Just nervous-moral support please

[Holly]

Good morning everyone. I have been brewing beer for about 5 years now and have good results. I decided to branch off into mead...well really Metheglin for the A&S Competitons in the SCA. (I saw a couple of people are also doing this, too. Hi to you!)

I guess I just need some moral support this morning. I think its time to rack the Whole Hive Heather/Rose Hip Metheglin over to the secondary. I combined a couple of recipes (one being the Heather Metheglin from gotmead.com) and the methods from the other recipes to get the following...
_________________________________________________Infused 1 gal H20 with 6c. dried Heather and 2T. Crushed Rose hips. Steeped this overnight
Added 3 Gal H20 raised to boiling
At 120 Degrees added 1 oz Bee Pollen (2 T), 1 oz Royal Jelly, 1 oz. Raw Propolis (ask my why if you really want to know..)
At 185 degrees added the 12 lbs Clover Honey
Cooled to 85 degrees
Added another 2 c dried heather and 1 T rose hips in mesh bag to must
Pitched 5g Redstar Premier Cuvee Yeast at about 85 degrees
It started fermenting nicely within about 8 hours. At about 72-74 degrees
3 Days later, I removed the mesh bag
_________________________________________________

Its been fermenting nicely for 27 days. I noticed yesterday it seemed to be slowing... and this morningit done be stopped...of course as I type that it bubbled...but its only bubling every minute or more...

And dangit - of course I forgot to take a starting gravity. booger. I am getting sloppy with my note taking the more I brew, bad bad.

So I guess it all comes down to what should I do next?
Do I rack it to a 6.5 or 5 gal carboy (have both...so which?)
Should I do anything else? or think about doing anything else?
I think I might try to preserve the lees (right term? for alll the gunk) after racking it...

As I said, this is my first mead/metheglin, so moral support is wonderful! And I have really enjoyed perusing the postings here!


Thanks!

 

[The Honey Farmer]

Good day Holiday, I'm a newbee also. O.K. I really want to know, why the pollen, royale jelly, and why oh why the propolis?

Have a good day, The Honey Farmer

 

[WRATHWILDE]

Go ahead and rack. Don't bother saving the lees, a fresh pitch is best, especially when you don't use nutrients or oxygenation for the original batch.

Wrathwilde

 

[Holly]

Good day Holiday, I'm a newbee also. O.K. I really want to know, why the pollen, royale jelly, and why oh why the propolis?

Have a good day, The Honey Farmer

Well...as I said, I combined several recipes. I found a book called Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers, the Secrets of Ancient Fermentation. The first chapter is actually pretty much all about Mead. It goes into the history (very cool retelling of several of the myths) and then into the belief that mead was medicinal. In going into that it cites a bunch of the medical/clinical studies that have been done on the various bee derivative products - Royal Jelly, Propolis, Pollen even Bee Venom. The theory the auther puts forth is that YES ancient mead was probably medicinal as they would end up using most of the actual hive (skep- need to do more research on this term/process) in their mead making. And by association, if Royal Jelly etc actually does have medicinal properties, then those properties would likely have gotten transfered into the mead. The author includes a Whole Hive Mead Recipe (ask if you want me to post it)

So in making my metheglin - I used the Heather Metheglin recipe from here, the Heather Mead recipe and the Whole Hive Mead recipe from the book...Kind of combined processes/steps...

As it turns out I will probably rack it over to a secondary tomorrow. I have a stout in one of my 5 gals now that I need to bottle too.

I am thinking of splitting the metheglin into my 2 5-gals and cold clearing (anyone have input on this please speak out!) one of them..The reason is that i am trying to have something ready for the A&S competition at Estrella...probably won't be really ready, but its worth a try...I'll let you know how it turns out...it does smell yummy!

 

[Lugh]

Sounds like you have everything under control. Only 3 weeks to Estrella, so you are right and may not have enough time. But try it and bring a few bottles and do a taste test, you never know on some of these things and it may be a wonderful flash brew and ready for entry. But Red Star Premier Cuvee is a Champagne yeast, and they are usually a liitle hot and require time mellow.

Wish I could go this year, but can't make it. My wife is still going her the household though. Guess that gives me a week of City of Heroes. ;D

 

[mouko_yamamoto]

I wanna try that game.

