Once is an experiment
Sep. 10th, 2012 11:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pecuniumAnd the experiment was tolerably successful. There is mead, and no one who has tried it has said, “What the hell did you just give me?”
More to the point, part of this is thatladymondegreen can’t drink wine, and for Passover she needs something she can drink and mead is acceptable. So having kosher for passover mead is important. We have kept the meadery in just such a state (which means either getting doubling the brewing vessels and keeping the vaporlocks separated, or doing a lot of kashering, should we start to make beers/braggots).
So I did more reading. The last batch was a very “heavy” must, with a very strong yeast. It suffers from my not letting the mead rest long enough before bottling; that or the yeast stalled from the sheer amount of honey in the mix; honey being not the best of sugars for yeasts.
I wanted a lighter flavor, and I thought I wanted something to balance out the sweetness of the honey. A lager yeast might do it, but the it’s an amazing list of possible flavors, ester profiles, alcohol tolerance, need for nutrients, fermenting temperatures, etc. Then I saw something which might fill the bill. Berliner-Weisse
It’s a bright beer, brewed without hops. The yeast flavor is mild, and a sympathetic lactobaccillus gives it a pleasantly sour note; not quite as sharp as the beers described as, “sour”, which have a tart aftertaste, and all sorts of variety.
Wyeast has seasonal yeast which is just the ticket.
So, about a month ago, I bought that Smack-pack (the name is because the yeast is packed in distilled water, and a plastic bag full of nutrients is added. Three hours, or so, before you want to “pitch” you break the packet. It’s deceptively hard to find, and surprising resilient.
It’s been that long because arranging to have two weeks when I could monitor the fermentation turned out to be trickier than I expected. Today was the day. I’d rinsed the carboys when I was done with the last batch. I made up some Star-san, last night, and sloshed the heck out of the fermentor. When I get ready to rack, I’ll do it to that carboy. Left it to drain/dry overnight.
Brought it upstairs, and added about eight lbs. of mesquite honey.
Then I added about a gallon of warm water (about 110°F, just enough to be warm to the touch) and sloshed it like mad. Not only did I want to dissolve the honey, I wanted to oxygenate the water, which the yeast needs in the first stages of fermentation.
Then I added 5tsp of Fermax (a yeast nutrient, so they can build healthy bodies before they start the exponential reproduction needed to convert a lot of sugar into alcohol and CO2), and some more water, and sloshed like mad. Then I added some more water, and sloshed like mad.
Then I took some out (with a pipette) and checked the Specific Gravity.
I got a reading of 13.8° Brix, which is 1.056, which is about perfect for this strain of yeast, and teh flavor profile I’m aiming for(It was a rough measurement. I was a bit warmer than 20°C, so the gravity is probably a bit higher, which is fine, because I want some residual honey at the end).
So I let it rest, and sloshed it, and rest some more, and sloshed it, and when the three hours were up, I sanitized the yeast packaging, and the stopper, and the airlock, and the scissors, and opened the packet. It smelled good. Yeasty and a bit sour. I pitched, and took it downstairs to a nicely cool (and stably so) area, near my specimen cabinet.
Where it will (I hope and trust), begin, in about 24-36 hours, show some signs of life (were it a different yeast, the lag-time would be a bit less, but this one, no matter that it’s billions and billions of yeasties, is a slower starter, so the Lactobaccillus Brettanomyces, can get established). I’ll probably pull the airlock when I mid-day Weds., and give it a good sloshing so it will have some more time for aerobic fermenting since I know I can’t have gotten the O2 up to the 10ppm the yeast really wants, and so it will need some refreshing. When it’s bubbling away, I’ll post another photo.
More to the point, part of this is that
ladymondegreen can’t drink wine, and for Passover she needs something she can drink and mead is acceptable. So having kosher for passover mead is important. We have kept the meadery in just such a state (which means either getting doubling the brewing vessels and keeping the vaporlocks separated, or doing a lot of kashering, should we start to make beers/braggots).So I did more reading. The last batch was a very “heavy” must, with a very strong yeast. It suffers from my not letting the mead rest long enough before bottling; that or the yeast stalled from the sheer amount of honey in the mix; honey being not the best of sugars for yeasts.
I wanted a lighter flavor, and I thought I wanted something to balance out the sweetness of the honey. A lager yeast might do it, but the it’s an amazing list of possible flavors, ester profiles, alcohol tolerance, need for nutrients, fermenting temperatures, etc. Then I saw something which might fill the bill. Berliner-Weisse
It’s a bright beer, brewed without hops. The yeast flavor is mild, and a sympathetic lactobaccillus gives it a pleasantly sour note; not quite as sharp as the beers described as, “sour”, which have a tart aftertaste, and all sorts of variety.
Wyeast has seasonal yeast which is just the ticket.
So, about a month ago, I bought that Smack-pack (the name is because the yeast is packed in distilled water, and a plastic bag full of nutrients is added. Three hours, or so, before you want to “pitch” you break the packet. It’s deceptively hard to find, and surprising resilient.
It’s been that long because arranging to have two weeks when I could monitor the fermentation turned out to be trickier than I expected. Today was the day. I’d rinsed the carboys when I was done with the last batch. I made up some Star-san, last night, and sloshed the heck out of the fermentor. When I get ready to rack, I’ll do it to that carboy. Left it to drain/dry overnight.
Brought it upstairs, and added about eight lbs. of mesquite honey.
Then I added about a gallon of warm water (about 110°F, just enough to be warm to the touch) and sloshed it like mad. Not only did I want to dissolve the honey, I wanted to oxygenate the water, which the yeast needs in the first stages of fermentation.
Then I added 5tsp of Fermax (a yeast nutrient, so they can build healthy bodies before they start the exponential reproduction needed to convert a lot of sugar into alcohol and CO2), and some more water, and sloshed like mad. Then I added some more water, and sloshed like mad.
Then I took some out (with a pipette) and checked the Specific Gravity.
I got a reading of 13.8° Brix, which is 1.056, which is about perfect for this strain of yeast, and teh flavor profile I’m aiming for(It was a rough measurement. I was a bit warmer than 20°C, so the gravity is probably a bit higher, which is fine, because I want some residual honey at the end).
So I let it rest, and sloshed it, and rest some more, and sloshed it, and when the three hours were up, I sanitized the yeast packaging, and the stopper, and the airlock, and the scissors, and opened the packet. It smelled good. Yeasty and a bit sour. I pitched, and took it downstairs to a nicely cool (and stably so) area, near my specimen cabinet.
Where it will (I hope and trust), begin, in about 24-36 hours, show some signs of life (were it a different yeast, the lag-time would be a bit less, but this one, no matter that it’s billions and billions of yeasties, is a slower starter, so the Lactobaccillus Brettanomyces, can get established). I’ll probably pull the airlock when I mid-day Weds., and give it a good sloshing so it will have some more time for aerobic fermenting since I know I can’t have gotten the O2 up to the 10ppm the yeast really wants, and so it will need some refreshing. When it’s bubbling away, I’ll post another photo.
