Secondary bucket help.

[Aaron Jaworowski]

Hey everyone. After months if reading the fourm and listening to all the got mead podcast I finally got enough faith to start my first mead.

I am starting with 2 gallons in my primary fermentation bucket (2.25 gallon) right now. My plan is to split them up into two one gallon batches once they go to secondary.

I want to leave one gallon a traditional and the other I want to add blueberries and vanilla. My question is for my batch with the blueberries am I okay to place it back in a two gallon bucket or do you think that would leave to much headroom?

I can't put it in a one gallon carboy and fit the berries. Any input would be much appreciated

Thanks Aaron.

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

 

[4give]

Hi Aaron,
I'm no expert, so these are just my thoughts. In short, I'd say you'd have too much head-space in secondary. I'm guessing you won't be putting nearly a gallon worth of blueberries in to fill that head-space as well.

If I understand it correctly, you have 2 gallons of must fermenting in a 2.25 gallon bucket. I'm guessing at your process a bit here, and assuming you're going to ferment to dry, stabilize in secondary, and not back-sweeten (yet). As I picture it, you'll have some racking loss as you won't take the rough lees you let settle at the bottom of primary to secondary. You might lose a cup +/- a bit from racking.

I'm also assuming you'll be racking to standard glass gallon jugs that take a 6/6.5 stopper. This should leave you with OK head-space in both if you don't lose too much in racking. One idea would be to let them both age a bit as Trads and make sure both gallons are 'decent' (hard to define for us newbees). When you rack again off the finer lees, you'll have a bit more loss, and could then make sure the Trad jug is full, and add the blueberries to the other.

If you lose a bit more on the initial racking from primary, or you only want to add a cup of blueberries, you can just top off the one with blueberries. I'm not sure what the experts think of this, but once stabilized (important), you could take some of the must out and seal it (e.g. in a pint jar), and keep it in a fridge. It could then be used to top off any other racking losses.

Best wishes on this first attempt.

 

[Aaron Jaworowski]

Hi Aaron,
I'm no expert, so these are just my thoughts. In short, I'd say you'd have too much head-space in secondary. I'm guessing you won't be putting nearly a gallon worth of blueberries in to fill that head-space as well.

If I understand it correctly, you have 2 gallons of must fermenting in a 2.25 gallon bucket. I'm guessing at your process a bit here, and assuming you're going to ferment to dry, stabilize in secondary, and not back-sweeten (yet). As I picture it, you'll have some racking loss as you won't take the rough lees you let settle at the bottom of primary to secondary. You might lose a cup +/- a bit from racking.

I'm also assuming you'll be racking to standard glass gallon jugs that take a 6/6.5 stopper. This should leave you with OK head-space in both if you don't lose too much in racking. One idea would be to let them both age a bit as Trads and make sure both gallons are 'decent' (hard to define for us newbees). When you rack again off the finer lees, you'll have a bit more loss, and could then make sure the Trad jug is full, and add the blueberries to the other.

If you lose a bit more on the initial racking from primary, or you only want to add a cup of blueberries, you can just top off the one with blueberries. I'm not sure what the experts think of this, but once stabilized (important), you could take some of the must out and seal it (e.g. in a pint jar), and keep it in a fridge. It could then be used to top off any other racking losses.

Best wishes on this first attempt.

You are exactly right, I plan to re-rack into glass carboys once my fermentation had died off hopefully at 1.00 on my hydrometer.

I plan to keep the Lee's in suspension by slowly mixing the mead until I show no more signs if active fermentation at witch point I will stabilize and re-rack.

The only fear I have with adding the berries to a one gallon carboy is I feel the amount I will be able to add to the mead will be very small and not allow the flavor to develop in the mead.

Thanks for the reply, Lots of good information.

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

 

[darigoni]

You should be fine. We, as mead makers, are a little over concerned with oxidation. For the amount of time you are going to have your fruit in the secondary (7-14 days) oxidation should not be an issue. That being said you may want to stabilize (Ksorbate & Kmeta) when you rack from primary to secondary. Are you going to use vanilla extract or a vanilla bean? If you're going to use a bean, you may want to have soaked it in alcohol (vodka, rum, whiskey, etc.), for a couple of weeks, to sterilize and extract the flavor or, if you haven't done this, you may want to add it after you remove the fruit and have racked (3rd time) into a carboy, so that you have more time for the vanilla bean to do its thing.

 

[Aaron Jaworowski]

You should be fine. We, as mead makers, are a little over concerned with oxidation. For the amount of time you are going to have your fruit in the secondary (7-14 days) oxidation should not be an issue. That being said you may want to stabilize (Ksorbate & Kmeta) when you rack from primary to secondary. Are you going to use vanilla extract or a vanilla bean? If you're going to use a bean, you may want to have soaked it in alcohol (vodka, rum, whiskey, etc.), for a couple of weeks, to sterilize and extract the flavor or, if you haven't done this, you may want to add it after you remove the fruit and have racked (3rd time) into a carboy, so that you have more time for the vanilla bean to do its thing.

