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Feijoa Melomel

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i cheat a bit and leave the left overs in a plastic juice bottle. one has been in one for months and no plastic taste yet. tho using small glass bottles would be better.
one advantage of plastic container is you can squeeze it down. that gets a lt of air out and lets the bottle expand back out if it keeps fermenting.

even if you don't use it, the left over can be good for experiments with spices etc.

incidentally i have a litre of leftover cyser in a bottle and accidently put left over honey in it. fermentation kicked off again and hasn't stopped even after several nights of 4-5c. SN9 yeast. the bottle not insulated or kept warm and its got to be close to max alcohol by now.
 
tweak'e said:
i cheat a bit and leave the left overs in a plastic juice bottle. one has been in one for months and no plastic taste yet. tho using small glass bottles would be better.
one advantage of plastic container is you can squeeze it down. that gets a lt of air out and lets the bottle expand back out if it keeps fermenting.

even if you don't use it, the left over can be good for experiments with spices etc.

incidentally i have a litre of leftover cyser in a bottle and accidently put left over honey in it. fermentation kicked off again and hasn't stopped even after several nights of 4-5c. SN9 yeast. the bottle not insulated or kept warm and its got to be close to max alcohol by now.
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I do have a couple of 750ml glass bottles with grolsch locks, I'll fill them right to the top then and leave them for top ups only.

Hopefully I don't have any 'accidents' with honey :P SN9 seems like a persistent little bugger!
 
don't lock the tops on, just leave them resting or held gently on. even if the mead dosn't ferment in the bottle it will be degassing.
 
tweak'e said:
don't lock the tops on, just leave them resting or held gently on. even if the mead dosn't ferment in the bottle it will be degassing.
Click to expand...

I planned on storing it in the fridge to stall the fermentation, but I didn't think of degassing (coincidentally, degassing it's something that I've just been reading about! :P). As I want this to be a very still mead, I just had a read up on various dagassing methods (something I didn't know about until today after reading a few people asking 'should I degas', which got me thinking, 'hmm, should I degas too... wait, what the heck is degassing :confused:'. I think I'll opt for the 'time' method :P. Maybe chuck in a splash racking for good measure.

I did come across this during my research:
http://homebrew.stackexchange.com/questions/2114/why-do-you-degas-wine-but-not-beer said:
The purpose of degassing in wine or mead is to benefit the yeast. CO2 is toxic to yeast and inhibits the yeast's ability to fully ferment the larger amount of sugars in wine/mead.

Degassing mead is highly recommended during primary fermentation to help the yeast, even if you plan on making a sparkling mead.

I'm curious about whether beer would benefit from degassing, though I suspect that yeast can handle the levels of sugar typically found in beer without needing to have CO2 removed from beer.
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Yet another thing to worry about! This hobby sure can send a normal person neurotic with all the things to worry about... I already see harmful bacteria everywhere now and want to sanitise everything! :P
 
tweak'e said:
don't lock the tops on, just leave them resting or held gently on. even if the mead dosn't ferment in the bottle it will be degassing.
Click to expand...

Or whack the finger of a rubber glove over the end... that's what I do... when it's full, squeeze it, then see if it fills again. they usually allow the gas to escape without flying off
 
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reminds me....balloon on the end of the bottle !

degassing, just give the mead a stir when its in the fermenter. more important at the start than at the end. after its fermented leave it alone. less movement the better. just let the co2 come out on its own unless you have vacuum pumps.
 
kenour said:
Feijoa's also tend to spoil very quickly, when I'm making pies I shuck them directly into sugar syrup. Which I'll be doing this weekend! :) I think I'll be using a bag next time for sure, then I can compare the tastes. I'll use exactly the same recipe but change the method. I might leave the acid out because tweak'e advised me that honey itself is acidic, so may not be needed.
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Yeah, that's really the biggest difference between using sugar and using honey for your main fermentable when making wines... honey makes its own acidity so you don't need to add any, even on its own sometimes it can get too acidic, although using fruit tends to buffer the effect somewhat so you're more likely to run into problems with a straight traditional mead than a melomel.
 
kenour said:
I planned on storing it in the fridge to stall the fermentation, but I didn't think of degassing (coincidentally, degassing it's something that I've just been reading about! :P). As I want this to be a very still mead, I just had a read up on various dagassing methods (something I didn't know about until today after reading a few people asking 'should I degas', which got me thinking, 'hmm, should I degas too... wait, what the heck is degassing :confused:'. I think I'll opt for the 'time' method :P. Maybe chuck in a splash racking for good measure.
Click to expand...
You are degassing for different purposes depending on whether it's an active fermentation or if it's aging in secondary...

When it's fermenting, you want to continue stirring it gently even when you're done with aerating it for a couple of reasons - one being to keep the yeast suspended, and another being to get some of the CO2 out of it because it's theoretically better for your yeasties to get their waste products away from them. Don't worry too much about it though, yeast is surprisingly hardy...

When it's aging, you want to get the CO2 gas out so you don't end up bottling a petillant (not quite sparkling) wine, it also helps with fining, some of the additives you can use to make anything in your wine settle out won't work well if there's still a lot of CO2 in solution... Gently racking it back and forth from one carboy to another can get some CO2 out, but you don't want to splash it around once you're out of fermentables because that will start introducing oxygen. Best way I've found if I'm in a hurry is to use the sanitized handle of my long handled spoon and stick it in the carboy and swirl it around gently a couple of times a day for a couple of days, that'll usually get most of it out. Or leave it secondary for a year or two, by which point it will have come out on its own.
 
