Washington State Mead Adventure!

[seth8530]

Welcome back!

Thanks good to hear from you!

 

[seth8530]

Just to log this changing the nutrient addition a bit after learning my yeast strain is a low N2 need strain I will actually use 22 grams of fermaidK and 185 grams of fermaidO.

 

[seth8530]

Initial measure of specific gravity was 1.044 at 91F. This should be 1.048 at 60F. Which is pretty close to my target of 1.050. We will see if this gravity changes as it mixes out a bit.

 

[seth8530]

Some pictures for those who like visual stimulation.

 

[seth8530]

 

[seth8530]

Added in the other half of the fermaidO at around 1.034. Fermentation is chugging along nice and slow at 62F.

 

[seth8530]

In preperation for the gingermead I am making a 5 gallons batch of nonalcoholic ginger beer. I took 1750 grams of sliced ginger and boiled it in water for around 30 minutes. To that I then added 1700 grams of sugar (9 gram per 100 ml is what fever tree uses). I will add 50 ppm of kmeta to it and keg it to 3.5 volumes of CO2 at 44F.

 

[seth8530]

Mead was at 1.002 today. I racked it off into carboys. In one batch I boiled 1500 grams of sliced ginger for 30 minutes and mixed in enough honey to get a gravity of 1.048 in my ginger water. In another batch I mixed 1 gallon of pure cranberry juice with enough honey to get a gallon of cranhoney at a gravity of 1.048. I then poured these two batches into 6 gallon carboys and topped off with my mead. I expect fermentation to pick back up on those guys very shortly. I racked the rest of the mead into 2 5 gallon carboys (I will end up back sweetining one) and most of another 5 gallon keg. Looks like my over all yield is around 25+ gallons. Not to bad. Not quite sure what I am going to do with the mead that is sitting in the keg just yet... I did not plan on having this much volume.

 

[Jericurl]

Welcome back, Seth. It's good to see you back again.

 

[meadmaker1]

Good to see you back.
I joined after reading old posts of yours.
I read the link you posted and there are a pile of big words.
Without your posts in this thead im not sure I would have gotten anything from it.
Youve given clarification to other reading and advise ive gotten
I THINK ANYWAY
not to discount those who have been so helpful in your absence

 

[seth8530]

Welcome back, Seth. It's good to see you back again.

Thanks, its great to be back around my fellow fermentist!

 

[seth8530]

Good to see you back.
I joined after reading old posts of yours.
I read the link you posted and there are a pile of big words.
Without your posts in this thead im not sure I would have gotten anything from it.
Youve given clarification to other reading and advise ive gotten
I THINK ANYWAY
not to discount those who have been so helpful in your absence

Wow someone actually read that stuff? Thanks! I love to hear that.

 

[meadmaker1]

Wow someone actually read that stuff? Thanks! I love to hear that.

Well I tried. Still googling some of the words lol

 

[Country]

In to follow your ginger mead, sounds awesome!

 

[seth8530]

Alright guys the meads have been adjusted and are now sitting in kegs getting carbonated. Once the bubbles are right I will give set of tasting notes and numbers.

 

[seth8530]

Alright, so a lesson has been learned from making these meads. While I would say that they were all pretty good. They were not quite what they could have been. One of the most consistent portions of review feedback that I received was that there was an overt nutrient flavor in the mead and thus they did not score super well. This is really interesting since I have done very well with full strength meads in competition before using the same methodology. The only conclusion that I have been able to come to is that the low ABV makes it pretty easy for any flaw to shine through. In order to correct this I will begin taking into account the efficiency gain of use fermaidO YAN over DAP YAN. I have heard it cited as being anywhere as 3 to 5 times as efficient. I will experiment with assuming it is 3 times as efficient as a start.