Where the bee sups, there sip I
Feb. 28th, 2012 02:48 pmI did something new this month. Something I've wanted to do for a while. Made mead. I don't recall where I've laid the notebook, so the exact recipe isn't to hand.
In about 4 gallons of water, 12 lbs of clover honey. This was something of a proof of concept, so I didn't go chasing down some local apiarist to get really fresh honey. We used a commercially available clover.
Heated it to about 120-130F It turns out the thermometer we had wasn't as reliable as we'd have liked. I bought a new one at work the next day, so I know my fermenting area was keeping about 72F. I'm tempted to get a recording thermometer, esp. if I try to do this in the summer.
Pitched a White Labs liquid, as opposed to getting a dehydrated, yeast. WLP715, which is a champagne yeast. Did a starter off of that; because meads are prone to stalling. Added 4tsp of Fermax (for the same reason) and poured it in. Starting SG was 1.1248, measured at 29° Brix, and from a 15.8° Brix finish we get an FG of 1.0644, for an estimated ABV of 9.4% (if one is using the simpler equation [ABV = (og – fg) * 131.25] one gets an ABV of 7.8. I used [ABV =(76.08 * (og-fg) / (1.775-og)) * (fg / 0.794]which gives me an ABV of 9.4. Looking into it, I found the latter is probably more accurate for the high SG I started with. In any case, it's in the moderate wine range now. I'll put it on the refractometer when it's done with the secondary fermentation, and we'll see what it says then)
It took about 10 days to slow, and hadn't completely stalled when I bottled it, with belches leaving the airlock about once a minute.
So I racked it off the lees, and then put it into bottles.
I used a blueberry honey to give a mild dosage, and bottled it. In 6-12 months that will be a mildly sparkling mead. I have four virgin bottles, which I got from work, which are the only one's I'm really worried about the possibility of bursting. I need to drink more beer which comes with toggle tops. Capping wasn't hard, but it's a lot easier to just line the gasket up and fold the wire down.
It also makes it easier to pull a little bit out to test.
The flavor is, of course, still a bit harsh. It reminds me of a mead![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ladymondegreen liked, and I was a little ambivalent about, but I don't know how it's going to age.
In about 4 gallons of water, 12 lbs of clover honey. This was something of a proof of concept, so I didn't go chasing down some local apiarist to get really fresh honey. We used a commercially available clover.
Heated it to about 120-130F It turns out the thermometer we had wasn't as reliable as we'd have liked. I bought a new one at work the next day, so I know my fermenting area was keeping about 72F. I'm tempted to get a recording thermometer, esp. if I try to do this in the summer.
Pitched a White Labs liquid, as opposed to getting a dehydrated, yeast. WLP715, which is a champagne yeast. Did a starter off of that; because meads are prone to stalling. Added 4tsp of Fermax (for the same reason) and poured it in. Starting SG was 1.1248, measured at 29° Brix, and from a 15.8° Brix finish we get an FG of 1.0644, for an estimated ABV of 9.4% (if one is using the simpler equation [ABV = (og – fg) * 131.25] one gets an ABV of 7.8. I used [ABV =(76.08 * (og-fg) / (1.775-og)) * (fg / 0.794]which gives me an ABV of 9.4. Looking into it, I found the latter is probably more accurate for the high SG I started with. In any case, it's in the moderate wine range now. I'll put it on the refractometer when it's done with the secondary fermentation, and we'll see what it says then)
It took about 10 days to slow, and hadn't completely stalled when I bottled it, with belches leaving the airlock about once a minute.
So I racked it off the lees, and then put it into bottles.
I used a blueberry honey to give a mild dosage, and bottled it. In 6-12 months that will be a mildly sparkling mead. I have four virgin bottles, which I got from work, which are the only one's I'm really worried about the possibility of bursting. I need to drink more beer which comes with toggle tops. Capping wasn't hard, but it's a lot easier to just line the gasket up and fold the wire down.
It also makes it easier to pull a little bit out to test.
The flavor is, of course, still a bit harsh. It reminds me of a mead
ladymondegreen liked, and I was a little ambivalent about, but I don't know how it's going to age.
