Beer Forum

I'm sorry to keep beating on this RO water question, but I'm not very smart...

A refresher...I just bought a new house with shitty water. I've been building my brew water up from RO.

Question:
Should I shoot for a specific target water when making mead, or should I just add yeast nutrient to the RO water and honey?

Thanks in advance!

In a former life I had the in house RO system.

I still went and bought spring water for my mead making. I just felt that any trace mineral in the water is going to be beneficial for the yeast.

As for building water for a mead from RO. I would want to get some calcium in the water just to help aid flocculation. I would also consider a small addition of Mg for additional nutritional value.

I know of no target for Mead water chemistry.

I would also think you may want to pay close attention to the ph after making water adjustments and then adding honey. Something could spike on you, but that's just a guess.

Thanks, Boss!

kace069 wrote:I would also think you may want to pay close attention to the ph after making water adjustments and then adding honey. Something could spike on you, but that's just a guess.

You can count on one hand the number of meads I've made (love the stuff - don't conclude I don't) and as I recall honey has low pH but very low buffering capacity. Therefore, if you dump it into alkaline water pH may be higher than the yeast like. For this reason I think some mead makers add "acid blend" but I'd suggest waiting to hear that from a more experienced guy before undertaking to do that. It is probably a good idea to not add any bicarbonate or carbonate if treating water. The RO water should contain enough of the trace ions that yeast enzymes need for co-factors.

Acid blend is added to the mead to help get it into balance in case it is to sweet or "flabby" It is not used for adjusting the ph.
In fact it is usually suggested to add to finished mead to taste.