Thanks! I'll take your word over the wine/beer people any day of the week
As for one pack or more, it really doesn't matter. My first batch will set me back ~ $800 anyway, so an extra pack won't do much difference
General questions
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Thanks! I'll take your word over the wine/beer people any day of the week
As for one pack or more, it really doesn't matter. My first batch will set me back ~ $800 anyway, so an extra pack won't do much difference
Holy smoke, Batman!
How big is this batch? Or maybe you're using ancient, rare, mono-floral honey? $800 is quite a bit.
Well, it's a bit more expensive here 
the honey alone will cost me $20/kg + a 3 hour drive to the beekeeper. Then there's the carboy, the bucket, all other supplies, bottles, drying rack etc etc. The cost for any subsequent batches of the same size will "only" be ~$250-300, though.
To compare prices: a liter (2.2 pints) pf 40% quality vodka is around $50. You cannot expect to get even a decent wine for less than $20 etc etc. And a liter of diesel is $2.80 or so (gas is more expensive again). So...it's not *that* bad
the honey alone will cost me $20/kg + a 3 hour drive to the beekeeper. Then there's the carboy, the bucket, all other supplies, bottles, drying rack etc etc. The cost for any subsequent batches of the same size will "only" be ~$250-300, though.To compare prices: a liter (2.2 pints) pf 40% quality vodka is around $50. You cannot expect to get even a decent wine for less than $20 etc etc. And a liter of diesel is $2.80 or so (gas is more expensive again). So...it's not *that* bad
Wow, I won't complain about Canadian gas prices again! We're only paying $1.15/litre right now, I'm getting honey for $6/kilo and the cheapest litre of vodka I found last time I went looking was still around $35 but we can get decent wine as low as $12.
And I really, really try not to think about how much money I've spent on winemaking ewuipment or getting my basement set up to do winemaking (so far about a thousand in laundry tub, plumbing and new shelving, but I'm decidedly not thinking about how much I've sunk into wine kits, carboys, honey, sugar and fruit, I'm just thankful that I can get a lot of fruit (pears, crabapples, wild grapes, red and black currants and black raspberries) for free if I'm willing to pick it myself and designate a bottle or two of finished product to the property owner I also specifically don't think about how much money I spend on my horse or my car...
In any case, welcome back to the addiction and I hope you manage to make something worth what you've invested! This forum is great, because it's full of awesome people who know a lot about fermentation in general and meads in specific.
And I really, really try not to think about how much money I've spent on winemaking ewuipment or getting my basement set up to do winemaking (so far about a thousand in laundry tub, plumbing and new shelving, but I'm decidedly not thinking about how much I've sunk into wine kits, carboys, honey, sugar and fruit, I'm just thankful that I can get a lot of fruit (pears, crabapples, wild grapes, red and black currants and black raspberries) for free if I'm willing to pick it myself and designate a bottle or two of finished product to the property owner
I also specifically don't think about how much money I spend on my horse or my car...In any case, welcome back to the addiction and I hope you manage to make something worth what you've invested! This forum is great, because it's full of awesome people who know a lot about fermentation in general and meads in specific.
Ok, so the plan is to start the batch tomorrow. Just got some fresh honey and really looking forward to it.
Some quick questions:
* The Wyeast packs said the break them and then leave them for at least three hours or pitch them right away. That's kind of like saying "do whatever you feel like" to me. Anyone got any experience?
* I bought some Weasy beer nutrient. Should I just add a teaspoon of this at once?
* I also bought some PH strips and precipated chalk. This is the right stuff to add if the PH is below 3, right? How high should I get it? Is 3,5 fine?
Cheers!
Some quick questions:
* The Wyeast packs said the break them and then leave them for at least three hours or pitch them right away. That's kind of like saying "do whatever you feel like" to me. Anyone got any experience?
* I bought some Weasy beer nutrient. Should I just add a teaspoon of this at once?
* I also bought some PH strips and precipated chalk. This is the right stuff to add if the PH is below 3, right? How high should I get it? Is 3,5 fine?
Cheers!
Ive had bad luck with the WYeast packets. But for beer, I always break them and let them sit until the bag is nice and expanded, so that would be my answer for your question. That said, one of the best pieces of advice Ive gotten here is to make a yeast starter using Go-Ferm (or equivalent). Once I started doing this, Ive not had any problems.
