Need Help Making Better Mead

[Squatchy]

So this is wrong. You want 1.25 times the amount of yeast in goferm. You want 12.5 grams of goferm not 1.25. And you 20 times that in water +250 grams of water. I would start with less must when you first start to attemperate you yeast slurry and I would wait until your 20-25 mins in before you start to add must. Also, sprinkle your yeast on top of the goferm slurry and don't swirl. Let it just soak up and drop into the slurry naturally on it's own. Use a vessel that will give you large surface volume rather than a deep vessel with less surface. The idea here is to not have clumps that you need to swirl around and crush half your yeast at birth.

Think of how you slowly enter a cold swimming pool. You start at waist deep and slowly go deeper. Yeast will like this more than jumping into the deep end. It allows them to become accustomed to temp, gravity (osmotic pressure), pH factors all at the same time. So it's actually more than just temps.

 

[Dadux]

Ok, so what I have now is -

1 gallon of blueberries
12.5 lbs of honey
10 grams of potassium bicarbonate
SG of 1.100
13%ABV


The TOSNA 2.0 Calculator - (which I cut in half because of blueberries)
Fermaid O Required: 29.75 g
Yeast Required: 10 g
Go Ferm Required: 12.5 g
One Third Sugar Break SG: 1.067

Dissolve 1.25 g of Go-Ferm Protect in 250 mL hot water (the hotter the better). The warmer the water, the easier it will be to dissolve the Go-Ferm.

When the water reaches 104 deg F (40 deg C), pour in 10 g yeast. Give the slurry a quick swirl. After 15 minutes, begin tempering yeast by adding 125 mL must to the yeast slurry every 5 minutes.When yeast slurry temperature is within 10 deg F of must temperature, pitch yeast into fermenter.

- Add 7.44 g Fermaid O 24-hours after yeast pitch. (half)
- At the 48 and 72 hour mark add 7.44 g Fermaid O. (half)
- The final nutrient addition of 7.43 g Fermaid O is on the 7th day after yeast pitch or when fermentation has reached its 1/3 sugar break (SG = 1.067), whichever comes first. (half)

Thats about right. Only make sure its 12.5 grams of goferm (at some point you said 1.25)
You might want to freeze and thaw the blueberries before adding them, to help release the flavour, altough im not sure if you can manage it with a full gal of blueberries. If you can, better.
You seem ready to go...
Remember to aereate twice a day during the first 3 days and degass daily for at least the first week or two.
Try to keep the bucket in some place with constant low (15-18ºC) temperatures and away from direct sunlight.

 

[Squatchy]

I forgot to tell you 1 gallon up front will just barely give you a hint of blueberries.

 

[AlwaysWaven]

I forgot to tell you 1 gallon up front will just barely give you a hint of blueberries.

Oh, ok. How much would give me a more of a deliberate flavor?


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[Squatchy]

Oh, ok. How much would give me a more of a deliberate flavor?


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So that's a loaded question. Berries up front will taste more wine like. Berries after you stabilize will be more fresh fruit/jam like. Or you can add some up front and more after.
This is a great way to learn the difference. I would put 8-10 pounds up front. Once things are done you can stabilize it. AFter it's stabile you can add more berries and/or more fruit depending on your personal preference. I do this all the time. Add up front and stabilize. Then I take a portion and keep it that way. And I take the other portion and add more berries/honey. This way you have 2 different kinds but mostly only going through the motion of making one batch. This will clearly show you the difference between fermented fruit in primary. Or a cold soak/tinctured style.