Topic: This years batch:
Sunday: February 13, 2011
This year I will be making an Oregon Blackberry Mead using White Labs liquid sweet mead yeast # WLP720. As I mentioned previously it is better to make a larger quaintly of mead because less is lost during the racking process it must go through several times to get rid of dead yeast cells (called the lee) that build up on the bottom of the must as it is turned from honey water into honey wine. I started out to make 3 gallons of mead but ended up making 5 gallons. I use the no boil method but got my must a little warm for the yeast and had to add more cold water to equalize the temperature and of course I had to add more honey.
The plan was for 3 gallons of water and 11 ½ pounds of honey. I ended up with 4 gallons and 14 ½ pounds of honey, which should make a medium sweet,(with the emphasis on sweet), mead. Just to clarify a point I forgot to figure in; the dissolved honey will increase your volume so if 3 gallons is what your looking to make use only 2 gallons of water to start and if you fall below you can always add a little. Of course the more honey, the sweeter the mead.
So— 14 ½ pounds of honey and 4 gallons of water should make the mead I want. Add to this a yeast nutrient called Fernaid K and that’s all the ingredients you need. Now this will make what is known as a show mead, (one without any added fruit, spices etc.).
I also took the specific gravity, which indicates how much sugar is in the must to start. This is taken several times down the line and will let you know by the reading how much of the must has been converted to alcohol at each reading. One important step to not be forgotten-keep a log or journal of the steps you use to make your mead. I have found mine from last year to be invaluable to this years brew. Here is my log for this year:
Mead Log Day 1-Feb 13, 2pm:
Cleaned and sanitized my equipment with One Step-No Rinse and Iodophor. Do this at every stage for the best results!
Dissolved 11 ½ pounds of Blackberry honey in 3 gallons of warm 96 degrees water (won’t do that again it took to long to cool-use water about 75-85 degrees instead). Aerated the must and added 1 1/2 teaspoons of the nutrient and aerated again. Kept aerating for about 30 minutes to cool the mixture down but I finally decided to add 1 gallon more of cold water, about 65 degrees. This brought the must temp down to around 85 degrees. Pitched (added) all the yeast, 35 ml., and aerated vigorously-and I do mean vigorously!
Note: This is the time you want to add oxygen to your must-helps the yeast, later you must leave it alone!
Covered fermenter bucket with plastic wrap, to watch the initial process like last year.
Day 1- Feb 13, 11 pm:
Uncovered must. A small amount of bubbles are on the surface, honey, musty sweet smell. Aerated with plastic coated wire whip and covered.
Day 2- Feb 14, 9am:
Strong C02 smell. Bubbles on the surface, more than yesterday.
Went to the market to buy more honey. 11 ½ pounds in 4 gallons will make a dry mead and so I bought 3 pounds more Blackberry honey to make medium sweet mead. Added ½ teaspoon more of nutrient.
11am Added 3 pounds of Blackberry honey to the must. Amazing reaction; the must exploded in foam-not sure why but as soon as the yeast start to become active, as I learned last year, the must will have some foam on it, just not this much. I must have had at least 3 inches or more of foam. It dissolved back into the must in a little while. Aerated the must and covered once again.
Day 2- Feb 14, 11 pm:
A good amount of bubbles on the surface. Sweet honey alcohol smell. Foamed again like this morning when I aerated the must.
Covered again with plastic wrap.
Day 3- Feb 15, 10am:
A few bubbles on the surface. Nice honey musty smell. Tiny carbonation bubbles showing just at and below the surface. This looks a lot like both meads last year when they were already in the 1 gallon carboys. Aerated the must once again, and again it foamed. Not much CO2 distention in the plastic but this could be in part because the yeast are just in entering their aerobic (taking on oxygen) stage and also the container I am using to start the fermentation has a larger surface on top and the CO2 gases would be more spread out than last year.
11pm:
No aeration tonight I will do the final aeration tomorrow before putting on the plastic lid and air lock. Bubbles on surface and a sweet honey smell.
Day 4-Feb 16, 9am:
Waited for the last aeration until today so I could use my blender to give the must one last good kick of oxygen. I am concerned that my plastic-coated wire whisk is not doing a full job since there is so much liquid. Three or four cups, whipped in the blender and sired into the must should do it.
Bubbles on top-carbonation showing just below the surface and a sweet honey smell.
Put aprox 3 cups of mead into the blender and whipped it into a frenzy. The entire 3 cups turned into foam.
Stirred the foam into the must with a long handled spoon (you will see it in the photos).
Couldn’t get the lid to seal, so back on with the plastic until my husband can help.
7pm:
With the lid and airlock sanitized for the second time today my husband was able to get the lid on with the help of a hammer!
It’s a good thing the fermenter has a spigot to drain the mead because otherwise we could be in trouble here. I put the air lock with its rubber stopper in the hole on the lid and right away it started bubbling. -Good Sign!
Now it’s a waiting game, as the mead will stay in its frementer for a couple of weeks during the primary fermentation phase.
I will continue to monitor the mead each day but that is all, until I rack it, or transfer it,(leaving the lee or dregs behind), into a glass carboy (3- 10 gallon glass bottle just like large water bottles, though you can get them in plastic like the fermenter).
Note: The air lock get a small amount of water put in it to act as a barrier to any wild yeast, bacteria etc, while permiting the CO2 to be expelled.
More to come at racking time in a couple of weeks.
In the mean time I have some info you might find helpful.
gotmead.com This is a fantastic site, it helped me a lot.
The Compleat Meadmaker, by Ken Schramm is a great guide and like the gotmead site-very helpful.
ckick on the link and go to Amazon.
Original article:
By Joanna Linsley-Poe
copyright 2011
AncientFoods
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