Mead in a MR Beer

[D34THSPAWN]

Would there be any drawbacks to making mead in a LBK? I have always wanted to make mead, Now that I have something to ferment in it seems like something I would want to do at some point. Just not sure if there would be any big reason not to or problems that could pop up.

[russki]

I have made a couple meads in the LBK, and they turned out pretty good. One thing you need to be aware of is that there's too much headspace and oxygen permeability for extended aging in the LBK. I bottled mine as soon as they cleared (6-8 weeks), straight from the LBK, which led to sediment in the bottles - not the worst thing in the world, but if I were doing this again, I would rack the mead into a couple 1-gallon jugs from the LBK once it clears to allow for additional sediment settling and bulk age for a year or so before bottling. You want literally zero headspace for meads and wines for extended aging as they are prone to oxidation.

Also - with meads, the better quality honey you use, the better your end product - generic clover honey from grocery stores has very little aroma/flavor. I now buy unfiltered honey from the local health food store for my meads - wildflower honey makes a very nice show mead. And never, ever boil honey! There's no reason to heat it at all (ok... maybe just a little to make it easier to dissolve).

If you have any other mead questions - just ask!

[Trollby]

I have made a few meads and what I recommend is make a batch that is 2.25 - 2.4 Gallons and buy two (2) 1 gallon glass jugs with bung and trap.

After 6 weeks or so you transfer the mead to the jugs with Auto-Siphon and any left over that is not trub throw in a bottle or two (16oz flippies work great for this)

This way your mead can clear up better and you have a bottle or two that would be less clear


--- Edit ---
Started post when no one had posted but didn't finish until later.

Me and Ruski are pretty much saying samething

[D34THSPAWN]

Thanks for the tips! will look into that more!

[D34THSPAWN]

found cheap 1 gallon jugs with airlock assembly on midwest I think, might get a few of those to do some mead.

[Trollby]

The thing I like about the LBK is that it is easier to clean after making Mead.

In the primary there is always tons of fruit and the glass jugs are a pain to get it all out especially if you use larger fruit pieces

[mashani]

The one thing I will add is that you should be sure to follow a PH/Nutrient adjustment schedule to make sure the fermentation gets done quickly and efficiently. You don't want a fermentation to drag on for months in your LBK.

MoreBeer.com has a good guide online that gets into details of what to add and when.

RE: Boiling honey for mead, I used to make a lot of mead, and it was ALWAYS better if I simply heated the must up to 160 and let it hang out there for 20 minutes to pasteurize it instead of boiling it.

[russki]

The one thing I will add is that you should be sure to follow a PH/Nutrient adjustment schedule to make sure the fermentation gets done quickly and efficiently. You don't want a fermentation to drag on for months in your LBK.

MoreBeer.com has a good guide online that gets into details of what to add and when.

RE: Boiling honey for mead, I used to make a lot of mead, and it was ALWAYS better if I simply heated the must up to 160 and let it hang out there for 20 minutes to pasteurize it instead of boiling it.

I used to heat the must to 160 as well, now I don't heat it at all. I find that this lets honey flavor and aroma to come through much better. And since honey is naturally antiseptic, infections are extremely unlikely.

[duff]

I have made a couple meads in the LBK, and they turned out pretty good. One thing you need to be aware of is that there's too much headspace and oxygen permeability for extended aging in the LBK. I bottled mine as soon as they cleared (6-8 weeks), straight from the LBK, which led to sediment in the bottles - not the worst thing in the world, but if I were doing this again, I would rack the mead into a couple 1-gallon jugs from the LBK once it clears to allow for additional sediment settling and bulk age for a year or so before bottling. You want literally zero headspace for meads and wines for extended aging as they are prone to oxidation.

Also - with meads, the better quality honey you use, the better your end product - generic clover honey from grocery stores has very little aroma/flavor. I now buy unfiltered honey from the local health food store for my meads - wildflower honey makes a very nice show mead. And never, ever boil honey! There's no reason to heat it at all (ok... maybe just a little to make it easier to dissolve).

If you have any other mead questions - just ask!

This is such good information I quoted it to make sure it was repeated.

As for the discussion on boil vs pasteurize vs no heat, I have found that using warm water say around 100 to make mixing it a lot easier but even when I didn't warm the honey still got mixed in eventually. The one batch I boiled the honey was missing a lot of the smell and flavor compared to the batches I didn't boil.

[mashani]

The one thing I will add is that you should be sure to follow a PH/Nutrient adjustment schedule to make sure the fermentation gets done quickly and efficiently. You don't want a fermentation to drag on for months in your LBK.

MoreBeer.com has a good guide online that gets into details of what to add and when.

