Mead

[oldbloke]

This is what's in the airing cupboard right now:

3lb eucalytpus honey, 1 Large orange, about 25 raisins, 1 stick of cinnamon, 1 clove, pinch nutmeg,yest, nutrient

2011-03-08
Dissolved honey in about 3pints of warm water, Brought to 145F for 7 minutes to pasteurise
Poured into demijohn. Added cinnamon stick, clove, pinch grated nutmeg, 25 raisins (halved), orange cut into 16ths and its de-pithed skin
Fill to demijohn shoulder with bottled water. Given a good shake, airlock fitted
Down to 22C by mid-afternoon, added yeast nutrient, good stir. Rehydrated Lalvin ED1118 champagne yeast added.
Put into airing cupboard
2011-03-16
Fermentation slowing, topped up with bottled water
Original recipe says not to touch it at all until it clears by itself, no rackign or anything.
Reckons about 2 months which will be early May. It's starting to clear now, but slowly.

 

[wulliemc]

cool, fancy trying this myself

 

[oldbloke]

cool, fancy trying this myself

It's adapted from the supposedly most-downloaded and can't-fail-est recipe on gotmead.com
As I'm new to wine/beer I thought a can't fail recipe would be a good idea.
The original recipe had baker's yeast, but champagne yeasts are often recommended for mead so I went with that, plus nutrient.
Also the original author just chops the orange up, but I decided to de-pith it to avoid any bitter off-tastes
I used eucalyptus honey as it was the only specific varietal in Morrison's in runnyhoney form at the time, that I fancied. Somebody else on this forum uses eucalyptus, which eased my mind a bit.
Of course, I don't know yet whether I'll like it!

 

[Kirk]

Heating Euclyptus honey seems a crime. :mrgreen:
I would have fermented it first in a bucket with the spices, then passed it through a sieve after the inital week of activity. I would certainly not leave it with everything still in while it clears.

Have 3 DJ's of mead maturing at the moment, one spiced similar to yours.

Glad you avoided the bakers yeast. Think that it was used so that the resultant mead was still sweet or medium. Yours should come out dry with 3lbs and a champagne yeast.

 

[nickmcmechan]

thanks for starting the post, i've went and made a DJ yesterday - the only difference is that i added a vanilla pod as well and left out the orange as i had a bag of mixed dired fruit which contained orange (the main fruits are sultanas and raising with some grape too).

be interesting to see how it turns out, looking forward to it already

i made it up yesterday afternoon and there are some yeasty bubbles at the top already, but not as much as the WOW I made yesterday after my mead

well chuffed anyway, especially as i got the DJs for free out the Father-n-law's attic!

thanks again for posting :

 

[nickmcmechan]

also, i should add that i used basic clear honey and super wine yeast, i also popped in yeast nutrient

 

[YogiB]

I thought a can't fail recipe would be a good idea.

My thoughts exactly. I've never tasted mead and, following excellent advice from here on wine. beer, and lager, took the plunge and bought the ingredients.

Yesterday I used the recipe as a template too, but just used 3 jars of Marlene Summer Blossom Honey (each of 500g); I saw no need to open another jar! 30 Raisins; just to be different but not that different! What do raisins and mixed fruit give to the recipe? 2 cloves, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 whole (large) orange.

Wondering what a 'pinch' of nutmeg and allspice was I decided 1/8 of a teaspoon might be a good place to start.
Bread Yeast: that became something of a quandary, given the mead will sit for quite some time before finding out if a mistake was made! Moley and Tony clarified it nicely; apparently mead is quite forgiving with Bread Yeast making a sweet mead whilst brewers yeast makes a dryer one!

As it it a long wait, I will make another DJ but change the yeast to 'Young's Super Wine Yeast' and compare them.

oldbloke, I look forward to reading your opinion of eucalytpus honey on the recipe.
nickmcmechan, vanilla pod and mixed fruit, look forward to reading about that too.

 

[oldbloke]

oldbloke, I look forward to reading your opinion of eucalytpus honey on the recipe.

Well, I haven't made any other mead to compare it against, so it'll just be "Do we like it?".
It's coming up to the recipe's suggested 2 months in a week's time, and it's damn near clear, so should have a prelim taste test fairly soon.

 

[YogiB]

"Do we like it?".

yep; the only verdict which matters!

I still have another four weeks to go:
4 weeks old: My O & S Mead (with bread yeast) is still bubbling away nicely.
4 weeks old: My O & S Mead (with Youngs Super Yeast) has slowed down to 1 bubble every three mins; the odd bubble is seen in the DJ, and, it is fairly clear! I am surprised the super yeast is still fermenting!

Question: Should I stabilise it [edit:- the super yeast one] with pot.sorbate now or leave it to fermented out?

Also,
as mead is different to wine (or so I've read) - does it need topping up to bulk store, or, is it ok to leave whatever is syphoned in the new DJ for bulk storage?

 

[oldbloke]

Well...
At two months I decided to take the mead off the fruit, racked it with a campden. Partly coz the space in the waterbath was wanted for the nettle.
Left it on the dining table (very understanding wife)
A week or so later it looked like it was just starting to clear properly, when I thought I saw a bubble go round the airlock the wrong way. Panic!
So after my bowls match (21-18, my first win of the season, possibly my last) I racked it again with sorbate+campden.
And the sneak-a-taste test says:
OK, not great. Still some yeast in suspension, apart from that... the alcohol is the most upfront sensation, the orange is quite strong, not much sign of the cinnamon.
When the residual yeast has dropped out in a week or so I'll bottle it, and we'll drink one bottle and see what we think.