 

[Lugh]

it's a fun, no stress game. No end game like other online games, no raiding for high end gear, no in game money. It's all about the journey - like a comic book, the storyline, your characters growth, etc. Many people get bored after a few months, but it's a great game when you don't want to devote a lot of time. World of Warcraft was the opposite - I felt I had to play to keep up with friends, farm and raid to get good gear. Max level meant devoting time to raids or getting even in PVP for all the greifing... :-\

 

[Pewter_of_Deodar]

Do yourself a favor and save the brew for next year. It will have matured and will impress people if you have a good recipe and have done a good job brewing it. The best you can expect to do with something so young this year is not to embarrass yourself. Again, do yourself a favor...

I'd like to see the recipe you mention. I enjoy the subtleties of the one you are using now that you have explained some of them. I look forward to hearing about your results...

 

[WRATHWILDE]

I'd have to agree with Pewter, don't rush anything you plan on entering. I was lucky to hit 89 with my Acerglyn, I think it was 5 months old at judging. (Most brewers were surprised at how young the mead really was) I scored perfect on everything except Documentation and Presentation. Wrote the documentation as I stood there, had the wine in screw top wine bottles. If you're going to enter into a competition, Document the life of your batch completely, no grey areas. I also suggest real wine bottles with REAL corks. I had brought the Mead to share at a tasting event, I had no plans on entering the competition... I was just there to cover it for GotMead incase Vicky didn't show. I lucked out, nah, I'm too modest... it was a damn fine mead!!!

Wrathwilde

 

[Holly]

Thanks for the input Pewter and Wrathwilde. Pewter, I am not sure which of the 3 recipes you are referring to - so here is the Whole Hive as that seems the most likely. If you want the Heather Mead from the book too, I can transcribe it, too...

A Complete Hive Mead
6 lbs wildflower honey (I used Millers Clover)
1 oz propolis
1 oz bee pollen
1 oz royal jelly
3 gal H20
yeast

Boil Honey and water for 30 min and skimm off foam.
During cooling add propolis, bee pollen, royal jelly - do not strain.
Cool to 70 degrees F. Pour into Fermenting vessel, making sure the undissoved solids from the propolis, jelly and pollen go into it.
Add yeast. Let ferment until complete (16-26 days)
Add 2/3t. honey to each bottle (if carbonated mead is desired), fill bottles, and cap.

Ready to drink in two weeks to a year depending on how long you wish to store it - the longer the better.
From Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers, Stephen Harrod Buhner, p. 58-59.

You can see how I combined the recipes by looking at my original post.

Well I racked it into 2-5 gal carboys. Putting one into my aging closet (basement shower - stays about 65-68 degrees down there) and the other into my garage - where it is reading about 50. We'll see how they clear out under those different conditions

It is pretty dry and sharp (has a lot of bite) at the moment. I think it has a nice bouquet, though I wish the Heather was coming through more. The Heather Metheglin recipe from here notd that after about a month of aging, the author added more honey and more of the heather "tea" (need to read up on how to describe things! hmm, didn't I see a post about that somewhere....)

On a side OT note, the stout is not quite what I expected either. I think t will need to age a bit, too.

 

[Holly]

??? ??? ??? ??? ???
Ok, I just did a check on both the carboys...And I am dumbfounded, going mad, or my eyes are bad...It LOOKS like the carboy in the garage at 51 degrees is FERMENTING - slowly 1 bubble to every 10-15 sec... Uhm.. what should i do??

(I checked the aging closet and it could be too. But the airlock wasn't seated very well - those dang stoppers keep pushing out. I am alsochecking the temp down there...)

 

[David Baldwin]

Holiday,

At 51 degrees it could be fermenting. If you have residual sugars and an abv of less than 16% you can almost bet on it.

My suggestion... airlock it and let it age. It will eventually quit fermenting.


David

 

[Pewter_of_Deodar]

Holiday,

I agree with David. Unless you want it stopped where it is right now, trap it and leave it go. I think at 51F you should see some precipitating of the lees out of the batch. Make sure to rack off of it when it is up to 1/2 an inch or so.

Good luck,
Pewter

 

[Holly]

Well, the gravity reading was a dead 1.0...(but oops, forgot to take the starting... :-[)

The fermentation signs seemed to have stopped. The shower is actually reading 57-60 degrees and during waking hours, the garage is 45-50...