RE: Boiling honey for mead, I used to make a lot of mead, and it was ALWAYS better if I simply heated the must up to 160 and let it hang out there for 20 minutes to pasteurize it instead of boiling it.

I used to heat the must to 160 as well, now I don't heat it at all. I find that this lets honey flavor and aroma to come through much better. And since honey is naturally antiseptic, infections are extremely unlikely.

There are some types of soil bacteria that can turn in a spore like state that honey doesn't actually kill, just suppress. In undiluted form they will stay suppressed forever, but once you dilute it then they can wake up. IE clostridium botulinum for one, which is why they tell you not to feed honey to kids < 1 year old (their stomach doesn't make enough acid yet to kill it, and their gut doesn't have enough other bacteria to outcompete it).

That said, anything really bad for you - like that one - will not survive the fermentation process. But it is possible that something that is in there will actually get involve in the fermentation very early and leave some flavors behind before they die. How much you would notice, I dunno. But I do know that subtle flavors from actual pathogenic bacteria are actually part of authentic Belgian wild fermentations, not just the latctic acid producing bacteria and wild yeast. All that stuff drops dead once the certain PH and 2%is abv levels are reached, but up to that point they can be involved in the early fermentation and do produce subtle flavors. But since both alcohol and lactic (and acetic acid too) producing fermentations kill them, it's always safe in the end.

I don't mean that to be "scary" - it's impossible to get botulism from a properly fermented product. And it's probably very unlikely they will get really involved in the fermentation and product any flavors if you pitch enough real yeast. But it's just something to note if for some reason you notice something "strange" about a batch that you just can't put your finger on.

[russki]

The one thing I will add is that you should be sure to follow a PH/Nutrient adjustment schedule to make sure the fermentation gets done quickly and efficiently. You don't want a fermentation to drag on for months in your LBK.

MoreBeer.com has a good guide online that gets into details of what to add and when.

RE: Boiling honey for mead, I used to make a lot of mead, and it was ALWAYS better if I simply heated the must up to 160 and let it hang out there for 20 minutes to pasteurize it instead of boiling it.

I used to heat the must to 160 as well, now I don't heat it at all. I find that this lets honey flavor and aroma to come through much better. And since honey is naturally antiseptic, infections are extremely unlikely.

There are some types of soil bacteria that can turn in a spore like state that honey doesn't actually kill, just suppress. In undiluted form they will stay suppressed forever, but once you dilute it then they can wake up. IE clostridium botulinum for one, which is why they tell you not to feed honey to kids < 1 year old (their stomach doesn't make enough acid yet to kill it, and their gut doesn't have enough other bacteria to outcompete it).

That said, anything really bad for you - like that one - will not survive the fermentation process. But it is possible that something that is in there will actually get involve in the fermentation very early and leave some flavors behind before they die. How much you would notice, I dunno. But I do know that subtle flavors from actual pathogenic bacteria are actually part of authentic Belgian wild fermentations, not just the latctic acid producing bacteria and wild yeast. All that stuff drops dead once the certain PH and 2%is abv levels are reached, but up to that point they can be involved in the early fermentation and do produce subtle flavors. But since both alcohol and lactic (and acetic acid too) producing fermentations kill them, it's always safe in the end.

I don't mean that to be "scary" - it's impossible to get botulism from a properly fermented product. And it's probably very unlikely they will get really involved in the fermentation and product any flavors if you pitch enough real yeast. But it's just something to note if for some reason you notice something "strange" about a batch that you just can't put your finger on.

That is true, there are bacterial spores as well as the dormant wild yeast that are present in all unfiltered honey. As a matter of fact, for thousands of years mead was made with two ingredient only - water and honey, and the mazer would let the wild yeast ferment it out. Some mazers still do it this way now. This is why it's important to pitch enough healthy yeast and nutrient so that it overpowers any wild yeast and bacteria that may be present. Then these undesirables have no chance. As always, there's many ways to skin a cat mead!

Also - another piece of advice for new mazers - never rush mead! It can take it's sweet time to start tasting good - most taste pretty bad ("jet fuel") until at least a year of aging. More so with dry meads than semi-sweet or sweet ones.

[mashani]

RE: Jet fuel - My "Maple Wines" - Think like a mead made with Grade B maple syrup instead of honey - tasted like bottom shelf cognac mixed with lighter fluid for the first year of their existence. Still a bit rough at 2 years. At 3+ years they were great, I've still got some 15 year old bottles of that stuff that I bust open once or twice a year on special occasions. Smooth and yummy it is.

I think you can get them drinkable faster if you follow a very carefully prescribed PH and Nutrient adjustment schedule. I did not when I made this stuff last.