First try at mead...something doesnt see right

[aran]

Hi all, i keep bees ( 21 hives currently) so finding myself with a LARGE amount of excess honey this season my wife and I decided to have a crack at making mead.

I have home brewed beer in the past although many years ago.
So here is what i did for the first mead:

15lbs raw honey ( spring honey so probably a mix of dandelion, clover, black locust, early wild flower)
4.5 gallons water ( bottled)
1 pack lalvin rc 212 yeast ( hmmm yeah i saw this on a youtube video i think...seems it may not have been a good choice of yeast?
-> I started it at 100F for about 5-10min...now wondering if this was long enough.)

Put all this in a 6.5gallon plastic fermenter and put the air lock on.
The fermenter is at our lake house so im not there every day but when i checked after 4 days there wasnt any bubbling going on that i could see.
When i first mixed it up it said the expected ETOH was about 11% which seems low for 15lbs of honey no?

Im planning on setting another bucket of mead this weekend and was going to use d47 yeast, with yeast nutrient and energizer.

Did i do something wrong with the first batch? Should i restart and add another pack of yeast? We are now about 12 days since i made that first batch up.

Thanks in advance for the help

 

[darigoni]

1 pack of yeast. 5 Grams? You should be pitchiong a least 2 grams per gallon.

What was the temp differential between the yeast and the must when you pitched?

Are you using any nutrients?

Aerating/degassing?

Do you have a hydrometer? Bubbles are not a good indication. If you open the bucket up and give it a vigorous stir, do you get any off gassing?

Have you read the NewBee guide (see top of website).

Check out the gotmead podcasts. The last 6 weeks have been about making good mead, using modern techniques.

You may want to repitch, but at this point I might want to use a more aggressive yeast. Something like EC1118. Follow the directions for rehydration. Make sure you have about 12 grams (dry yeast is cheap). Get some yeast nutrient; preferably Fermaid O. If you can't get O then Fermaid K. If not O or K, then what ever your local brew store might have on hand. Aerate/degassing twice a day for the first couple of days. Degas for 7 to 14 days. Stir (keeping the yeast in suspension) for another 2-4 weeks after fermentation is complete.

 

[aran]

Thanks for the help mate!
I have got some yeast nutrient and energizer coming today.
I took the lid off and it did smell good and there looks to be some "fizzing" small bubbles on the surface.
Yes i have a hydrometer.
I think the temps between must and starter water were similar ( 100F in the starter) and the must was warm as i had gently warmed the honey to make it runny.

Ill follow ur instructions mate...thanks again.

 

[darigoni]

Must is the honey water mix. You're saying it was 100F when you pitched the yeast? It should have been in the temperature range of the yeast (68F to 86F). Did you heat your must up? Hopefully you didn't boil the honey, which is a common thing done by beer brewers, but not needed, as it will boil off flavor and aroma.

You need to take a hydrometer reading before you pitch your yeast and every couple of days there after. It's the only real way to know what's going on.

Assuming the must you have now is at room temperature, you'll want to rehydrate the yeast, then temper it by adding a table spoon, of the must, at a time, until the yeast mixture and must are with in 10F degrees of each other. Then pitch the yeast/must mixture.

Small bubbles may be an indication that you do have fermentation going on. Sanitize your hydrometer and drop it into the bucket. According to the gotmead batch calculator, your initial gravity should have been around 1.094 (12.5% ABV).

You may have just had a slow start due to under pitching the yeast and possibly damaging it a little, if you pitched it at 100F.

Please do some reading. Check out the 9 episode Meadology series on youtube and pay particular attention to episode #7, which is about SNA (staggered nutrient addions) and YAN.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oODPBYXqfjk&list=PLEUA9sOZJbckxRlIRaAyUw6jg2Zlrgko7

And check out this BOMM video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1gJmPsaSFE&t=3s

 

[aran]

Must is the honey water mix. You're saying it was 100F when you pitched the yeast? It should have been in the temperature range of the yeast (68F to 86F). Did you heat your must up? Hopefully you didn't boil the honey, which is a common thing done by beer brewers, but not needed, as it will boil off flavor and aroma.

