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BOMM Questions.

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Give a month or when the berries turn white. After, rack off and bottle. One warning. Once you introduce fruit, oxidation becomes a big concern so be careful.


Better brewing through science!
 
oxidation - meaning it can rot the fruit or god forbid skunk the mead. If you are talking about the mead is there something i can add to retard the oxidation effect? You know better brewing through science and all that. :cool:
 
Yes it will skunk the mead.

You need to keep oxygen away from the must by making sure you always have a tight lid on the bucket, with a filled airlock.

When you transfer to secondary make sure you splash as little as possible and keep the headspace small.

As far as I know there are no chems to prevent oxidation. Just good practices.


Sent from my galafreyan transdimensional communicator 100 years from now. G
 
In six days I'll be at 30 days on my BOMMs. I'm beginning to see a little clearing now so I'm hoping in that time, it will be substantially more clear. I'm going to rack them off the lees, put in secondaries, and start two new brews with the previous yeast. With that being said, should I keep airlocks on the secondaries? Should I add any water or just keep it where it is right now (which is around the bottom of the 1ga neck)?

As you guys have mentioned that oxidation is a bigger issue at this point, I'm hoping to not ruin my brews!
 
It's a bigger issue but still not something you need to go crazy about. With the headspace you mention you should be fine. Just keep the splashing to a minimum when you transfer to secondary and yes, you need to keep an airlock with water in it on the secondary.

Don't be discouraged if the mead doesn't clear when you expect. I myself never see it go very clear in the 30 day timeframe. In fact, the first 5 gallon batch I made never cleared by itself until I cold crashed it. Then a lot fell out but even then I had to rack and hit it with Super Kleer and then it was finally clear enough to polish with a filter.


Sent from my galafreyan transdimensional communicator 100 years from now. G
 
mannye said:
As far as I know there are no chems to prevent oxidation. Just good practices.
Click to expand...
KMeta - potassium metabisulfite is very helpful for protecting against oxidation. Even with good practices fruit batches may oxidize (Berry batches may be less prone than some other types). KMeta is standard practice in the wine world. I use it even in traditional batches where the need may not be as significant.

Glutathione may also have antioxidant properties.

Vitamin C has been shown to be ineffective in white wines.

occhuzzo said:
I want to make a melomel out of my BOMM. I cut it up and freeze. I rack it then through in my berries or what ever. how long do i let it sit in there? 3 weeks?
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Depending on the type of berries 3-4 weeks may leave you with excessive tannic bitterness. You wouldn't want to do that with elderberries. Usually you can get all the good stuff out in less than 7-14 days.
 
mannye said:
As far as I know there are no chems to prevent oxidation. Just good practices.
Click to expand...
KMeta - potassium metabisulfite is very helpful for protecting against oxidation. Even with good practices fruit batches may oxidize (Berry batches may be less prone than some other types). KMeta is standard practice in the wine world. I use it even in traditional batches where the need may not be as significant.

Glutathione may also have antioxidant properties.

Vitamin C has been shown to be ineffective in white wines.
 
occhuzzo said:
I want to make a melomel out of my BOMM. I cut it up and freeze. I rack it then through in my berries or what ever. how long do i let it sit in there? 3 weeks?
Click to expand...
3-4 weeks may be too long depending on the type of berries as you can get excessive tannic bitterness. You wouldn't want to do this with elderberries. Typically less than 7-14 days will get all the good stuff.
 
Yeah the clarity is really not an issue for me. Honestly I don't mind it being murky at all, to me the murkiness adds some character. With that said though, I don't want it so full of debris that people are afraid to drink it heh.

I'm probably going to store the brews in the secondaries for 4 months or so...it should be okay to bulk age correct? I figure it would be easier to just leave them in other glass carboys instead of bottling 2 gallons in 12-16oz bottles. If the latter is recommended though I'll do that.

I must get a new hydrometer though because my old one broke and I haven't taken any readings in probably a week or two.

Neighbor just came over and we sampled it...tastes great! Nice and dry like I wanted it.
 
Received ten more pounds of honey today, and this is actually orange blossom honey. The other times I used wildflower and combinations of wildflower honey. I actually have a pretty tasty local wildflower honey but it's very expensive so I don't plan on using it anymore, unless somehow I can find bulk pricing.