I add my nutrients only once the lag phase is over and you can see signs of fermentation, not right at the start when you first pitch the yeast.
Ive never had to adjust pH and I dont have the time right now to search, so Ill leave that alone. Id hate to take an educated guess and screw you up.
Good luck on the mead!
I add my nutrients only once the lag phase is over and you can see signs of fermentation, not right at the start when you first pitch the yeast.
Ive never had to adjust pH and I dont have the time right now to search, so Ill leave that alone. Id hate to take an educated guess and screw you up.
Good luck on the mead!
Letting the bag swell is "proofing the yeast", i.e. making sure they're alive in there. If your pack is fresh you can probably skip that step and just dump them in, but if you want to be sure you've got live yeast go ahead and wait for the 3ish hours.
What is the dosage suggestion for the nutrient you bought? Whatever it is, you'll probably end up tripling it for mead. You can add it all at once, or stagger it over the course of several days. Search the forums for "staggered nutrient addition" or SNA for lots of talk about the merits of spreading the additions out.
What is the dosage suggestion for the nutrient you bought? Whatever it is, you'll probably end up tripling it for mead. You can add it all at once, or stagger it over the course of several days. Search the forums for "staggered nutrient addition" or SNA for lots of talk about the merits of spreading the additions out.
Thanks to both of you
The yeast is the only one I could get for mead, and the alternative would be champagne yeast, so I'll have to stick with it. Got two packets for my 6gallons, so hopefully it'll be enough
The dosing suggestion on the box says 1 teaspoon for 5 gallons, and to add it to boiling water. That will make it a little hard to add in more than one round. Does it leave taste? If not, just adding 3 or 3.5 teaspoon won't really matter anyway
The yeast is the only one I could get for mead, and the alternative would be champagne yeast, so I'll have to stick with it. Got two packets for my 6gallons, so hopefully it'll be enough
The dosing suggestion on the box says 1 teaspoon for 5 gallons, and to add it to boiling water. That will make it a little hard to add in more than one round. Does it leave taste? If not, just adding 3 or 3.5 teaspoon won't really matter anyway
You don't have to boil the nutrient. Dissolving it first in a little water (a few tbsp is enough, you can boil first if you want) is a good idea though. If you dump nutrient into fermenting mead it will give off lots of CO2 and can lead to eruptions/overflow.
If you use a LOT of it, it will leave a flavor that is probably either salty or yeasty. A few tsp isn't nearly enough to get you there though.
If you use a LOT of it, it will leave a flavor that is probably either salty or yeasty. A few tsp isn't nearly enough to get you there though.
So to be sure, I might as well just add 7tsp to the must? I will do the primary fermentation in a 34l bin, so overflow really shouldn't be much of a problem, should it?
Well, usually my head thinks that if something's worth doing it's worth overdoing. Thanks for keeping me in line 
I'll try 3
I'll try 3
Ok, still more questions - I just hope you're not completely fed up with me yet. I'm just really excited! Going to start brewing today
I just did a new round of calculation and figured with 9kg honey with a total volume of 24.5l, should give me a OG of 1.108 and a potential alcohol content of 14.4% if I let it go dry (0.998 according to the calculator). I would like to make it semi-dry, which would be about 1.005 if I'm not completely mistaken. Please correct me if I am
Now, my two questions of the day:
* How do I sweeten it without adding air? Should I just add the honey without stirring? It's going to sit in the carboy for a few months anyway, so I guess it will dissolve? (I'm going to kill the yeast before sweetening it)
* When I know the SG, how do I use the calculator to find how much honey to add to get to my desired SG?
Thanks for all the help! Even *I* think I'm a major pain at the moment, so I feel for you. The sooner I get started properly, the sooner you'll have a few months of quiet
I just did a new round of calculation and figured with 9kg honey with a total volume of 24.5l, should give me a OG of 1.108 and a potential alcohol content of 14.4% if I let it go dry (0.998 according to the calculator). I would like to make it semi-dry, which would be about 1.005 if I'm not completely mistaken. Please correct me if I am
Now, my two questions of the day:
* How do I sweeten it without adding air? Should I just add the honey without stirring? It's going to sit in the carboy for a few months anyway, so I guess it will dissolve? (I'm going to kill the yeast before sweetening it)
* When I know the SG, how do I use the calculator to find how much honey to add to get to my desired SG?
