Step-by-step guide to mead making

[yabodie]

Thanks UFC. Hope it was a good one!! I had a meth last night made with with cat nip, lemon balm, heather and lavender. All happen to have sedative properties and I slept well...


Regarding the carboy, it depends.
If you add the fruit in the primary ferment in the bucket. Then rack it into a 3 gallon carboy for bulk aging. When you rack into the carboy try to get as much liquid in there to have as little head space as possible.

If you add fruit in the secondary rack from your primary into a 5 gallon carboy, let the mead sit on the fruit for a month or so then rack into a 3 gallon with as little head space as possible.

The reason to go to glass after primary is to keep O2 out of your mead.

Go ahead and mix up the lees in the first week or so of fermentation with the drill adapter. You ca also aerate this way as well.

NOTE of caution: if you ferment in a carboy be VERY careful how you aerate/mix the lees because half of your mead will be on your ceiling due to a volcano. I have seen it, done it and have cried over it. So it is best to use the bucket as a primary vessel.

[im1dermike]

Thanks for all of your help guys. I think I'll just do a 5 gallon batch I've actually decided I want a quick mead. To avoid bottle carbonation issues, I think I'll just force carb it in a keg and then bottle it from the keg.

If I wanted moderate fruitiness, would it make sense to ferment in a bucket for primary, then rack to a carboy over pureed fruit for 3 weeks or so, and then rack off the fruit? If so, when I rack off the fruit, can I keg it then and age, or should I bulk age in a carboy and then keg?

What are some good fruit options? Cranberry sounds decent. It's fine if I just pick up whatever fruit I want at the super market as long as I add S02 when I puree them?

[yabodie]

First the easy part. Once the mead is clear transfer it to a keg and bulk age it in the keg under 10psi or so, just to seat the seal. That is fine, no worries there.

Now for the more difficult question and it all depends on you.

How much fruit and when to add it in the process all depends on the fruit and how it is processed. IMO Fresh fruit off the plant still warm from the sun is THE BEST choice for mead. If you can't get that go with fresh store bought. If not then frozen. Worst case, and at this point wait till the farmers markets open for fresh fruit so you don't waste your mead, would be the pureed sort.

Now fruit flavor and aroma will depend on how much fruit you add and when. For a subtle flavor add it in the primary. More aroma and flavor add it in the secondary. The strawberry mead I made had about 12lbs of berries in primary. The cherry one had 10lbs with the pits in the secondary. Blackberry was about 15lbs in the primary. All were a 6 gallon batch so I had enough liquid for a full 5 gallon keg.

So it all depends. Ken Schramm's book has a nice table in it for suggestions about fruit quantities.

I would suggest you make a 5 gallon batch now, without fruit, so during the summer months you will have a mead ready to add what ever fruit you want to it, and you will have enough to split it and do one with cherries and one with raspberries if you want.

It depends...

[im1dermike]

Thanks yabodie. I read that adding fruit at different times adds different characteristics. I'd like a moderate fruit flavor. I was thinking of adding 5# of cherries to the primary and then adding 5# after primary for 2 weeks. Thoughts?

[Charlie]

Uh... how are you sanitizing the wort/must, and when do you add the fruit?

Obviously you can't boil the wort if you've got fruit in it because of pectin haze, so you should use sodium metabisulphite. Maybe I missed that in your schedule.

I made one still mead with blueberries. Do you know what blueberries taste like when you take the sugar out? They taste like gym socks, and I'll never do that again!

The next time I also did a still mead but omitted the blueberries. I treated it like a beer and boiled the crap out of it. Won several awards with that one.

Charlie

[yabodie]

Charlie pointed out the two camps for mead makers. One boils the must to sanitize the honey etc. The other does not.

I am in the camp that does not boil my must. I smell way too many amazing aromas floating out of the must when it boils. I would rather have the aromas in my mead than in the atmosphere.

If you have good sanitation you will be fine. The yeast I suggested, K1V-1116, is a killer strain so if any wild yeast is in your must the K1V-1116 will kill it.

Another bit-o-info is that honey is not a friendly environment for bugs to grow in due to the lack of water. If you rehydrate your yeast with Go-ferm and pitch a healthy amount, your yeast of choice will have a significant advantage to any spore in the honey.

For the cherries in a 5 gallon batch use 5#s in the primary, but make sure they are sour cherries like Montmorency cherries. The sweet cherries will make your mead taste like cough syrup.

Once primary is done rack onto the second 5#s. Oh and if possible keep the pits in the mead as they add a subtle almond flavor. VERY nice. Also in the secondary add a couple vanilla beans and oak cubes.

I gave Doc and Justin some of my cherry mead at NHC last year and Justin called it a pantie dropper and Doc kept asking for more. Figure that is better than a medal.

[UcfLumberjack]

+1 again. no boil, no chemicals. just pitch properly rehydrated(rehydrate in water and go-ferm) yeast (dry wine yeast from lalvin is awesome, no comparison to dry beer yeast.), oxygenate, dose with fermaid-k. the steadily climbing alcohol level will kill anything else living in there.

sorry to hijack.... but..... one of my favorite meads so far was a dry blueberry mead. it had a hint of blueberry flavor and the mouthfeel was like velvet. just a little tannin. nice blue, purple color.

[Charlie]

Agree about boiling blowing off your aromatics. If you don't have to do it then don't.

sorry to hijack.... but..... one of my favorite meads so far was a dry blueberry mead. it had a hint of blueberry flavor and the mouthfeel was like velvet. just a little tannin. nice blue, purple color.

This was no hint! I may have clobbered it with too much fruit. I'll have to review my notes. It had a definite sweaty feet taste.

Charlie