Mead: Make Now For Christmas Drinking!

[Moley]

70 points dropped in a week ain't slow or stuck.

Why is it in a bucket, have you got any DJs or 5 litre PETs?

OG sounds low, get it into a closed fermenter and top up with some sugar syrup.

Then leave it alone for another couple of weeks and DO NOT keep poking it with a hydrometer every five minutes!

Understand?

 

[oldbloke]

Mine seems to have just about stopped, at last. Not really what you'd call clear, but I might bottle it. Or I might just leave it a bit, I'm not in a rush.

 

[ccn1]

70 points dropped in a week ain't slow or stuck.

Why is it in a bucket, have you got any DJs or 5 litre PETs?

OG sounds low, get it into a closed fermenter and top up with some sugar syrup.

Then leave it alone for another couple of weeks and DO NOT keep poking it with a hydrometer every five minutes!

Understand?

Moley

I put it in a bucket as I read it could be quite lively during fermentation.... I do have 1Gal DJ's, ill transfer into one of them.

Re Hyrdo readings, I was seeing if fermentation had stopped by taking readings on consecutive days to see if its the same.

 

[Moley]

Re Hyrdo readings, I was seeing if fermentation had stopped by taking readings on consecutive days to see if its the same.

That's not necessary with winemaking, and every time you poke it with a hydrometer is an opportunity for infection.

Use your eyes, monitor the airlock activity and watch closely for fine bubbles rolling up the inside of the shoulder of the fermenter.

Fermentation will probably tick along gently for another couple of weeks, and it will probably finish somewhere around 0.990

If that's too dry for you, sweeten with some more honey after racking and stabilising.

 

[ccn1]

Re Hyrdo readings, I was seeing if fermentation had stopped by taking readings on consecutive days to see if its the same.

That's not necessary with winemaking, and every time you poke it with a hydrometer is an opportunity for infection.

Use your eyes, monitor the airlock activity and watch closely for fine bubbles rolling up the inside of the shoulder of the fermenter.

Fermentation will probably tick along gently for another couple of weeks, and it will probably finish somewhere around 0.990

If that's too dry for you, sweeten with some more honey after racking and stabilising.

Ah right, This is my first attempt at wine/mead, only made beers to date

So to stabilise id use a campden tablet and a tsp of wine stabiliser ?

Thanks for the tip !

 

[Moley]

So to stabilise id use a campden tablet and a tsp of wine stabiliser ?

Read the instructions on the tub, but 1 CT + half a tsp of stabiliser should usually do the trick.

 

[ccn1]

So to stabilise id use a campden tablet and a tsp of wine stabiliser ?

Read the instructions on the tub, but 1 CT + half a tsp of stabiliser should usually do the trick.

many thanks !

 

[Zaust]

Could I use "Young's high alcohol yeast" for this?

 

[oldbloke]

No reason why not.
Just racked mine, with sorbate&sulphite - it was still doing a few very tiny bubbles so needed something to stop it. It had cleared, then I moved it to the syphoning station and it started going again, so I had to give it a few more days. It tastes OK already, looks like it really will be ready for christmas!

 

[Zaust]

I bought the champagne yeast online - but mine does seem to have a very nasty citrus smell (pretty much followed ben's recipe - but switched it to 2 lemons and 2 oranges).

The thing smells like moudly oranges - but it doesn't taste bad. Will the smell mellow with racking etc?

I may have got confused in the recipe - I added the lemons and oranges along with everything else to the wort, then waited until I ptiched the yeast and then waited for the hour before removing them. In total due to waiting for the cooling they were probably in for 6 hours.

 

[oldbloke]

The citrus smell will almost certainly go. I've done a mead recipe where the oranges, with peel, stay in for about a month - not a problem.

 

[Zaust]

Sorry for silly questions but I racked this today and it already has half a centimetre in the bottom. How often should I rack it? I've read so much in the last month or so I'm sure one thing said re-rack as soon as you get sediment but don't know if that was wine, mead or bio-diesel!

 

[ingypingy2]

Mine (different recipe to Ben's) was started on 11/10/11 with an SG of 1143, I racked/strained mine after initial fermentation then a second sediment formed, i left it sitting on that for a couple of weeks and finings added the other day...it's now almost beautifully clear and I can read a paper through it, but there is still a little bit left to drop completely near the bottom, so going to leave it a couple more days before I rack again and sweeten before bottling :)

 

[Zaust]

Mine (different recipe to Ben's) was started on 11/10/11 with an SG of 1143, I racked/strained mine after initial fermentation then a second sediment formed, i left it sitting on that for a couple of weeks and finings added the other day...it's now almost beautifully clear and I can read a paper through it, but there is still a little bit left to drop completely near the bottom, so going to leave it a couple more days before I rack again and sweeten before bottling :)

Great - I'll let it sit until a week before Chrimbo then work out if it's going to be good enough this year or next. I stopped fermentation today so it's still around 1014 on my hydrometer so I shouldn't have any sweetning worries. Thanks Ingy.

 

[oldbloke]

I bottled my slightly adapted version of Ben's mead last Sunday, and have had a good taste of it today.
It's a little harsh right now, but the sharpness it had on Sunday is already gone. I think it really will be nice at Christmas.
Quite strong, too....