I have some frozen cherries in my freezer and I'm going to rack my previous BOMMS onto them today. I was waiting for the honey to come in so that I may reuse my yeast on new batches. If I remember correctly, fermentation was in full swing at about day two on my BOMMS. Should I run into any problems with the previous batch yeasts, what would be the solution, ordering more 1388 (and with speedy delivery, I might add)?

The stuff is already fine to drink. I have literally been fighting with myself to just leave it alone so that I can let it age a bit. I'm going to rack into secondary and leave for about 2-3 weeks on the cherries (since I've read not to leave it too long on the fruit). I will then probably bottle all but a bit to drink. I will post my outcomes and also share any info on the upcoming batches. I received my replacement hydrometer and I may take a final reading today, although I don't know exactly how accurate it'll be since I've stolen a few drinks and also added a good bit of honey since I last measured. I dunno if all of the honey was converted since I added it pretty late in the fermentation; I had already added a lot of honey in intervals too so the batches may have reached a critical limit.

For the record, I began the first BOMMs on the 27th of June, so they've been in primary for about four and a half weeks now (today is the 31st of July).
 
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Racked one batch onto all of the cherries and bottled the other batch. I'm drinking the bottled one now. I added too much honey to this batch (for it to finish dry anyways), as its gravity was heavier than the other, but it actually tastes really, really good. It's better than the Redstone mead that I bought hands down... way better (to be fair though I bought the juniper berry variety so maybe that's a more complex brew to master...with that said though, I wouldn't buy it again). There was a stark difference between my two batches, and although I don't necessarily aim for sweet alcoholic drinks, this is actually very tasty. My wife even liked it, and she loathed the JAOMs and the variations I made of that. The biggest difference here immediately is the yeast. This 1388 is top notch and Fleischmanns, well, it's much better for bread hah. Not that it's bad mind you, but Bray did a fine job of researching and trying different strands because this is exactly what I was hoping to craft at home.

The batch racked on cherries is much stronger, and I can't wait to try it out after a few weeks of sitting on the cherries.

I already started my new batches as well, I will be closely monitoring their fermentations for the next few days. Hopefully they start with no problems. Because the one batch seemed overstressed I did not reuse that yeast. However, the one with the less than 1.000 f.g. is the one that I used for both new batches today.
 
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I am making one gal of the BOMM and i followed all the directions. It will be Day 2 and i do not see any bubbles. do i add something, should i go to church and light a candle for my dying mead? I smacked the smack pack and let it sit there and think for 3 hrs then i let it join the party. thinking back i should have let it sit for 3 hrs and then maybe put it in some go-firm for a few hours then into the mead. i do not know. I do not want to be a MEAD making master but i would love to get directions and follow them and bamm i will have a copy of a good mead. So am i stalled and i should hold on and see what happens or should i dump stuff into it and see what happens or should i dump the poor thing?
 
Forget bubbles. They don't mean anything. Be patient. It's generally a silent beast until you add nutrients. You will need a gravity reading to determine how things are going. I just sanitize the hydrometer and drop it in the jug.


Better brewing through science!
 
Relax. Is it too cold? Did the package of yeast swell up before you dumped it? Is the yeast expired?

If you followed all the directions it will eventually get going. Sometimes it can take a day or two to get started.


Sent from my galafreyan transdimensional communicator 100 years from now.
 
The Temp is 70 - 72 F. the pack was 4 months old, it swelled up a little very little. It started bubbling a little today. i will get a gravity reading when i get home and air and degas it.
 
I have the MEAD in a bucket...first time doing that and i do not have a way to test it because i normally test it in a carboy. Need to fix that ASAP
 
I figured I would add to this thread instead of creating a new one, lots of good info here.

Does the whole 1388 pack get added to the one gallon? Is it possible to split up the yeast pack into 3 separate gallons?
 
bosco500 said:
I figured I would add to this thread instead of creating a new one, lots of good info here.

Does the whole 1388 pack get added to the one gallon? Is it possible to split up the yeast pack into 3 separate gallons?
Click to expand...

Yes, the whole pack goes in the gallon. I wouldn't advise splitting it because your pitching rate will be too low. You can make a starter, then split it between the 3 batches.


Better brewing through science!
 
Thanks. How come the package says it's for 5 gallons? Different pitch rate for beer?
 
It's for 5 gallons of 1.04 SG or less. In addition, beer has more nutrients.


Better brewing through science!
 
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