You need to take a hydrometer reading before you pitch your yeast and every couple of days there after. It's the only real way to know what's going on.

Assuming the must you have now is at room temperature, you'll want to rehydrate the yeast, then temper it by adding a table spoon, of the must, at a time, until the yeast mixture and must are with in 10F degrees of each other. Then pitch the yeast/must mixture.

Small bubbles may be an indication that you do have fermentation going on. Sanitize your hydrometer and drop it into the bucket. According to the gotmead batch calculator, your initial gravity should have been around 1.094 (12.5% ABV).

You may have just had a slow start due to under pitching the yeast and possibly damaging it a little, if you pitched it at 100F.

Please do some reading. Check out the 9 episode Meadology series on youtube and pay particular attention to episode #7, which is about SNA (staggered nutrient addions) and YAN.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oODPBYXqfjk&list=PLEUA9sOZJbckxRlIRaAyUw6jg2Zlrgko7

And check out this BOMM video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1gJmPsaSFE&t=3s

Thanks ill def take a read!
No i didnt boil the honey-> heated it to 90F then added to the room temp bottled water. So im guessing the honey/water mix was about 70-80deg maybe less.
I started the yeast in 100F water which is what the packet said to do.
I must admit i didnt gradually add must to the yeast to get the temps the same before i tossed the started yeast in.
Didnt heat up the MUST other than adding the warmed honey to the room temp water.

When i put the hydrometer in before i added the yeast i thought it was saying 10-11% ETOH potential although i was probably reading it wrong lol.

 

[bernardsmith]

I know that this must seem near blasphemy to someone who brewed beer because , after all, everyone brews beer in 5 gallon batches, don't they? But you may find that until you have some mead making under your belt - and despite the fact that you have an enormous amount of honey that you don't know what to do with - you might want to simply experiment with single gallon batches using , say, 1, 2, and/or 3 lbs of honey (or more) per batch so that you can get a feel for the processes and protocols involved. And if you go that route then there is nothing to prevent you adding another 1 or 2 lbs of honey, later to the lower starting gravity meads if you find that you want the higher ABV batches and your mead making is successful. This approach allows you to better try different yeasts and different nutrition protocols and different temperatures at which you ferment the must etc etc. Working with 5 gallons at a time means that you are making about 30 bottles of mead. If the mead is great or even good that is wonderful but if the mead is meh... or if it is worse and you cannot get the yeast to ferment the sugars then you are throwing 30 bottles down the drain.. or you are forcing yourself to drink something that you would prefer not to... View making single gallons as a kind of simulation of the real thing...and when you have mastered the simulator then you are free to fly the plane for real.

 

[aran]

This make a ton of sense!
I will def make some smaller batches. I have a bunch of 1gallon carboys and plan after the first racking to divide into 1gallon lots and try different fruits at that point. To be honest my wife and I rarely drink so this is just another bit of fun to go with my beekeeping. Having said that I do want to make good tasting mead for us and also to give to friends.

I made a second batch of mead today:
10 gm of d47 yeast
15lbs honey
4.5 gallon water
2tsp DAP
1tsp yeast energizer
Started the yeast at 104F per the instructions for 15mins then gradually added must until the temps were the same then added the yeast to the main fermentation bucket.

Will see how this one turns out.

Thanks again for everyone's help...greatly appreciated by a noob !
Aran

 

[Shelley]

Take good notes, and the hydrometer will be your best friend. For a sweet mead, my rule of thumb is 3 pounds of honey per gallon (roughly -- I fine-tune with a hydrometer). That's roughly a quart of honey to three quarts of water for a total of a gallon. It looks like your second batch is probably around 6 gallons of total liquid. With D47 it will probably ferment dry, and be a bit low on the ABV.

You'll also be able to make mead from your wax cappings wash -- which is free mead, letting you sell the raw honey. (But that's a project for after you get a hydrometer and some practice.)