Greetings, all. I started my first mead yesterday, and I figured I might as well document the process on the off-chance I lose the mead journal I'm keeping, or in case anyone's interested. So here's what I got.
I started two 1-gallon batches of mead on the fourth of May. They are identical except for the yeast used. My goal for these meads are to make high-alcoholic, yet sweet meads; something dessert-wine like (I know I don't have the acid in honey to prevent cloy-ness, and therefore can't make it as sweet; I may add lemon or orange to the secondary ferment, in which case I might raise the sugar levels more. I'm still mulling it over).
I do not know the yeasts or the honey, so I am staggering the honey to prevent oversweetening while maximizing alcohol output. I intend to let the alcohol kill the yeast as opposed to letting the sugar run out as one would for a dry mead. I am starting with 2 pounds of honey, and will add a half-pound each time the must nears 1.010 (and will therefore, by my guesstimation, yo-yo between 1.010 and 1.030)(I got the number 1.010 out of my @$$, just sounded like a good number; not too dry). I plan on hydrometer testing twice a week so the wine doesn't sneakily dry up on me(if I don't need to test this frequently, please let me know).
For nutrients, instead of using traditional yeast nutrient, I am using 1 oz of "organic" (unsweetened and unsulfured) apricots per pound of honey(I am not using pectic enzyme because I don't care as much about coloring)(I gotthe number 1oz / pound out of nowhere, too). Why not use yeast nutrient? Honestly, no real feasible reason; just figured it'd be more fun to use "natural" nutrient even though I understand this complicates the process and makes making a consistent mead more difficult and may at worst produce off-flavors. That all being said, here are the recipes:
2 pounds of Mountain Ridge Raw Honey
2 oz of Made in Nature dried Apricots (whole)
1 gal of Deer Park distilled water (the tap water here is hard as tacks and tastes awful)
5g of Lalvin EC-1118 in batch #1 and D-47 in batch #2.
The must tested @ 1.061 (corrected for temp), though I'm not too confident with this reading due to my unfamiliarity with the hydrometer. I feel like that may be low for two pounds of honey.
***nitty-gritty specifics that may not matter unless there's a problem***
Before starting, I sanitized all equipment with 1 Step cleanser. I'll be honest, I did not pasteurize the honey, so if I get off flavors I can blame it on that. While I'm at it, I'll own up to not pasteurizing the apricots. I mixed the must by pouring the gallon of water into a 2-gallon plastic bucket, then pouring in the honey while stirring. I pitched the yeast by half-filling the empty honey jar with water, microwaving the water for 20 seconds to warm it, then letting the yeast soak in that until I got a foam going (about 10 minutes).
I am worried the ferment will happen too warm. I do not have an air conditioner where I currently live, and the room sometimes gets to ~80*. I am considering buying some ice packs and setting those on top the buckets to help keep the ferment cool.
***end nitty-gritty specifics***
Checking the ferment on 05 May; I do not see bubbles in the airlock yet, but I can definitely see foam inside both buckets. I believe the airlock will start bubbling tomorrow.
I started two 1-gallon batches of mead on the fourth of May. They are identical except for the yeast used. My goal for these meads are to make high-alcoholic, yet sweet meads; something dessert-wine like (I know I don't have the acid in honey to prevent cloy-ness, and therefore can't make it as sweet; I may add lemon or orange to the secondary ferment, in which case I might raise the sugar levels more. I'm still mulling it over).
I do not know the yeasts or the honey, so I am staggering the honey to prevent oversweetening while maximizing alcohol output. I intend to let the alcohol kill the yeast as opposed to letting the sugar run out as one would for a dry mead. I am starting with 2 pounds of honey, and will add a half-pound each time the must nears 1.010 (and will therefore, by my guesstimation, yo-yo between 1.010 and 1.030)(I got the number 1.010 out of my @$$, just sounded like a good number; not too dry). I plan on hydrometer testing twice a week so the wine doesn't sneakily dry up on me(if I don't need to test this frequently, please let me know).
For nutrients, instead of using traditional yeast nutrient, I am using 1 oz of "organic" (unsweetened and unsulfured) apricots per pound of honey(I am not using pectic enzyme because I don't care as much about coloring)(I gotthe number 1oz / pound out of nowhere, too). Why not use yeast nutrient? Honestly, no real feasible reason; just figured it'd be more fun to use "natural" nutrient even though I understand this complicates the process and makes making a consistent mead more difficult and may at worst produce off-flavors. That all being said, here are the recipes:
2 pounds of Mountain Ridge Raw Honey
2 oz of Made in Nature dried Apricots (whole)
1 gal of Deer Park distilled water (the tap water here is hard as tacks and tastes awful)
5g of Lalvin EC-1118 in batch #1 and D-47 in batch #2.
The must tested @ 1.061 (corrected for temp), though I'm not too confident with this reading due to my unfamiliarity with the hydrometer. I feel like that may be low for two pounds of honey.
***nitty-gritty specifics that may not matter unless there's a problem***
Before starting, I sanitized all equipment with 1 Step cleanser. I'll be honest, I did not pasteurize the honey, so if I get off flavors I can blame it on that. While I'm at it, I'll own up to not pasteurizing the apricots. I mixed the must by pouring the gallon of water into a 2-gallon plastic bucket, then pouring in the honey while stirring. I pitched the yeast by half-filling the empty honey jar with water, microwaving the water for 20 seconds to warm it, then letting the yeast soak in that until I got a foam going (about 10 minutes).
I am worried the ferment will happen too warm. I do not have an air conditioner where I currently live, and the room sometimes gets to ~80*. I am considering buying some ice packs and setting those on top the buckets to help keep the ferment cool.
***end nitty-gritty specifics***
Checking the ferment on 05 May; I do not see bubbles in the airlock yet, but I can definitely see foam inside both buckets. I believe the airlock will start bubbling tomorrow.