Thanks for all the help! Even *I* think I'm a major pain at the moment, so I feel for you. The sooner I get started properly, the sooner you'll have a few months of quiet
I've found the best way to add honey is either take out some must and mix the honey with that before adding to the big batch, or mix the honey with a bit of warm water, then it won't take nearly as much mixing as if you just dump it in the carboy (from experience, holy crap can a small amount of honey ever take forever to mix in!!)
If you're talking about backsweetening to a particular SG after you've stablilzed your mead, I think it should work if you put in your actual final gravity, volume etc, and your intended SG as the initial and it should give you an idea, but do check for taste first (pour enough into a glass that you can check the SG and keep adding honey till it tastes right to make sure you know what SG to sweeten to) and do let your hydrometer have the last word.
Happy brewing!
If you're talking about backsweetening to a particular SG after you've stablilzed your mead, I think it should work if you put in your actual final gravity, volume etc, and your intended SG as the initial and it should give you an idea, but do check for taste first (pour enough into a glass that you can check the SG and keep adding honey till it tastes right to make sure you know what SG to sweeten to) and do let your hydrometer have the last word.
Happy brewing!
I would like to make it semi-dry, which would be about 1.005 if I'm not completely mistaken. Please correct me if I am
Don't try to hit a specific SG. A mild honey might taste semi-sweet at 1.005, but maybe a very pungent one might need to be 1.010 to taste the same. Also, "semi-sweet" is a term of personal opinion. I guarantee you that whatever you would call semi sweet I would call syrup, and what I would call semi-sweet you would call dry!
You're going to want to go by taste, not by SG. Wait until at least 5 months or so after fermentation to backsweeten so that you'll be tasting something closer to the final product and won't add too much honey to try and cover up all the terrible post-ferment flavours!
Just stir it in, personally I would use a lees stirrer/degassing rod (same thing) on an electric drill at a lower speed, but to each their own.
I wouldn't worry too much about O2 damage. Traditional meads with no fruit are very very difficult to oxidize, I've left bottles open in my fridge for weeks at a time with no noticable damage - they're much tougher than wine. As long as you aren't splashing like crazy you should be totally safe.
You could, yes, but as I mention above, I would highly recommend going by taste (and then only after some aging has taken place).
Chevette: yes, my thought exactly. I dumped about half the jar into the bucket with some warm+ water. I then put some more warm+ water in the jars to loosen the rest. Mixed really well
Atoe: so...let it clear for ~5 months, then kill the yeast and backsweeten? I'm a little careful now, as I've actually managed to spoil plain mead before
Atoe: so...let it clear for ~5 months, then kill the yeast and backsweeten? I'm a little careful now, as I've actually managed to spoil plain mead before
Yes, I would let it clear for as many months as possible before stabilizing and backsweetening for 2 reasons. 1 - the less yeast in suspension the better the stabilizing chemicals will work. 2 - the longer it ages, the less harsh it will taste, so you will end up adding less honey to make it taste the way you want it too than if you add it early. If you backsweeten after 1 month you might decide 1.015 is the right sweetness, but if you backsweeten after 5 months, a year, etc, then you might find you only want 1.005 (or even none at all, after extended aging a perception of sweetness returns to even a totally dry mead).
When did you "spoil" one before and what do you mean by "spoil"? (Was that you that had the really hot ferment? I can't remember). It is very very difficult to have oxidization ruin a traditional mead, so I wouldn't sweat it at all.
When did you "spoil" one before and what do you mean by "spoil"? (Was that you that had the really hot ferment? I can't remember). It is very very difficult to have oxidization ruin a traditional mead, so I wouldn't sweat it at all.
How about the lees? Won't it be circulated when I sweeten it? Will I need to let it clear again?
I guess the batch I ruined got wild yeast or something. Never cleared up and tasted like a monkey peed in it....
I guess the batch I ruined got wild yeast or something. Never cleared up and tasted like a monkey peed in it....
Weird, contamination is pretty rare with mead.
You'll want to rack off the lees before backsweetening. Generally I rack a mead between 2 and 4 times before bottling. I rack out of primary into secondary, then I find that usually after a month or two a lot of lees have dropped, so I rack again to get away from the lees. Then I'll usually rack again after 3 or 5 months, then that's usually it before bottling. Sometimes one less racking seems required, sometimes one more.
Racking helps speed clearing.
