Toggle sidebar

temperature control and mead fermentation

  • PATRONS: Did you know we've a chat function for you now? Look to the bottom of the screen, you can chat, set up rooms, talk to each other individually or in groups! Click 'Chat' at the right side of the chat window to open the chat up.
  • Love Gotmead and want to see it grow? Then consider supporting the site and becoming a Patron! If you're logged in, click on your username to the right of the menu to see how as little as $30/year can get you access to the patron areas and the patron Facebook group and to support Gotmead!
  • We now have a Patron-exclusive Facebook group! Patrons my join at The Gotmead Patron Group. You MUST answer the questions, providing your Patron membership, when you request to join so I can verify your Patron membership. If the questions aren't answered, the request will be turned down.
Barrel Char Wood Products
Riverat

Riverat

Premium Patron
Premium Patron
Mar 31, 2011
626
5
0
Ellabell, Georgia
www.ogeecheeportapotty.com
I have a noob mazer question, I've been brewing beer for awhile and mead just caught my eye while browsing through some of my suppliers sites. I bought a kit from (probably shouldn't toss that in?) and it was, like really simple, it came with a Champane yeast (liquid Wyeast 4021 ), SNG pouches and 12 lbs honey, thinking I might not want it so dry I added another three (OG 1.10+-) and it went merrily on it's way.
That went so easily i figured I could do this without a kit so I rounded up another 15 lbs, some yeast nutrient and some dry champane yeast (actually 1118) and it took off like there was no tomorrow. If this had been one of my ales I would be putting it in a water bath or something to slow it down but left it alone. It blew through the must in 8 or 10 days (last at 1.005) and I've added 12 lbs of previously frozen bluberries.
OK there is the background, I've since looked up some of the yeasts around and my question is this, was my thinking reasonable in wanting to lower the temp? My house this time of year is 68 to 72 degrees but I have a two door reach in cooler I keep at 55 for my lagers to ferment in as I found that isn't too cool for anything, nor too warm, (at least all my beer is better than store bought) so if 50 degrees seems to be a lower limit for several wine yeasts, I'm thinking that 55 would be happy (albiet slow) and healthy for my mead yeasties?
 
Last edited:
Generally speaking, keeping traditional meads cooler than 70F during fermentation leads to smoother, better, ready-to-drink-sooner meads. I typically like 60-65F in most cases. Although EC-1118 is not my favorite yeast, it can make good mead, and it will certainly make better mead at 55F than at 72F, though it will take a lot longer at cool temps.


Be sure to check out the NewBee guide as it has a lot of good info and
Welcome to GotMead!
 
THawk said:
Pardon the newbie question, but when you say fermentation temperature, do you mean the temperature inside the bottle or the temperature of the room?
Click to expand...

Yes.

You won't see much heat generated from small batches. I think internal temps start to be a problem around 30-40 gal. Then you need to take temp readings from the center of your fermenter.
 
You know the only place I know of where I can find a place that's relatively undisturbed, with cold temperatures and is fairly dark is the server room at work (we have an AC running 24/7)... Though I don't know if I can explain why I'm leaving a liquid-filled bucket with an airlock there!! ;D :eek:
 
I'll disagree on the 30-40 gallon mark. Temperature rise in even small batches can be significant depending on the rate of fermentation. Dropping 10-20 points a day will raise the temperature of even a 1 gallon batch by a couple degrees.

My convention is that the temperature I post is the temperature of the liquid, unless otherwise noted. You can get stick-on LCD thermometers (fermometers) for a couple dollars. A probe inside a well is also an option, though more costly.
 
akueck said:
My convention is that the temperature I post is the temperature of the liquid, unless otherwise noted. You can get stick-on LCD thermometers (fermometers) for a couple dollars. A probe inside a well is also an option, though more costly.
Click to expand...

I plan on getting those from learntobrew.com once I get my shopping list sorted. It's too easy to spend too much on this addic...err...hobby... ;D
 
moonie said:
As a server administrator I can tell you that would be highly frowned upon, even if you were to share the results.
Click to expand...

Bah...As an ex-admin, I can tell you that as soon as you scared your sheep in place, there will be no questions. None. The last luser who tried to make problems for me (of course I will make your test sharepoint work before trying to rescue the raid with everybody's mail on it. Not!) kind of lost privileges on the network. Strange thing was that the problems were intermittent, changed between services, and left no traces in the logs. Weird :eek:

:p

Anyway - if I left something fermenting in the server room, noone would dare touch it, and my boss would be "bribeable" ;)

P.S. In case you're not sure, I love BOFH :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Barrel Char Wood Products

Viking Brew Vessels - Authentic Drinking Horns

Top Bottom