Vessels for bulk aging

[THawk]

Although, should I stumble upon some one gallon glass carboys I guess i´ll try them out also. It would be nice to be able to see the stuff along the way. They aren´t very common here though, and are around 15 dollar a piece new, plus a hefty fragile postage from across the country!

1 gallon is about 4 liters. Try a 4-liter plastic water bottle... the nice part about it is that you can throw it away once you're done with it...

 

[delinden]

1 gallon is about 4 liters. Try a 4-liter plastic water bottle... the nice part about it is that you can throw it away once you're done with it...

That certainly would be a low price solution, but I doubt id get much sleep at night, knowing what I know now about fermenting

Also, we dont really use that size here, i believe 2 liters is the biggest common size available, besides 20 liter water cooler bottles.

I use 1,5 and 2 liters for "bottling", though, when a keg is ready to drink.

 

[delinden]

Food grade buckets don't give you sulfur odors, and "rubber smells" and burnt rubber are some fairly common sulfur odors. EC-1118, if only fed a handful of raisins and not other nutrients, might easily cause that.

Hm it sounds plausible, even though not very comforting...most of my batches are made with EC1118, and most of them actually seem to have some elements of this off flavor. I have thought about whether it could come from the yeast, but have rejected it since the common talk on different boards about EC1118 is that it´s fast and clean fermenting, at least in wine and fruit "hooches".

Normally, I will add about a teaspoon of common wine yeast nutrient per 10 liter, but I guess it´s possible that somehow the dose may have been inadequate...hopefully

 

[tweak'e]

EC1118 can throw some really weird flavors with honey when fermented warm.
don't forget most yeast descriptions are based on wine not mead.
reminds me, i should go do a taste test of my test runs. two traditional meads first one was ec1118 and it was very hot tasting when bottled.

 

[Loadnabox]

Hm it sounds plausible, even though not very comforting...most of my batches are made with EC1118, and most of them actually seem to have some elements of this off flavor. I have thought about whether it could come from the yeast, but have rejected it since the common talk on different boards about EC1118 is that it´s fast and clean fermenting, at least in wine and fruit "hooches".

Normally, I will add about a teaspoon of common wine yeast nutrient per 10 liter, but I guess it´s possible that somehow the dose may have been inadequate...hopefully

The biggest question is actually whether your generic nutrients have organic or inorganic YAN. Nitrogen deficiency is the biggest cause. Inorganic YAN (DAP) also cannot be easily metabolized by the yeast after the 1/3 break and is pretty well useless after the 1/2 break.

 

[Medsen Fey]

I have thought about whether it could come from the yeast, but have rejected it since the common talk on different boards about EC1118 is that it´s fast and clean fermenting, at least in wine and fruit "hooches".

EC-1118 is a fast clean fermenter IF if gets enough nitrogen and EC-1118 isn't particular about whether it is organic or not. 1 tsp of nutrient for a 10 liter batch is not enough. It can get quite stinky with sulfur if it is hungry.

 

[delinden]

The biggest question is actually whether your generic nutrients have organic or inorganic YAN. Nitrogen deficiency is the biggest cause. Inorganic YAN (DAP) also cannot be easily metabolized by the yeast after the 1/3 break and is pretty well useless after the 1/2 break.

Heh, well that´s really the question, i guess...must say, I´m totally blank here. The bag only says "Yeast nutrient - quality: Emovit". It smells a lot like crushed vitamin pills, if you know what I mean. i know, not a really scientific angle to it, but thats all I´ve got;D

 

[delinden]

EC-1118 is a fast clean fermenter IF if gets enough nitrogen and EC-1118 isn't particular about whether it is organic or not. 1 tsp of nutrient for a 10 liter batch is not enough. It can get quite stinky with sulfur if it is hungry.

I might need to step up the nutrient dose then...I normally skimp a bit with it, dunno why...perhaps because of the nasty smell, something I wouldn´t want to taste in the wine. Quite stupidly, I guess, since it´ll all be metabolized.

 

[delinden]

EC1118 can throw some really weird flavors with honey when fermented warm.
don't forget most yeast descriptions are based on wine not mead.
reminds me, i should go do a taste test of my test runs. two traditional meads first one was ec1118 and it was very hot tasting when bottled.

This is also the reason I use EC1118 exclusively. It´ll ferment really dry and hot, and I´ll then sweeten to taste. I like to get a good buzz from my wines also, since I know they´ll probably not compete with the top shelf stuff anyways;D;D. This goes for my fruit hooch, I only now seem to understand, that it´s not neccesarily the way to go with honey...could be it´s time to try out new grounds(yeasts) with the rest of my pollen honey stash;D

Let´s hear about that hot EC1118 test when you get it done, could be interesting to know where it´ll take the mead