Chevette Girl said:
You are degassing for different purposes depending on whether it's an active fermentation or if it's aging in secondary...

When it's fermenting, you want to continue stirring it gently even when you're done with aerating it for a couple of reasons - one being to keep the yeast suspended, and another being to get some of the CO2 out of it because it's theoretically better for your yeasties to get their waste products away from them. Don't worry too much about it though, yeast is surprisingly hardy...
Click to expand...

Got it. So, as it's fermenting at the moment under an airlock, do I just take the lid off and stir with a sanitised spoon then whack the lid back on hoping no nasties got it? Should I be less worried because as it's during this active fermentation phase you're able to do it without worrying too much as the yeast makes the environment hostile for other organisms? Or something?

There's also some honey that's settled that I want to try and get in solution, so I really do want to give it a stir tomorrow morning :D

Chevette Girl said:

When it's aging, you want to get the CO2 gas out so you don't end up bottling a petillant (not quite sparkling) wine, it also helps with fining, some of the additives you can use to make anything in your wine settle out won't work well if there's still a lot of CO2 in solution... Gently racking it back and forth from one carboy to another can get some CO2 out, but you don't want to splash it around once you're out of fermentables because that will start introducing oxygen. Best way I've found if I'm in a hurry is to use the sanitized handle of my long handled spoon and stick it in the carboy and swirl it around gently a couple of times a day for a couple of days, that'll usually get most of it out. Or leave it secondary for a year or two, by which point it will have come out on its own.
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Ok! I now understand what that weird 3 pronged plastic thing was at the LHBS! :P I do want to have some of this ready for xmas, the cyser will be 9-10 months aged, while the feijoa melomel will only be 7-8 months. I could always gift and advise they need to age for another 6 months at least before drinking :)
 
kenour said:
Got it. So, as it's fermenting at the moment under an airlock, do I just take the lid off and stir with a sanitised spoon then whack the lid back on hoping no nasties got it? Should I be less worried because as it's during this active fermentation phase you're able to do it without worrying too much as the yeast makes the environment hostile for other organisms? Or something?
Click to expand...

You definitely got it. A lot of indiscressions can go unnoticed through a vigorous fermentation... apparently up to and including a pair of ferrets frolicking through the must, according to one post I read some time ago! ... not that this means you should ever slack off on sanitation, but a good vigorous ferment does tend to slant the playing field considerably towards the stuff you want rather than the stuff you don't want. And during an active fermentation, a little oxygen exposure shouldn't hurt even after the 1/3 sugar break. Careful, not paranoid. :)
 
tweak'e said:
i cheat a bit and leave the left overs in a plastic juice bottle. one advantage of plastic container is you can squeeze it down. that gets a lt of air out and lets the bottle expand back out if it keeps fermenting...
Click to expand...

I'm gonna try this one day...
 
Chevette Girl said:
You definitely got it. A lot of indiscressions can go unnoticed through a vigorous fermentation... apparently up to and including a pair of ferrets frolicking through the must, according to one post I read some time ago! ... not that this means you should ever slack off on sanitation, but a good vigorous ferment does tend to slant the playing field considerably towards the stuff you want rather than the stuff you don't want. And during an active fermentation, a little oxygen exposure shouldn't hurt even after the 1/3 sugar break. Careful, not paranoid. :)
Click to expand...

OK! Took the top off, and gave it a bit of a stir, heaps of bubbles started coming to the top, was practically fizzing. So, I've achieved 3 things as I understand it; degassed so the yeast doesn't have to sit in their own farts/burps, moved the yeast into solution so they can work more efficiently, and mixed in the honey I used to adjust the SG that was sitting on the bottom :) It's a win win win situation!

I took an SG reading and it was 1.094, so a little bit of action since pitching the yeast. I know my OG may have been slightly inaccurate due to some sugars being bound in pulp, and honey not fully dissolved. But the addition of 3.2 kg wasn't, add, measure, add measure; I used an SG adjustment calculator I found HERE that allowed me to put in the current SG, the desired SG, and the sweetener (the have honey, hooray! :D). Even if the SG of my honey wasn't exactly what they used, I think it'll be close enough :) I'm reasonably sure that my OG was close enough to 1.100 for all intents and purposes, I did give it a big shake and it measured 1.100 before pitching, but yeah, probably slightly higher do to the unavailable sugars.
 
Just had a thought! Because of the limited protection against oxidisation during active fermentation, wouldn't this be a good time to rack/strain to get rid of some of the pulp?

I was thinking of waiting until say 2/3 sugar break the racking/straining to get rid of some of the big chunks.

Good idea? Or is there something I'm forgetting (quite possible :P).
 
You can always do a coarse filtration through a colander or something to get the big pieces out first, when making wild grape juice I'd seive it through the colander first (wouldn't catch the seeds, just the skins) then rinse the colander and run it through again with a sanitized cotton dishcloth in the colander. If you go straight to pantyhose you may get a lot of clogging. Or maybe not, depends on the consistency of the stuff. A coarse seive or colander is fine for apples and pears and watermelon in my experiences so far... the gritty nature of the fruit tends to make its own filter anyway. And if a few seeds get through the first time, you just make sure you don't get them when you rack! :)
 
Just tested the SG and it's down to 1.034, so at 2/3 sugar break already. Most of the pulp has broken down to nothing, not sure if that was the pectinase or the yeast! :P

A bit too late to consider racking tonight I think, will have to get to it after work tomorrow :)
 
Bah, tired now... decided to rack/strain last night. I thought, it's only going to take a few minutes... I was wrong :p

Brew is now happily bubbling away in it's new fermenter, will give it another week or so then into glass it goes :)
 
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