Mead

[The Drone Ranger]

Is anyone making mead this winter

[fatshark]

Yes ... when I next warm some buckets of honey for bottling and marmalade making. I made some last winter and it's now looking clear and tempting. However, I'm going to leave it another year or so before 'testing'. A local expert here recommends allowing the first rush of fermentation to occur in a bucket as it can overwhelm an airlock in the demijohn ... then after a day or two put it in the demijohn.

A year or two ago all the entries in the mead section of our honey show were gently pushed to the back of the table by the judge who described them as industrial. I'm thinking this may be a category to pick up a few points ;)

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi Fatshark
It's 3 years since I made some (might have been 4)
anyway after 1 year it was good to drink and very pleasant
stored for another year and it was bleeding horrible
That was in bottles with the rubber seal and lever type clamp on the lid (grolsch type)
I think the seal dries out on them if upright

Industrial seems a bit harsh :)
I used 57ml of Lactic acid in the 1 Gal mix with 4 lbs of honey (OSR)
What's your plan ?

[Beefever]

This is a timely thread for me. I’ve never made any before but I’ve just been rummaging in the shed and surfaced with two demijohns so need all the advice I can get. I was planning on using the washing from capping’s and then top up with more honey. Thing is I will need to know the specific gravity to know how much honey to add. Any ideas? I was told to use good honey, not stuff that has started to ferment. Heather honey is supposed to produce a prize winning tipple but unfortunately this year’s crop was zero and last year’s has fermented in the jars. All advice greatly received.

[Jon]

3 and a half pounds of honey in a demijohn gives you a wine around 12.5%
Works out very expensive as opposed to making apple wine with windfalls.
I have 30 gallons fermenting at the moment and the only real cost in that is 25k of sugar.

[The Drone Ranger]

This is a timely thread for me. I’ve never made any before but I’ve just been rummaging in the shed and surfaced with two demijohns so need all the advice I can get. I was planning on using the washing from capping’s and then top up with more honey. Thing is I will need to know the specific gravity to know how much honey to add. Any ideas? I was told to use good honey, not stuff that has started to ferment. Heather honey is supposed to produce a prize winning tipple but unfortunately this year’s crop was zero and last year’s has fermented in the jars. All advice greatly received.

Hi Beefever
Don't know about washing the cappings but you definitely don't want honey that has started to ferment that's caused by natural yeasts and would be very unpredictable.
Champagne yeast perhaps and you definitely need both acid and yeast nutrient
If heather honey was used there might be a protein content in the mix that would possibly make the finished article difficult to clear
Pectolase might help with that but I'm not sure, so you might have to use wine finings which is best avoided as you lose flavour
There are recipes on the net but you might just want to take your own path once you find the basic instructions
Lot's of people here will have good recipes I hope :)

sounds like Jon is getting ready to distil some brandy or something!

[masterbk]

Message to Beefever with regard to capping washings. SG 1.075 is equivalent to 3 lbs of honey per gallon SG 1.086 is equivalent to 3.5 lbs per gallon. Both these will produce a dry mead. For sweet meads SG 1.096 equivalent to 4 lbs of honey per gallon SG 1.114 is equivalent to 4.5 lbs pf honey per gallon. I find that I don't need to add honey to capping washings as the SG of the washings usually exceeds all of the above therefore so I add water to dilute it down to the SG required for the mead type I intend to brew.

[Beefever]

That’s excellent information, thank you, all. Know what I’ll be doing tomorrow.
Incidentally, is it best to brew a dry mead and then sweeten or just start with an SG for sweet?

[Jimbo]

Made a gallon from my cappings this year. After extracting my honey placed the cappings in a cloth bag to get the excess honey out. I then put the cappings in a bucket with water overnight. I filtered the cappings the next day through a tea towel and measured the specific gravity using a wine hydrometer. I adjusted the liquid (in this case by adding a bit more water) to give the correct SP to give me a final 13% alcohol. I added yeast nutrient and strong tea and started a general pupose wine yeast with was then added to the mixture. The fermentation has now stopped and I gave it a first racking last week. Measured the SG again and it is a dry wine with 13% alcohol and sitting clearing as we speak. I might add some more honey at a later stage to sweeten.

[GRIZZLY]

I think I might make some this year if only to reduce my stock of rock hard rape honey!. I've got a recipe handed down to me by one of my old association pals (Warwick and Leamington B.K.A.) . It makes a very nice mead with which I won the mead section of the honey show at Stonleigh showground during a Royal Show. It's got one or two additives such as marmite and has an excellent flavour. Takes 2 years to mature properly.

[The Drone Ranger]

try this forum for some ideas on yeasts etc
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=27384

Different yeast will have higher or lower alcohol tolerances if you were sweetening with honey later then you might be best to pick a lower one that won't start up again and give a secondary fermentation
If you were using the grolsh type bottles you can use this to get a sparkling type after a little secondary fermentation (without the bottle blowing up )
It's good to know there is so much honey available from washing cappings
Some of the fast wine kits use very sophisticated yeast technology to get clear wines quickly, usually involving shellfish extracts (don't ask me how)
I have made lot's of wine kits not much mead though :)

[Beefever]

Just siphoned off the mead I made last autumn, following the advice from the above thread. I now have an air gap in the demijohns and was wondering if this needs to be topped up. Will boiled water do or more of the original mix that I have in the freezer? If I do the latter will it ferment again?

[Jon]

You can add a little potassium sorbate to stop fermentation. Home brew supply shops on e-bay sell it.