Hi all! New mead maker!

[Ilaria95]

Hi all, i'm Ilaria and i'm italian, so sorry for my poor english, sometimes i'll need to use the translator lol
I want to try doing mead, i'm already studing and translating the NewBee guide and some threads from this forum but there are so much informations and i got lost
So, i write down here the recipe i am gonna to use..all the ingredients are in metric and i have converted them by myself so please correct me if i'm (surely) wrong!
The goal is a basic sweet/semi sweet flat mead.

Recipe:

• 3 liters water
• 1,050 kilos honey (i don't have taken a decision on what kind i'll use, but it will be surely raw local honey)
• Yeast (CY17 Vintners Harvest Wine Yeast, di Mangrove Jack) (how much should i use?)
• Boiled bread yeast as yeast nutrient (i'm in quarantine and i can't do online orders for now so i have to use things i can find in my grocery shop)

Preparation:

• heat some of the water, take off from the heat and pour the honey
• put the yeast in some warm water with nutrient for around 10/15 mins to reidrate
• put the must in the fermentator with the cold water (temperature will be around 37°c)
• add the reidrated yest when temperature is 32°c
• shake and mix well
• take starting density
• close the fermentator and leave it alone for around six weeks

Now time for the questions...

1. I have to areate the must the first 2/3 days?
2. After how much days i have to re-check the gravity?
3. How can i TOTALLY avoid to have sparkling mead?

I think i'm done for now, thank you in advance for the patience lol

 

[Cobrac]

Hi,

The yeast you have chosen doesn’t need any rehydration, but it is ALWAYS a good practice to do so. Your mead will end up approx 1.080. I have done meads for several years and I have made strict SNA protocols with Fermaid-O and Go-Ferm when I rehydrate, however I have made great meads just pouring the yeast right down in my must also. If you don’t have the gear for “perfection” just do as follows:

Make your must and make sure it’s around 25-26C

Rehydrate your yeast in chlorine free water around 35C let sit for 15 min stir very gently during the last 5 minutes to make sure it has been soaked. Rehydration should override longer than 20min.

Add the yeast to the must, here it is VERY important that the yeast slurry is within 5-10 degrees from the must temp.

Aerate by shaking your vessel (fermentor) rough so that you get a lot of oxygen into the must. Repeat shaking after 12h and 24h (beware of foaming).

If you you want to add any boiled bread yeast as nutrient do so after you see active fermentation. Your yeast isn’t dependent for nutrients before it has gone through initial phase. It’s more dependent of oxygen the first 24h.

If you want it to maintain steady fermentation speed keep it around 25C otherwise lower temp slowly to around 20C and let it go slower.

Measure once a week, it will probably go bone dry within three weeks. It’s dependent on fermentation temp. Your yeast choice is a moderate worker and it will get to target a little bit slower than others.

Regarding how much yeast you should use, it most likely is written on the yeast package. Normally these packages is for 25lit.

To get a none sparkling mead, it’s all about time. Just let it sit a few weeks after fermentation is done, rack to a new vessel. Stabilize with sulphites and let sit for another two weeks. By then I shouldn’t be any bubbles left.

I think you got it right, there are of course a lot that can be done differently here, but I adjust my tips to your circumstances.

 

[Cobrac]

Ahh, the rehydration shouldn’t (not should as I wrote) exceed more than 20min...