Darigoni thank you for the reply. So my plan was to rack into secondary once my mead had run dry. At witch point I was going to split the batch and add fruit to one of the two gallons for 7-14 days then pull the fruit keep checking my hydrometer readings and if all looks well stabilize re-rack and cold crash for a week. It sounds like you think it would be best to stabilize the mead before the fruit addition, Why is that?

I wanted to add vanilla bean witch is something I have never used before. Do you have any more advice on this? How much to use whole bean or just scrape the insides?

Once again thank you for all the helpful information.

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

 

[darigoni]

Stabilizing would prevent fermentation from starting back up and eating the sugars in your fruit. But I was speaking before I actually knew what your goal was. It sounds like you want your fruit to ferment?

Using kmeta will also slow down aging (i.e. oxydation).

I’ve always just cut my vanilla beans up, when using them. But I also soak them in vodka or spiced rum for 2 to 6 weeks, and then dump both the beans and alcohol into my secondary.

 

[Aaron Jaworowski]

Sorry I guess I should have added more details on what I am trying to do.

My thoughts were even if the blueberries start to ferment in secondary my ABV hopefully will not go to crazy. I am using 71B yeast witch will hopefully stop at 14%. I used the batch builder website to determine the right amount on honey to hopefully run dry at 14%. I understand yeast has a mind of it's own and can go above that 14% but I guess in my mind it was wishful thinking it will stop somewhere around that area. Being much more experienced than I do you think it would make a better mead if I stabilized first than added fruit and vanilla?

As far as the vanilla goes I really like the idea of soaking it in rum. Like I said I have never played around with a vanilla bean. Would you have any recommendations as to how much run and vanilla bean I should use for a one gallon batch?

Thanks Aaron.

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

 

[VetTanker]

Sorry I guess I should have added more details on what I am trying to do.

My thoughts were even if the blueberries start to ferment in secondary my ABV hopefully will not go to crazy. I am using 71B yeast witch will hopefully stop at 14%. I used the batch builder website to determine the right amount on honey to hopefully run dry at 14%. I understand yeast has a mind of it's own and can go above that 14% but I guess in my mind it was wishful thinking it will stop somewhere around that area. Being much more experienced than I do you think it would make a better mead if I stabilized first than added fruit and vanilla?

As far as the vanilla goes I really like the idea of soaking it in rum. Like I said I have never played around with a vanilla bean. Would you have any recommendations as to how much run and vanilla bean I should use for a one gallon batch?

Thanks Aaron.

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

YMMV, but the one time I used a whole vanilla bean, sliced down the middle to open it, then cut in three pieces, I left it for 10 days in cinnamon cyser and that was way too long, for that mead at least. It completely overpowered both the apple and cinnamon flavors. I was too busy during that time to check the taste or I’d have pulled it sooner.

 

[Aaron Jaworowski]

YMMV, but the one time I used a whole vanilla bean, sliced down the middle to open it, then cut in three pieces, I left it for 10 days in cinnamon cyser and that was way too long, for that mead at least. It completely overpowered both the apple and cinnamon flavors. I was too busy during that time to check the taste or I’d have pulled it sooner.

Thank you for sharing your experience, that is the last thing I want to do is overpower the other flavors.

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

 

[Squatchy]

Adding the fruit will dilute your batch because of all the water in the juice. So you will be lowering your gravity. So the yeast should be able to take it dry.

 

[Aaron Jaworowski]

Squatchy do you think I should worry about the head space if I add the blueberries to one gallon on mead in a 2.25 bucket? I was planing to leave it for 7-14 days then re rack but I am not opposed to going longer to add more flavor

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

 

[Squatchy]

A week or 10 days should be fine. Freeze them first and while they are thawing out and semi-soft crush them just enough to break them a bit so the must can get in if you stabilize it before you add the fruit. It will add more fresh fruit flavor. If you add it before you stabilize it, you will get the fermented flavor. Your headspace will be ok for that short period but I would then move it to a better vessel once you're done with the fruit.

If you stabilize before you add the fruit, it will protect the mead even more than if not stabilized.

 

[Aaron Jaworowski]

A week or 10 days should be fine. Freeze them first and while they are thawing out and semi-soft crush them just enough to break them a bit so the must can get in if you stabilize it before you add the fruit. It will add more fresh fruit flavor. If you add it before you stabilize it, you will get the fermented flavor. Your headspace will be ok for that short period but I would then move it to a better vessel once you're done with the fruit.

If you stabilize before you add the fruit, it will protect the mead even more than if not stabilized.

Fantastic, thank you so much for the help squatchy & everyone else who chimed in!After talking to everyone on here it looks like stabilizing first is the way I want to go.

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk