# mead "beginner mistakes"



## cfiffpm (Dec 17, 2013)

I'm preparing to make my first mead from "The Joy of Homebrewing's" antipodal mead recipe. When I googled it I found a very old post that said the following sentence:

"I made all the beginner mistakes including pre-fermentation acid, stuck fermentation, gypsum, boiling the honey, etc" 

But I don't understand what the mistakes were? Papazian's recipe calls for the mead to be heated to 160 but not boiled. SHOULD it be boiled? What target pH should I be trying to obtain by adding gypsum? (the recipe simply calls for an addition without knowing what my pH was beforehand.) The recipe also calls for addition of an acid blend, but never asks you to check total acidity. What value to you want? 
The guy is saying that he made mistakes, but doesn't say in which direction he erred. Could someone who's brewed mead before warn me off about what the original poster was trying to say?

Thanks in advance. Here's the recipe if it helps:

15 lbs Honey (Grade A clover)
1 tsp Yeast nutrient
1 Tbs Acid Blend
1 tsp Irish Moss
0.5 tsp Gypsum
Water to 5 Gallons
Packet Pasteur Champagne Yeast

Heated tap water to 160ºF for 20 minutes; removed from heat. Added all ingredients and stirred well to mix honey.
Cleaned 5 g carboy using water and 0.5 cup bleach. Let sit for 15 minutes, rinsed well with hot water and poured in must. Shook for less than a minute.
When cooled to 80 F, rehydrated yeast according to instructions and pitc


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## Deezil (Dec 17, 2013)

Meads TA fluctuates pretty drastically, both from batch to batch, and from the beginning of the batch to the end of that same batch

The gypsum is added in an attempt to "buffer" the must, which basically means it acts to keep the TA from swinging so far, when it does intend to swing. 

The acid blend, skip it until post-fermentation. Unless you wanna go through this headache.

Use yeast nutrient per the directions that came with your particular nutrient. Each one is different. Each mead is different as well, but most are the same in that honey offers very very little in the way of key nutrition for yeast growth.

The honey doesnt need to be heated for any reason other than making it dissolve easier. Definitely dont need to take it to 160F for that. The more you heat it, the more energy (literally, heat energy) you'll be putting into transforming the characteristics of that honey into something it wasnt naturally. 

Bleach is usually frowned upon as well.. I use oxy-clean to clean my equipment (make sure its the chlorine free type, name brand not off brand either) and then k-meta to sanitize prior to racking. 

Hope that helps some.


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## mmadmikes1 (Dec 18, 2013)

I never add acid blend without check PH first. I shoot for starting PH of 3.5. never worry about it after that. I never heat honey over 130 and seldom go that high unless I am on a cooker that is new to me and I am not careful. heat change flavor of honey( little lie I once caramelized honey on purpose for the mead I was making) It is obvious this recipe is from a beer maker and not a wine maker. Irish moss and gypsum gives it away. I use neither in mead but do use bentonite at beginning.


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## BernardSmith (Dec 18, 2013)

Deezil said:


> Meads TA fluctuates pretty drastically, both from batch to batch, and from the beginning of the batch to the end of that same batch
> 
> The gypsum is added in an attempt to "buffer" the must, which basically means it acts to keep the TA from swinging so far, when it does intend to swing.
> 
> ...


 
I make no claim to expertise but I never heat honey. To increase its viscosity (its ability to flow when poured) I simply place the jars of honey in a pan of very warm water for a few minutes and then pour the warmed (not hot) honey in batches with some of the water I am diluting it with into a sanitized blender and whip the bejesus out of the mix, aerating at the same time and.


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## SouthernChemist (Dec 18, 2013)

I would definitely avoid making any acid adjustments pre-fermentation. Fermentation can change your pH/TA quite a bit depending on your honey and other conditions. You really do not need to heat the water up to ~160 degrees to dissolve the honey. Just take a small portion of your water, get it warm, and use that to dissolve all your honey. The water does not need to be hot or very warm at all to do this.

And I agree, it looks like the recipe was written by a brewer and not a wine maker.


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## Bob1016 (Dec 28, 2013)

You really don't need to heat anything. I take 1gal jugs fill with ~4lbs honey add water halfway and shake the $£#&¥ out of it. Add more honey and repeat. Then water down the must in the bucket to OG, and remove enough so you know your starting volume (just their it out until you reach a marker on the side of the bucket). 
This mixes thoroughly and aerates pretty well. 
Brewers can make fine mead, and mead makers can make fine beer; but I'd rather get a mead recipe from a meadmaker or winemaker than a brewer. It's a totally different art, except for the ferment. I'd argue that a meadmaker can ferment wort or must pretty well, as mead teaches you to be very involved.


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## John_Kelvin (Dec 29, 2013)

Thank you for this article !


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## Runningwolf (Dec 29, 2013)

Thank you for leaving this forum john


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