Mead Making again
Good, busy weekend. As a part of it, I finally got started on my next batch of mead. In some ways I'm trying to move towards a more professional system. Not industrial or anything of the sort, but just adding to my arsenal of supplies and best practices. Every time I do a new batch of mead my little shelf of mead making supplies in the pantry gets a little more cramped. And now I'm also taking to doing some of the extra little things not explicitly related to supplies or techniques. I'm also going to start documenting them. More for myself than anything. But didn't real see a reason why that shouldn't be here as I do diverge from purely tech related topics more often of late anyway.
This will be the first of 2 mead related posts for the weekend. This one on the things I've add/changed to my process, and the second on the 2 batches I whipped up today.
So, my new additions to my approach are; a hydrometer, yeast nutrient, bottle corker, actual wine bottles, shaking the hell out of my must, documenting various pieces of the process and naming my meads.
I've done probably 4 batches in the past which is why some of these may seem like obvious steps I've missed out on in the past. I've never had a batch spoil despite not using any of these things/techniques and I don't think that they are absolutely necessary. But, I plan on trying to make a few gallons a year as opposed to my previous pace of a gallon every few years. So it makes sense to improve my operations so I don't suddenly end up with a spoiled batch.
So, onto the supplies and techniques.
The hydrometer. I tend to follow recipes and have little in the way of expectations as to where my meads will end up. Even going forward my uses for this very useful piece of equipment will likely be quite limited. A hydrometer measures the specific gravity of a liquid, which basically tells you how dense it is compared to pure water. In the production of alcoholic beverages, the primary thing in your water aside from water is sugar. Since sugar is what the yeast eats to produce alcohol, the specific gravity of your must dictates the potential alcohol content. Potential because the yeast may not be able to remain active if you have enough sugar for a very strong beverage.
The reason I added this to my arsenal is this; my last batch took 3 years to taste drinkable. When it finally was, it had to be one of the single greatest alcoholic beverages I had ever tasted. I did a bit of research and over time came to the conclusion that it was likely due in part to my choice of yeast and initial gravity. Basically, my supplier rams Lalvin's EC-1118 down my throat every time I talk of mead and seems reluctant to order everything else. EC-1118 is a monster among yeasts, in what is a good way for many things. It is very hardy, it can survive up to something crazy like 18% alcohol, it is generally fast, etc.... The list goes on.
According to many of the mead making sites I visited though, this super yeast has a downside. Once the ABV % starts getting into the higher teens, it starts working much more slowly. And during this phase it starts producing off tastes which can take years to settle out. And I tend to like a sweet mead. The obvious problem... to make the mead sweet I need to start with enough sugar in the must so that the yeast go dormant due to the high alcohol content and not a lack of sugar. Which also means it WILL hit those percentages where it slows down and ruins the flavor for years to come.
The batch I currently have on the go prior to the 2 from today already has these off flavors, though not as bad the 3 year mead. So I'm cold crashing it now to trying and stabilize and see if that helps at all... but I don't suspect it will.
Now, there is another means of getting a sweet mead. Only add enough sugar to get the alcohol content where you want it. Then, when fermentation stabilizes, use chemicals to ensure it remains stable and then add more sugar. This is called back-sweetening. And, when I get to that point it will be another new addition to my mead making tool kit, at which point I'll probably need to also add 1 more chemical to my cupboard. Right now I have potassium sorbate which stops the yeast from reproducing, but doesn't kill any currently active ones. Given how hardy EC-1118 is, it makes sweetening without this a potentially dangerous endeavor.
So, I aimed for a specific gravity that should yield a stable brew well under the 17-18% EC-1118 shuts down at. It should finish and clear quicker. Then I can stabilize, and hopefully as a result there will be less off flavors from the yeast and it will be drinkable in a much shorter timespan.
Yeast nutrient is next. This is one I've seen in a lot of recipes, but I generally chose recipes specifically that left it out in the past. Basically, unlike grapes, honey doesn't have a lot of the other nutrients that yeast like to help them work productively. (Note: this may have also contributed to the bad flavor in the 3 year mead). Since I tend to stick to cysers however, there would be some nutrients in the apple cider I use as my base, and I tend to throw a few raisins as well during primary fermentation to supply some of those nutrients. Since I don't want to be waiting 3 years this time however, I decided to add a little extra to help fermentation get off to strong and proper start.
The bottle corker and wine bottles I bought for the batch I'm currently cold crashing. If I plan on doing this more regularly, it made sense to me to have something proper to put the final product into.
Shaking the must is a step that wasn't included in many of the instructions I read with my early batches. And I had read that aerating the mead was bad as yeast don't produce the good kind of alcohol when it is exposed to air. But it turns out, this is only true after initial fermentation is started. The air is actually good for the mead in the first stage of development. I've never had a brew where the yeast didn't start and get the job done... but again, one more thing to try and help avoid a mead that needs 3 years to age.