How much aging does mead typically require?

 

[BrewBoy]

They say that mead needs a year to mature but I start drinking it a few weeks after I bottle it and it tastes pretty good.

I’m currently having problems with 2 batches of mead. One straight mead and one with apple juice. They have been on the go for 70 days and they’re just not clearing. I have made 2 Meads prior to these and not had this problem before, one was even clear within 4 weeks. The 2 things I did differently were using a different honey and I purchased some specific yeast (Vintners Harvest SN9). I think the yeast is the problem as I normally use Youngs Super Wine Yeast Compound that contains bentonite. I think I’m going to add some finings for the first time in my home brew history.

 

[Kirk]

Last straight mead I made was using Gervins GV6, it didn't look as if it was going to clear either until I left it in a cooler environment. Then it cleared happily in a few days. Just wondering if it is the same, and the temperature where it is standing is a little too high.

I did rack and stabilise mine before it cleared.

Is the apple version caused by pectin?
Apples are pretty high in the stuff.

The present batch with raspberry's in looks like it could manage to clear itself although it may hold at the cloudiness that it is showing but it is still fermenting.

I would try finding somewhere a little cooler and see what happens.

 

[oldbloke]

Mine isn't clearing on the dining table. I'll stick it down the bac of the garage for a bit, it's not like we're short of stuff to drink.

 

[BrewBoy]

Last straight mead I made was using Gervins GV6, it didn't look as if it was going to clear either until I left it in a cooler environment. Then it cleared happily in a few days. Just wondering if it is the same, and the temperature where it is standing is a little too high.

I did rack and stabilise mine before it cleared.

Is the apple version caused by pectin?
Apples are pretty high in the stuff.

The present batch with raspberry's in looks like it could manage to clear itself although it may hold at the cloudiness that it is showing but it is still fermenting.

I would try finding somewhere a little cooler and see what happens.

I put some pectic enzyme in the apple one when I made it, it looks darker than the straight mead but also slightly clearer. I don't have anywhere cooler to put the stuff so I'll just have to keep an eye on it and see what it does for the next few weeks.
Its annoying as mead is one of the most expensive things you can make so consequences of getting it wrong are far greater that anything else.
What’s worse is that I broke a demijohn last night while making Turbo Cider.

 

[Moley]

What’s worse is that I broke a demijohn last night while making Turbo Cider.

I can think of plenty of things worse than that.




























It could have been something worth drinking.

 

[Tony]

How much aging does mead typically require?

Nice work!
Don't be quick to judge it. I really didn't like mine at all at first. I racked mine after 2 months and then left it for about another 6. After that time it had completely cleared ad I bottled it. Tried it after another 6 weeks in the bottle and as I said, didn't think that much of it. After another 2 months it was starting to really come together.

I read somewhere that mead takes anywhere between 1 and 100 years to mature

 

[Kirk]

Patience is probably the most useful thing to have. 70 days is not a problem, had a wine or two that I literally get bored of watching them ferment for 6 months in DJ's.

I have to say that the various mead's I have made were always a bit cloudy while fermenting at all. Trying to recall if the last one I actually first racked and stabilised then left it to clear. Present one is murky and is 6 weeks into it's time, don't expect to have it clear for a couple of months at least.

Many other wines cleared while producing bubbles. I have had blackberry wine that I could see through and observe the bubbles. But all the mead's I have to check by shining a light through to check for activity, however they all cleared eventually, wonder if it is to do with the nature of the sugars that make up honey.

Just reread your post, if the mead is still fermenting then it is exactly the same as mine. Fermenting and not clearing. Mead can also take a long time to ferment, did you add nutrient, acid and just about everything else. Water and honey aren't the best environment for yeast to do it's job.

 

[Kirk]

Sorry, bit more looking round.
The VH SN9 seems to be Saccharomyces Bayanus.
This is, from what I found, the equivalent of Lalvin EC-1118.
EC1118 says: Low foamer, Alcohol toxicity is 18% and it ferments relatively fast. It tolerates temperatures from 39-95° F.

Bit puzzled about the temperature range as 39F = 4C, close to freezing point. (95F = 35C)
So as the temperature should not be a problem I suppose that it should have completed by now. :hmm: :hmm:

Sorry back to: Have patience.

 

[YogiB]

Racked the Mead (original recipe) yesterday, it was still opaque … just not quite see-through!
It had been sitting on the lees (which was solid ) for quite some time in the kitchen and didn’t get any clearer. So…....... I racked it, stabilized it (just to be on the safe side) and the then…................a quick taste!

Very Nice, a definite alcohol kick: but not a harsh one.
The orange came through first then lingered.
There was a slight medicinal taste but that, as I have read, is to be expected due to the spices. It was a sweet drink.
Really looking forward to it maturing.

:hmm: Later that night….. I decided the mead may need a help clearing…. :hmm: . … decided to add vinclear! :hmm:
:wha: Don’t know if this will help or hinder the mead….any thoughts?


This original recipe is very nice….. Started another today

YogiB

 

[golder247]

So going to have to do this. My missus loves mead and she cost me a fortune last time we had some, that said honey isn't cheap is it?

What is the overall cost of a batch of this?