NEW BEE with a coupple of questions

[lurch]

First off I want to say there is a whole lot of info on this board which is way cool. :cheers:

Now to my questions

1. I ordered 1 gal of raw fireweed honey (I tasted some wonderfull mead made using this variety) Now I want to make a mead using a fruit that wont over power the taste of the Honney. I have looked around and find a few refrences to pears being used. I was thinking of using pears since they have a lighter essence am I correct in this assumption?

2. To maintaine the Honey essences is it best to add the fruit to the Must or secondary. ( I plan on pasturizing for safety i know i will loose some of the essence there but not as much as boiling)

3. Since Pears are a low sugar fruit should I bring up the sugar content in the primary or wait to back sweeten? I am thinking of using the White labs Chardonnay White Wine Yeast so my SG should be in the range of 1080 to 1090 (This is the part im struggling with getting the "Correct Blend")

Thanks in advance for any answers :icon_thumleft:

 

[Rhianni]

1: Pears in general have a low level of flavor. Not that its not good, just not poweful. I have not used pears in meads so cannot comment specifically. Instead of wanting a fruit and wanting to know what is good determine what flavor you want to taste vs how strong it is.

2: Fruit added in the primary will add fruit-like flavor but not the exact. Just like wine doesnt taste like grape juice and mead doesnt taste like honey in water. Fruit added in the secondary will be closer to the fruits true flavor.

3: Determine what level of sweetness you want then have the yeast reach their alcohol tolerance at that level

 

[lurch]

Thanks for the reply, :icon_thumright:

With the pears I will want to add to the secondary then. Thanks for that nugget of wisdom. :notworthy:

Now to the ballance issue I would want a mead to come in in a range of 14 to 18% with a moderately sweet finish.

To achieve this I read in MeadMaker :icon_study: that I could use Montpelier (lavin K1V-1116) as it shoud enhance and keep the pear from being deminished and have the alcohol tolerence I am shooting for.

I should not have to add additional sugar to the must as the sg of 1 gal of honney to 4.5 gal of spring water should come out a 1094 all I would have to add is nitogen to give it a kick start using Montpelier?

Is this a correct assumption? (sorry this bit of info was not avalable as the book did not arive till yesterday as i woud of asked about this yeast instead of the Chardonnay White Wine)

For so simple of a proccess "Honey + Water + Yeast" there are suprisingly a multitude of Variables and Variations

It will take a lifetime for me to explore as many as I can.

 

[Oskaar]

Welcome to Got Mead!

I think it's great that you want to try a pear mead. I see some things that will get in the way of you making the mead that you want so I'll put my comments below.


If you're going to use Lalvin K1-V1116 and you want a moderately sweet finish you'll need at least another 6-8 lbs of honey to get to the alcohol level you desire. K1 is a killer yeast and has a top-end ABV tolerance of about 18%. Your must (1 gal honey + 4.5 gal H2O) will not get you past 10-11% ABV with your total volume being 5.5 gallons, so you'll need that extra honey to bring the ABV to at least 1.120 or higher to get in the ABV range you want.

Pears actually stand up well when used in primary fermentation. If you're going to use pears I'd suggest using an apple crusher and use the juice and whatever pulp is generated. Put some in the primary and some in the secondary.

If you're making mead I'd suggest that you use additional honey rather than sugar. You mentioned sugar so I wasn't sure if you're planning on adding actual sugar when you have honey at hand.

Why do you want to boil this? It's patently unnecessary to do so. You'll kill off subtle aromatics, floral aromas, as well as nutrients contained within the honey that actually are beneficial to the fermentation. I make 90% of my meads without heating and the only problems I have is keeping it around long enough! When you boil, you also drive off oxygen that is needed by the yeast during early fermentation.

Take some time and assemble your recipe then post it up here and we'll help with additional comments. As your recipe sits right now I would suggest that you hold-off on making it until you've posted your recipe and gotten some feedback here. It will not turn out like you expect if you proceed with your current iteration of the recipe.

Cheers,

Oskaar

 

[lurch]

Sorry it took me so long to reply but My new baby son Joseph decided to make and early apperance and other priorites took precidence.

So as to my recipe

Little Joes Vanilia Pear Mead

12 lbs FireWeed Honey
3 gal spring water
Lalvin K1-V1116
2tsp nutrent { Need sugestions ?DAP?
2tsp energiser { Need sugestions
10 lbs pears (crushed)
2 vanilla beans scraped

I plan to use the No boil method adding O2 by injection with a 5 micron staneless air stone

I will add 4 lbs of the pears in the starter then the remaining 6 lbs in the secondary.

Additionaly I procured an extra 5 lbs of fireweed to add along the way.


Comments?

 

[ehanuise]

Congratulations on the newborn :cheers: