Mead

[Taylor-MadeAK]

Got the itch to brew something, anything...but didn't feel like doing a mash with all the cleanup and sh**.  So, picked up the stuff to make mead.  I figure this'll interest Oni, so I'm posting a topic with pictures. =)

Here's my recipe:

12 lbs  Honey (tropical blossom honey in this case)
1 tbsp  Yeast nutrient
1 pack  Lalvin EC-1118 Champaign yeast
4 gal  Filtered tap water

This will produce a dry mead, and that's okay because I intend to hit it with some sorbate and back sweeten it with a couple more pounds of honey once it's done fermenting.  The process couldn't be simpler:

• Clean and sanitize a fermenter (what?  just about everything I do includes this step somewhere along the line), removing toys and other debris as necessary (occupational hazard: parenthood).  Use the sanitizer from the fermenter to sanitize anything else I need to use: funnel, stopper, airlock, etc.
• Prep the unopened bucket of honey by setting it in a sink full of hot water.
• Warm up a gallon of the water to around 150ºF in my baby brewpot and dissolve the yeast nutrient into it, then add the honey and stir to dissolve.  This isn't a sterilizing step, the heat is just to reduce viscosity and encourage easy incorporation of the honey.
• Add in as much cold water as the pot will hold, stirring to distribute the honey evenly.  This unfermented mead is now "must."
• Siphon the must into the fermenter through my aerator attachment.  While this is going on, proof the yeast in a half cup of warm water. 
• Top up the must in the fermenter with additional water to make up 5 gallons.
• Once the yeast is all bubbly and happy and the must transfer is done, pitch the yeast and close up the fermenter with an airlock.
• Clean up.

I won't go into fermentation and bottling stuff just yet, let's allow that to wait until I have pics of it.

Speaking of pics, I'm attaching a bunch.  In fact, this is part one of two, with more being added in a reply because of the limitation on attached images.  This site doesn't allow me to comment my files, so feel free to ask questions about any of the attached images.

[Taylor-MadeAK]

Oh, and they posted in reverse order, too!  You'd think I'd remember crap like that, being an admin and all, but the truth is I'm just too used to phpBB.  Anyway, here's the rest of the pics.

[Oni]

*runs to the store and buy vanilla sticks*

Drools

What is total cost plus supplies? So that I know how much to budget to get into the fun of it again? I figure I will start off with Mead (bottles will be the most expensive ... (looks like I will be drinking wine for a while lol) oh and that damn corking machine. Must get an easy one. lol.

[Taylor-MadeAK]

WTF?  You can't research this yourself?!

Well, let's start with ingredients:

12 lbs (1 gal) good quality honey: $50-$55
Yeast nutrient: $2.99
Yeast: $0.99

Yeah, I know that sounds like a lot for honey, but believe me malt extract costs about the same now and you're making 5 gallons of 14% ABV mead with it.

Equipment:

Fermenter (glass): $25 (you'll need 2)
Bigass pot (stainless): $50 (found this one at Wal-Mart recently)
Bigass spoon (also stainless): $9.99
750ml wine bottles (per case): $21.99 (you'll need two cases to bottle 5 gallons)
Corker (super easy wing-iris corker): $29.99
#9 synthetic corks: $7.99 (bag of 30, order online from northernbrewer)
Bottle filler: $2.99
Racking assembly: $7.99
Iodophor sanitizer: $9.99
Potassium Sorbate: $2.99
Triple scale hydrometer: $6.99
Hydrometer test jar: $2.99

Total for equipment: $225.89

[Oni]

Sounds like fun...Just have to wait now....*fricken hate the waiting game*

[Im1ru1]

*throws a tinfoil ball to distract Oni*  I know he's easily distracted by shiny objects.

The Mead sounds like fun to make, and DELICIOUS to boot!

