BeerBorg

Thinking a 5 gallon batch, looking for a sweet Mead

125 Raisins
5 Cinnamon sticks
6 blood oranges, sliced and peels included
2 tsp of nutmeg
18 pounds of clover honey
5 whole cloves

Adapted from this recipe, scaled up, not sure if the other ingredients scale properly

25 Raisins
1 Cinnamon stick
1 whole orange, sliced and peels included
1 pinch of allspice
1 pinch of nutmeg
3 1/2 pounds of clover honey
1 whole clove

What sort of yeast would be best, thinking about a higher alcohol content too but would prefer sweet flavor over alcohol

I'm thinking a wine yeast, champagne me thinks would take it down to far leaving little sweetness, that, or use champagne yeast and add some lactose? I did a mead, took it way down with champagne yeast, no sweetness left. It's pretty dry me thunks.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/wine ... yeast.html

I was thinking this one, it looks like it will do what I want, 14% is a good tolerance and it leaves it sweet it seems like.

I'd say that is a great yeast for what you want. I might try that yeast on my next batch, sounds interesting.

How long do you plan on conditioning?

As long as I can take it, plan is for between 6 months to a year at least preferably at least a year

Just a couple comments:

- Cloves: unless you really like cloves, I would not use 5 whole ones, maybe 1 or 2. Cloves will take over all other flavors when used in large quantities (yes, 5 is a large quantity). Ask me how I know this

- Yeast: do not, and I repeat, do not use any kind of liquid "mead" yeast for mead. Save yourself some money, and use a dry wine yeast - I've had really good luck with Lalvin 71B‑1122 yeast in my meads. Another good one is Lalvin 1CV/D‑47 if you can keep your fermentation temperature under 68F.

Good luck!

That's what I was worried about for the cloves, and cinnamon, i dont want them to be too strong, will cut the cloves back to two i think.

As for the yeast I do not want a dry Mead I am definitely looking for sweeter, i read good things about the 71b but worry that it will dry it out too much, it's only a few bucks different in price for the liquid that doesn't concern me really. I don't know a whole lot about yeast yet so feel free to educate me lol

D34THSPAWN wrote:That's what I was worried about for the cloves, and cinnamon, i dont want them to be too strong, will cut the cloves back to two i think.

As for the yeast I do not want a dry Mead I am definitely looking for sweeter, i read good things about the 71b but worry that it will dry it out too much, it's only a few bucks different in price for the liquid that doesn't concern me really. I don't know a whole lot about yeast yet so feel free to educate me lol

As far as the yeast goes, it is a general consensus that liquid "mead" yeast does not produce as good of a mead as wine yeast. Moreover, you will need to make a starter with liquid yeast, since you're looking at the OG of about 1.130 with 18 pounds of honey in a 5 gallon batch. If you use a yeast with alcohol tolerance of 14%, i.e. D47 or 71B, that should (not guaranteed) leave you with enough residual sweetness. Now, regardless of yeast, there's no sure way to know when it will stop fermenting. Alcohol tolerance of yeast is a guideline, not a hard line.

Frankly, with mead (and wine), you need to forget 80% of what you know about beer making, because it's a completely different animal. The best way to make a specific strength/sweetness mead is this:

- Figure out the OG you need to reach the ABV level you're shooting for when fermented dry (FG about 0.996)
- Pick a yeast with enough alcohol tolerance to ferment it dry
- Make your must to the calculated OG, let it ferment dry
- Stabilize with campden and sorbate
- Take a measured sample (say 4 oz), and start adding honey to it a bit at a time, tasting after each addition. When the desired sweetness level is reached, calculate the weight of honey required for the whole batch, and backsweeten. Since the mead is stabilized, no additional fermentation will take place.
- Age mead until clear (or use finings to speed things up). Make sure it's not dropping any lees before bottling - it should be absolutely crystal clear.

And yes, mead takes a loooonnnngggg time... plan on about a year before it starts tasting good.

Fantastic information, thank you. Seems more complicated but if it results in better results then I would rather do that.

What about fermentation. Should is do a secondary? could I condition it in a secondary or should I bottle condition? etc

D34THSPAWN wrote:Fantastic information, thank you. Seems more complicated but if it results in better results then I would rather do that.

What about fermentation. Should is do a secondary? could I condition it in a secondary or should I bottle condition? etc

What are you fermenting in? If you are starting in a bucket, you should rack to a glass carboy or Better Bottle after the primary fermentation has slowed down to minimize oxygen exposure.

If you decide to backsweeten, after it has fermented dry you should rack it again on top of sulphate/sorbate solution as well as your backsweetening addition (honey dissolved in a bit of water). Just make sure to minimize the headspace as mead is prone to oxidation - ideally, you want it 2 inches below the carboy bung.

Otherwise, if you decide to ferment with a lower tolerance yeast in a carboy, you could just leave it until it clears by itself - could take a month, could take a year - mead is on its own schedule, it's ready when it's ready

And DO NOT, and I repeat, DO NOT bottle until it's crystal clear - you should be able to read a newspaper through it. Rack carefully to a bottling bucket to make sure you're not picking up any lees. Don't be greedy, leave some mead in the bottom of the fermenter. Otherwise, you will have sediment in the bottles, and it ruins the presentation! You may also want to get a corker (I use a cheap double-lever one), corks (I like synthetic ones that do not dry out), and wine bottles for your mead - after all, it's Honey Wine!

I was going to do a week or so in the bucket but after the fruit settles I was going to rack to a glass carboy

Russki is spot on with his advice but I would like to add one thing. Liquid sweet mead yeasts are very finicky and result in a lot of stuck fermentations even when great effort is made to get everyhing to go correctly.

Gotcha, plan is then to cut cloves and cinnamon I think down to two a piece, bump the oranges up a bit, and use a dry wine yeast and back sweeten

How's this coming along?

haven't made it yet, hours got cut at work so money is a bit too tight to buy over 100 bucks worth of supplies, I may try doing a 1 gal batch instead, will probably have to do regular oranges instead of blood oranges then since I would have to order them online in larger quantities otherwise. We will see how this plays out, I do still plan on making it.