Making Mead

[nickmcmechan]

Your Allinson's yeast will probably have a higher alcohol tolerance than Kirk seems to predict. Fermentation won't be volcanic and will probably be long and steady, as there's not much in there for the yeasties to get excited about, I don't see any reason why it shouldn't clear properly, especially as you already appreciate this is a medium to long-term wine.

i used youngs super wine yeast - will this make much of a difference?

 

[Moley]

Hell, I don't know, I'm trying to make sense of two concurrent topics plus external links and I haven't even made it to gotmead.com yet.

Yours is likely to ferment out stronger and probably to dryness.

Where's Tony when you need him? (That's Tony Tony, not Tony Aleman :wha: )

 

[nickmcmechan]

Hell, I don't know, I'm trying to make sense of two concurrent topics plus external links and I haven't even made it to gotmead.com yet.

Yours is likely to ferment out stronger and probably to dryness.

Where's Tony when you need him? (That's Tony Tony, not Tony Aleman :wha: )

LOL!

thanks - i'll backsweeten if its too dry at the end, but then again i much prefer dry wines, so i'll taste when ready

if i do backsweeten, i'll probably just chuck splenda in the bottle, although i did read somewhere you can backsweeten with honey!

 

[Tony]

Morning!
Sorry!
Grandfather made quite a lot of his mead using bakers yeast (this was in the 40s so I have no idea what was available to him in Wales/Lundy/Ilfracombe at that time). Knowing him he got it straight from the baker. It was always very dry but would take a good few months before fermentation was over - as Moley said, slow and with purpose!

At the moment I have a batch made with a high tolerance yeast from brewlab (could get to 20% I'm told) and it is doing the same - slow and steady, 2 months so far. The Col Harrison was a little sweet for my taste, in my opinion a dry mead is far superior.

From what I understand and from grandfather's notes, mead is quite forgiving with additions and yeast... if you're starting out I'd suggest doing frequent small batches and trying out just about everything you can think of. If you do, post your notes in here

Hope it goes well!

EDIT: sorry, just reread your original question (blame it on my kids bothering me!). I've never tried the Youngs super wine yeast so will be interested to know myself. In batches where I've tried wine and champagne yeast, fermentation has been relatively quick, mostly over in a couple of weeks and making towards 17% although there was quite a lot of residual sweetness in the finished mead. I doubt you'll need to worry about backsweetening.

 

[nickmcmechan]

EDIT: sorry, just reread your original question (blame it on my kids bothering me!). I've never tried the Youngs super wine yeast so will be interested to know myself. In batches where I've tried wine and champagne yeast, fermentation has been relatively quick, mostly over in a couple of weeks and making towards 17% although there was quite a lot of residual sweetness in the finished mead. I doubt you'll need to worry about backsweetening.

Thanks Tony, I will be sure to post the outcome with Youngs Super Wine Yeast.

TBH, I never even thought about it; I had bought the Youngs SWY for WOW and thought I could just use the same as it is a similar type of process to make Mead. So, anyways, will let you know how it goes. Trouble is, this is the first time I've ever made it, but after 20 hours there's a small bubbly foam at the top, si its kicked off quick from what I've read. I did chuck in a tsp of Yeast Nutrient too.

 

[YogiB]

I'm pleased there won't be any volcanic fermentation; really pleased :grin:

As this will be a long process and I've a little extra space I'll make a couple more DJs using the same recipe.

Thanks Moley, I'll post on the other thread as OldBloke here is using the same recipe.

 

[nickmcmechan]

well. after less than 24 hours its bubbling away nicely already, about 1 bubble every 20-30 seconds, so the super wine yeast must have been a good kick off - i've read elsewhere that some people hasve waited a couple of weeks to start

 

[YogiB]

nickmcmechan, mine is bubbling away nicely too. It started slowly about 1 bubble ever 20 seconds or so Late last night, but, this morning it's bubbling 1 every 5 seconds!

I haven't used a water bath to regulate temperature for the mead, the DJ is wrapped in a towel with a polythene bag (I thought the yeasties might need a coat! :)) as the outer layer; it sits at room temperature.

Are you using anything for temperature control nickmcmechan?

I've used 1 teaspoon of bread yeast and 1/2 teaspoon of nutirent whilst you've used super wine yeast and 1 teaspoon of nutrient; both doing well! Perhaps it will be just down to sweet -dry choice as far as yeast is concerned!