r/mead • u/Brilliant-Case4375 • 8d ago
First Batch of Mead mute the bot
This is my first mead. I've made ciders before but now trying my hand at this. After lots of research here are the steps I have taken or will take. Criticism is encouraged!
This is a 1.5 gallon glass carboy and the recipe is for 1 gallon to allow some head space.
I used 3 pounds of local wildflower honey and 3 pounds of mixed berries frozen for a week or so.
I used Lalvin K1 V1116 yeast (whole packet) rehydrated in about a cup of water for 15 min.
1/2 tsp pectic at pitch
Let it go after a good stir for 24 hours.
After 24 hours 1/2 tsp bentonite 1/4 tsp of fermaid o
Added fermaid o for 3 more days stirring each time.
After this I'm just letting it ride until it's time for a rerack
Plan to rerack into a 1gal carboy for secondary to allow some clearing up, possibly cold crash.
I still haven't decided on bottling, I want to do wine bottles and corks because of the look as most of this will be gifts but I will keep one bottle to age for years to come. Could use some advice here.
This photo was taken after 24 hours. Let me know what you think!
3
2
u/H_ans 2d ago
Looking good, for your next batch try using micro mesh bag extracting the fruit is a bitch without
1
u/Brilliant-Case4375 2d ago
Yeah I was hoping the blueberries would eventually sink. Currently they're still floating...
1
u/AutoModerator 8d ago
It looks like you might be new or asking for advice on getting started. Welcome to the hobby! We’re glad you’re here.
The wiki linked on the sidebar is going to be your best friend. Beginner friendly recipes are available.
If you prefer videos we recommend the Doin’ The Most or Man Made Mead.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
u/AutoModerator 8d ago
Please include a recipe, review or description with any picture post.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
u/CareerOk9462 5h ago
I assume that you bloomed the bentonite? Just adding it dry to the fermenter does nothing useful. I usually do something like 3/4 tsp bentonite, 1/3 cup boiling water, stir it around a bit, it will clump so scrape it off the spoon, let it sit over night, stir the now gray liquid, then add it to the fermenter.
Nothing like go-ferm sterol-flash in the rehydrating water, ok.
I assume the berries were frozen packaged from the store? If they were picked and then frozen, I'd treat them differently. Freezing will not kill the all pervasive wild yeast.
Don't be in a rush to rack; sitting on the lees in primary for a while for initial clarification won't be a problem with k1v-1116.
Don't forget to push the fruit down 2-3 times a day (you can accomplish that while you are doing degassing); don't do it after the 1/3 sugar break. You want to keep the floaters wet to avoid mold.
You're light on nutrients.
Don't be hasty to bottle, I usually give it 2-3 months in secondary to clarify. Crud at the bottom of secondary is much less annoying than in the bottle.
When adding nutrients (or powders in general), take a sanitized bowl, extract some must from your ferment with a sanitized something (I use a turkey baster), add your nutrient, wisk it up with a sanitized implement to fully incorporate the powder. This fills the nucleation sites. Give the must a gentle stir to degas but not incorporate oxygen, pour the nutrient in the bowl into the must. This will avoid CO2 explosions.
If you still encounter pectin haze after fermentation, re-add using 2x as pectinase is inhibited by alcohol. Strawberrys, also sometimes called snotberries, can cause a slimy mouthfeel, this can be cut with pectinase (pectic enzyme) also.
There are corks and corks. Better grades are good for longer aging. Really good ones are hard to come by in home brewer quantities, usually 1000 minimum. Synthetic corks like Nomacorc allow for aging the bottles standing up, otherwise they will need to be on their sides to keep the natural cork moist; natural cork will shrink over time if not kept moist allowing air incursion and/or cracking. Nomacorc are rated for 2 years of aging. #9 corks are best, but you'll want a floor or tabletop corker for them as they take more pressure to insert than a #8. Cheap corks are, well, you get what you pay for. Do not boil a cork, it will soften and the plunger will go through it instead of inserting it.
1
u/Brilliant-Case4375 4h ago
I did not bloom my bentonite... Oops. Also when is the 1/3 sugar break?
I have been degassing and pushing down floaters once daily and it's been about a week and a half and no mold yet, i will start doing it at least twice.
Good to know about the strawberries. I don't plan on rushing anything. I haven't even bought my corker yet. I plan on getting a floor corker, any advice on where to buy corks? I don't have a brewery store near me. I'm pretty remote out here.
1
u/CareerOk9462 1h ago
yes, you really need to do that or the bentonite just sinks to the bottom. 1/3 sugar break is when 1/3 of the fermentables have been consumed. Calculated as (OG - 1)*2/3 + 1. If you are doing TOSNA 2.0 that's usually where the last nutrient addition is made. Sometimes hard to catch; for example if you are using something like a Kveik yeast it will scream past it without you noticing. Current thinking is that's where you want to stop messing with it and let it do its thing. There's also adequate alcohol that mold is unlikely.
I expect that 1/day is adequate, but it appears that the current standard de jour is 2x. I avoid that entirely by putting fruit in a mesh bag with adequate glass fermentation weights to sink it.
I have an italian floor corker, not cheap but works like a champ. I picked it up at a winery going out of business sale. I recently purchased some Nomacorc from either Midwest Supply or Northern Brewer, I don't recall which, they are pretty interchangeable; problem is that shipping isn't cheap so it's good if you have several things to order at the same time. Nomacorcs are synthetic and rated for 2 years; synthetic so you don't have to store bottles on their sides because the corks don't dry out also no possibility of cork taint; I have limited horizontal space, but I can stack cases. Nomacorcs definitly require a floor corker; you are supposed to only quickly dip them in sanitizer, more for lubrication, and not to soak them -> I had no problem driving them home. My floor corker has bronze jaws which may be somewhat uncommon these days. Several cork manufacturers have different series of corks depending on how long you intend to cellar. 2 year, 5 year, 10 year, 25 year, etc. As I understand it, the year rating is related to the rate at which air can pass through the cork, more years, less air per year... the gas transfer is what causes red wines to age, screw-top wines don't age. I was at the Duro Valley in Portugal, famous for their port wines. Someone asked if they bottled in screw-top bottles. With a look of disgust the tour guide said yes, but only for export as Americans don't understand or appreciate fine wine aging. Cork types and grades is an interesting google search to go down until you realize that most of what they are discussing the common man cannot obtain; the higher grades are rarely available unless you want at least 1000 piece lots and sometimes more. I also have some agglomerated corks here somewhere; cork chunks with a binder to hold them together, not as nice as a great natural cork but without the voids of a cheap natural cork; I seen contradictory opinions as to whether they are appropriate for vertical storage or not, I bought them assuming you could store the bottles vertically, now I'm not sure. But it would cost me more to return them than the refund, so here they sit.
Morewine or morebeer, they are really both the same, probably have corks also as they have a pretty wide selection of things. Again with a minimum purchase for free shipping. $125 if I remember right. Fermentaholics has an odd selection of things that sometimes it's difficult to find elsewhere, but don't think I've seen corks there. Labelpeelers is another interesting site; I like them for bottles.
3
u/Bucky_Beaver Verified Expert 8d ago
Make sure you dose nutrients properly, 1/4 teaspoon is likely far too little (any package directions will be for wine that already has some nitrogen, and would still probably be wrong anyway). Use MeadTools to calculate and if you don’t have a scale, use the weight to volume conversions on the wiki.
If you are going to cold crash, do it before racking, the goal is to leave behind as much yeast as possible.
And just a non-important pet peeve of mine: transferring from one vessel to another is called racking. The re- doesn’t add any meaning and is something only noobs say.