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first time mead, need some help!
Hello everyone. I am in the process of starting my first mead. and i have some questions that i hoped you all might be able to help me with!
My starter is as follows:
4 .oz honey
2 cups water
1 white labs sweet mead/wine yeast WLP720 (liquid)
1 tsp of brewcraft yeast nutrient
my must is as follows:
6 lbs clover honey
2 gal water
3 pears
2 lemons
maybe a pound of cinnamon sticks.
I'm going for a smooth winter style mead but i want a very high alcohol content (12.0% ABV and above).
I want to know if i should sit my starter out for 24 hrs after mixing all the ingredients together or if i can just dump it in after i sterilized my must with campden tablets. I heard something about pitching a second champagne or wine yeast on my secondary before racking to up the alcohol content, is this correct? Right now i am looking at my must and wondering what to do next. Any help or general comments on my must would be much appreciated! thanks!!!!!
A pound of cinnamon is way, way, way too much.
Think in terms of one or two sticks.
Well thank you for that, i fixed the cinnamon problem. I appreciate your help. I would really like to hear some opinions on my recipe with the fixed 3 cinnamon sticks instead of 1 pound though....
First off, welcome to the board. Lots of good folks here with a lot of knowledge.
Comments on your recipe, 1+ on the spices, use them sparingly.
Starter looks good.
If you bring your honey to a boil, I really don't think you need the campden.
For a "smooth" translate "sweet" mead, you do not want to use any champagne yeast, that will make it very dry & require aging for several months. Dry + Cinnamom = not good fast.
The other thing you could do for a sweetened mead, is kill the yeast after fermentation is complete with potassium sorbate and back sweeten with honey. Course you will have to be content with a still mead, as you will be unable to bottle carbonate.
Thanks brewski!
Well if the champagne yeast is going to be overkill, how could i up the ABV % and still sustain a a sweet flavor? Is there another kind of yeast i could use during my secondary?
I can help you with your mead questions but I need to know exactly how large of a batch you are making....from your ingredient list, it looks like you are making a two gallon batch....is this correct?
I would think that you would want to go with the WLP720. someone correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't the yeast conk out after about 15% or so and you could sweeten further after that to taste? Or am I misunderstanding something else here.
Irondavy
The WLP 720 will go to 15% sometimes to the edge of 16% but still ferments out to a dryness I don't care for. I haven't experienced any spontaneous fermentations after three months and have successfully back sweetened a batch without any bottle bombs. Some bottles were petulant, but not by any means sparkling.
Petulant? que es esto? pardon my ignorance.
ID
Its a word that mead judges use a lot. From what I understand it is the "in between" stage of still and sparkling. Not all bubbly like sparkling but possessing a few bubbles...just a bit of carbonation.
Thanks for the clarification. Petulant just sounds like its growing something nasty in it not "almost" sparkling
ID
You could try a small batch of "basic" mead, pure honey & water, then at bottle stage, add different spices to a variey of small bottles, and then try the taste. Once you find a taste you like, then use that spice for your next batch when creating the must.
ok so i am also starting a batch for the first time.
What if i forgot to use the starter to get the yeast going and went ahead and just put yeast in with the honey and water and now the batch is not sending bubbles through the tube.
Is it too late to open it up and add the activated yeast?
Is the batch ruined?
Patience Daniel-Son...... Pardon the Karate Kid reference.. When did you brew the mead? sometimes mead take some time to start fermentation. did you add any yeast nutrient? If not mead is almost devoid of nutrients and it takes some time to start working it's magic. Might as well leave it alone for a while and see what happens. It will help if you post the recipe for the mead
ID
Ah well it has only been going for 1 month and i used yeast with nutriants.
I will wait as you say it has given me some eas i thought i may have batched it up already.
my recipe is simply 10lb of honey and about 5 gallins of water and yeast with neutriant.
i have helped someone do this before and i thought i had it. I forgot some details that i am remembering now.
:Z
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