[Oni]

OH OH *pounces the shiny ball* MINE GIVE ME! *trips over on of TM's fermenters on the way to the ball*

[Im1ru1]

Grabs the Laser Pointer

[Taylor-MadeAK]

Back on subject: I know that jug of dark brown liquor doesn't look like it'll become the pale golden elixir called mead, but that's refractive index for you.  You back?  Okay, you didn't read it.  Bottom line is, dissolved sugar refracts light.  Over time, as the yeast consumes the sugar, the color will lighten.  It's almost frightening how fast this happens, as illustrated by these pics all taken 24 hours apart.

[Oni]

Still say it looks nummy uberlishios for my tummy wummy and gotta try my paw at making it.

[Taylor-MadeAK]

Lol Oni, wtf??  Are you like 4 years old?  Hell, even my 2 year old doesn't say "nummy."

[Taylor-MadeAK]

Update time:

Fermentation: 8 days in the fermenter, still fermenting vigorously. Noticeable yeast sediment has gathered on the bottom.
Current SG: 17.2º Brix / 1.060 SG (about 3% ABV)

Obviously this has a ways to go. You also probably noticed that I'm not refrigerating it, which is because there's only room for one carboy at a time in that freezer and there's 5 gallons of Trappist ale in there taking its sweet ol' time fermenting out.

Piccy attached.

[Taylor-MadeAK]

Well, it's been almost a month since I started this batch of mead.  There's been almost no activity in the airlock for about a week now, which is a pretty good indication that the fermentation is complete.  Up until now I've been taking gravity readings with my refractometer because that allows me to use a much smaller sample and I really only needed to know a ballpark reading, so the alcohol skewing of the refractometer didn't really matter to me.  For a final gravity reading, however, I find it useful to know within a high degree of accuracy what the specific gravity is; so I use my narrow-range finishing hydrometer.  The bonus upshot is that a hydrometer sample is a minimum of 5 ounces that you get to drink afterward.

Here's where we stand right now:

OG: 1.087
FG: 1.002
Alcohol: 11.3% ABV

...and it's dry as a bone.  So dry, in fact, that the mead currently tastes bitter, alcoholic, and vaguely metallic.  A week ago it tasted great!  So what happened?  Fermentation.  The specific gravity a week ago was about 1.015, which meant there was still enough sugar in solution for it to taste slightly sweet.  The sweetness balanced the bitterness of the alcohol and other fermentation flavors, which made for a pleasant drink.  How to fix it?  By back sweetening, of course!  The way it's going to proceed from here is:

• Cold crashing.  Once I get the current batch of beer out of my chest freezer, I'll drop the temperature down to 32ºF and put the mead in there.  The combination of the cold and some gelatin finings will cause most of the remaining yeast to drop out of suspension.  This will take a couple weeks.
  
  
• Racking.  The next step, after crashing, will be to get the mead off its primary fermentation sediment.  It will continue to clear in the secondary, where it will stay for probably a couple months to get some of the necessary aging out of the way.
  
  
• Chemical assistance.  In order to back-sweeten this mead without causing fermentation to kick up again, it's necessary to take out some chemical insurance in the form of potassium sorbate.  Now, I don't normally like preservatives of this nature in my food or beverages, but in this case it's necessary: sorbate prevents yeast from multiplying, which in turn prevents a full-blown fermentation every forming provided you've removed most of the yeast by settling, fining, and/or filtering. 
  
  
• Putting some of the sweet back in.  Dry mead just doesn't taste very good, at least to me.  So, after settling the yeast out and adding some chemical insurance, I'll add a couple pounds of honey back in to give the mead a little sweetness and body to back up the alcohol and fermentation esters.  How much honey?  That's a good question that I don't have an answer for just yet - I'm still doing my homework, as it were.
  
  
• Bottling.  Right after adding the supplemental honey, it will be time to bottle.  This is going to be kind of expensive, actually.  I'm going to need to get bottles, corks, and I'd like a new corker to replace my palm-bruiser.
  
  The order that this will happen in isn't set in stone, so don't hold me to it.   

[Oni]

Oh can we please add some vanilla beans to this one

like the last one you and I made.

that's  stuff was FrICKEN GREAT!

[Im1ru1]

it sounds like it's gonna be great nevertheless...