Thanks for the tip on the lees... They both look to be clearing, but then I am not 100% sure what I am looking for...LOL

 

[Holly]

Well, just a quick update (I found the brewlog section so will do these kinds of things over there in the future)

The lees are getting up to that mystical 1/2 inch line in BOTH carboys even though there has been a 10+ degree difference in the temps. So I think I will rack off one bottle, and then continue to let the carboys rest for a bit longer. (Figure that if I decide to enter the competition I will have some with - hey my first Estrella, so worst I can do is embarass myself and then WOW them next year.)

Any issues with recombining them into one carboy for the duration?

I also did a little digging on the manufacturer's comments about the Cuvee yeast and lees (based on the HOw long between rackings conversation) and didn't find any recommendations.

They both do seem pretty clear - so when do I know to bottle it all?

H.

 

[Oskaar]

A couple of things to note:

Information on Red Star Premier Cuvée:

It is intended for Dry Red, white and sparkling wines and translates well to meads. It is also used to restart stuck fermentation. It is a fast clean fermenter, and is generally used for anything but residual-sugar wines.

It is a Davis#796 strain which has a wide fermentation range of 45-95° with an alcohol tolerance of up to 18% and it is listed as a low flocculator. This one is also known as Prise de Mousse (same geographical strain as EC-1118) and is typically a Champagne yeast that is strong acting, low foaming and is very often used for barrel fermentations as is EC-1118. It will impart a strong yeasty flavor, and will produce up to 50 ppm of sufites during fermentation.

I've stated before that I don't adhere to racking based on lees accumulation because every batch is different, and every mead is different, and every yeast is different. To me, there is no one simple 1/2 to 3/4 inch formula for racking. Too many variables in the batches to use a standard approach. In this case the Premier Cuvee is a low flocculator. So racking as soon as the lees hit's 1/2 inch to me makes no sense. Let it sit for a week or two more after you have no activity in the airlock. Give it a little time to compact itself as much as possible, then go ahead and rack. Also, while this is a low flocculator, it is an active yeast at temperatures of 45 F, and it will ferment to completion at that temperature so waiting a couple of weeks after the fermentation has stopped is recommended. Also protracted exposure to temperatures of 45 F will help to compact the lees, as well as precipitate out a good deal of the yeast still in suspension.

Also, I generally rack pretty quickly (I use no heat most of the time but I do pasteurize and boil based on certain recipies that I have), but your batch is boiled, so the same rules do not apply because the protiens, enzymes, subtle aromas of the blossom source and varietal characters have been boiled out of the honey and you want some other characters in there to add a bit of complexity to the flavor, aroma and overall character. A couple of more weeks on the lees and you'll get that, but I wouldn't leave them more than a couple of weeks to three weeks past cessation of airlock activity.

Hope that helps,

Oskaar

 

[Holly]

Ok, tomorrow will be 16 days in the split secondaries...Am I right that next step should be to bottle? I guess I should taste it first? sorry to be so dense, but...

And an update for those of you off to Atenveldt - sigh, I won't be joining you with or without this metheglin. The 50 horses done gone and broke their legs! So will be staying home and maybe taste testing this and the other brews I had planned to bring. The mead gods must have meant for this to age a bit before it hit the populace!

???

 

[Oskaar]

Girl,

It's way too soon to bottle. Let it go for at least 5 - 6 weeks with no change in specific gravity readings before you even think of bottling.

You can also sulfite and sorbate the mead after cooling it in your refrigerator for two weeks to ensure that fermentation does not restart. Right now is way too soon.

Patience Prudence!

Cheers,

Oskaar

 

[mouko_yamamoto]

But Oskaar, 5 weeks is so long... Jeez, I'm waiting for my mead to degas right now. Done fermenting (as in totally clear with a yellow tinge, so clear that I can see the crumbs of Campden sitting all over the bottom), but it's still letting out gas. Mabe it's still fermenting, but it hasn't dropped anything in weeks. Oh, the wait is unbearable.

 

[Holly]

Mouko is RIGHT!! The wait is beginning to be unbearable.

Dang, cuz I just had a thought to give my honey ( ;D ) the first bottle as a Valentines day present. Sigh. OK I will wait. It is pretty clear....and its been sitting between 45-50 degrees or 57 depending on which carboy I look at...Nice lee accumulation too.