Documentation and naming is the last on the list. While pretty much everyone seems to agree that trying to reproduce a previous batch exactly is fairly difficult, keeping track of ingredients, amounts, initial and final gravity readings and things you did in general can definitely be helpful for future batches. And I think giving each batch a unique name is important both from the perspective of the craft brewing culture, but also to build up that more visceral attachment to your brews so you're more likely to remember specifics about each one. I actually started naming them with the 3 year mead (Dark Horse) and the current one on the go (Baby Brew). Today's two are Mead-toberfest and Franken-Brew.
This will be the first of 2 mead related posts for the weekend. This one on the things I've add/changed to my process, and the second on the 2 batches I whipped up today.
So, my new additions to my approach are; a hydrometer, yeast nutrient, bottle corker, actual wine bottles, shaking the hell out of my must, documenting various pieces of the process and naming my meads.
I've done probably 4 batches in the past which is why some of these may seem like obvious steps I've missed out on in the past. I've never had a batch spoil despite not using any of these things/techniques and I don't think that they are absolutely necessary. But, I plan on trying to make a few gallons a year as opposed to my previous pace of a gallon every few years. So it makes sense to improve my operations so I don't suddenly end up with a spoiled batch.
So, onto the supplies and techniques.
The hydrometer. I tend to follow recipes and have little in the way of expectations as to where my meads will end up. Even going forward my uses for this very useful piece of equipment will likely be quite limited. A hydrometer measures the specific gravity of a liquid, which basically tells you how dense it is compared to pure water. In the production of alcoholic beverages, the primary thing in your water aside from water is sugar. Since sugar is what the yeast eats to produce alcohol, the specific gravity of your must dictates the potential alcohol content. Potential because the yeast may not be able to remain active if you have enough sugar for a very strong beverage.
The reason I added this to my arsenal is this; my last batch took 3 years to taste drinkable. When it finally was, it had to be one of the single greatest alcoholic beverages I had ever tasted. I did a bit of research and over time came to the conclusion that it was likely due in part to my choice of yeast and initial gravity. Basically, my supplier rams Lalvin's EC-1118 down my throat every time I talk of mead and seems reluctant to order everything else. EC-1118 is a monster among yeasts, in what is a good way for many things. It is very hardy, it can survive up to something crazy like 18% alcohol, it is generally fast, etc.... The list goes on.
According to many of the mead making sites I visited though, this super yeast has a downside. Once the ABV % starts getting into the higher teens, it starts working much more slowly. And during this phase it starts producing off tastes which can take years to settle out. And I tend to like a sweet mead. The obvious problem... to make the mead sweet I need to start with enough sugar in the must so that the yeast go dormant due to the high alcohol content and not a lack of sugar. Which also means it WILL hit those percentages where it slows down and ruins the flavor for years to come.
The batch I currently have on the go prior to the 2 from today already has these off flavors, though not as bad the 3 year mead. So I'm cold crashing it now to trying and stabilize and see if that helps at all... but I don't suspect it will.
Now, there is another means of getting a sweet mead. Only add enough sugar to get the alcohol content where you want it. Then, when fermentation stabilizes, use chemicals to ensure it remains stable and then add more sugar. This is called back-sweetening. And, when I get to that point it will be another new addition to my mead making tool kit, at which point I'll probably need to also add 1 more chemical to my cupboard. Right now I have potassium sorbate which stops the yeast from reproducing, but doesn't kill any currently active ones. Given how hardy EC-1118 is, it makes sweetening without this a potentially dangerous endeavor.
So, I aimed for a specific gravity that should yield a stable brew well under the 17-18% EC-1118 shuts down at. It should finish and clear quicker. Then I can stabilize, and hopefully as a result there will be less off flavors from the yeast and it will be drinkable in a much shorter timespan.
Yeast nutrient is next. This is one I've seen in a lot of recipes, but I generally chose recipes specifically that left it out in the past. Basically, unlike grapes, honey doesn't have a lot of the other nutrients that yeast like to help them work productively. (Note: this may have also contributed to the bad flavor in the 3 year mead). Since I tend to stick to cysers however, there would be some nutrients in the apple cider I use as my base, and I tend to throw a few raisins as well during primary fermentation to supply some of those nutrients. Since I don't want to be waiting 3 years this time however, I decided to add a little extra to help fermentation get off to strong and proper start.
The bottle corker and wine bottles I bought for the batch I'm currently cold crashing. If I plan on doing this more regularly, it made sense to me to have something proper to put the final product into.
Shaking the must is a step that wasn't included in many of the instructions I read with my early batches. And I had read that aerating the mead was bad as yeast don't produce the good kind of alcohol when it is exposed to air. But it turns out, this is only true after initial fermentation is started. The air is actually good for the mead in the first stage of development. I've never had a brew where the yeast didn't start and get the job done... but again, one more thing to try and help avoid a mead that needs 3 years to age.
Documentation and naming is the last on the list. While pretty much everyone seems to agree that trying to reproduce a previous batch exactly is fairly difficult, keeping track of ingredients, amounts, initial and final gravity readings and things you did in general can definitely be helpful for future batches. And I think giving each batch a unique name is important both from the perspective of the craft brewing culture, but also to build up that more visceral attachment to your brews so you're more likely to remember specifics about each one. I actually started naming them with the 3 year mead (Dark Horse) and the current one on the go (Baby Brew). Today's two are Mead-toberfest and Franken-Brew.
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