.

[fatbloke]

Thankyou fatbloke.

Only used that yeast as I had it already.
Quite the strong mead, forgot about that possible drop to 1.000, eek .

I like the idea of back sweetening it, will try that when it finishes out.

Should have some extra honey available after bottling so will try another batch from scratch as you have already out lined.
Thanks.

Well don't waste the cappings, rinse them off (and the comb as well if you can rinse that before reuse). Then you know what gravity it's at and whether you need to use any more honey or not.

For the yeast, I'd say K1V-1116 or if you want to PM me an address, I could chuck some D21 in the post....

Have a look around at gotmead, for appropriate "staggered nutrient addition" techniques, as well as aeration etc. Don't worry about the suggestion of using DAP and FermaidK for nutrient as is often mentioned at gotmead - they're not easy to get here (I get mine from the US). You can just use tronozymol, but split the dosage into 2 and add half before pitching the yeast and the second half at the 1/3rd sugar break...

Oh, and if you're just doing 1 gallon batches, it might be best to start it in a bucket. Then when you've aerated and added the second nutrient addition at the 1/3rd sugar break, then move it over to a demi-john to airlock and finish.....

[testtube]

Thank's fella's, made a couple of mead's that didn't turn out too good, recon that should get me making some good stuff.. Ta..