Panda's Attempt at Mead

[Pandabean]

First off I want to thank British Red for helping me out with what to get, how to do it and answering my many many questions. I am sure he has been waiting for me to let him know my results.

This is my first time brewing anything and it's one of my goals this year to at least make, mead, birch sap wine and sloe gin. So this is the first of the three on the go.

I will kind of give this as a tutorial/run through of what I did.

First of all the main thing is to sterilise the Demi-john. I got this one from a mate and it was pretty well soiled, so I first cleaned it with water and soap and that got rid of most of it. Then next I found a techniques used for cleaning using vinegar and rice and a lot of "shoogling" around. This apparently helps clean it. The third step to do is to sanitise the demi-john. On the label of the powder it recommended 12-24 hours for a well soiled bottle. So seeing as this bottle was left in a shed for many moons and was sitting in dirty water when we found it I thought I would play it safe.



Right after sterilising the main demi-john over night it was time to get the rest of the kit out and sterilised properly before use.

The equipment used is as follows:
- Air Lock
- 2x 1 Gallon Demi John one use for the primary fermentation and the second for the racking
- Rubber bungs, bored and solid
- Young’s Super Wine Yeast Compound
- Yeast Nutrient
- Pectolaze - Not used (Yet)
- Citric Acid Granuales
- Not forgetting the main ingredient of course! Honey!






Basically I added one teaspoon of the sanitiser to some warm water in the large pan, then I placed placed the bits and bobs in and waited ten mins or so. Pulled out the tub and glass for preparation of the yeast.




For the yeast mix I used 1 teaspoon of Yeast, 3 Made using Young’s super wine yeast compound, yeast nutrient and a glass of room temp orange juice. I mixed these together and gave it all a stir and covered loosely with cling film and went away for half an hour



....which tunred out to be a couple of hours as nothing appeared to be happening. Until.....




Now to prepare the must (mix of honey and water). I managed to find a large pan in a charity shop which would be ideal for mead, plus anything else such as jams.

I turned on the heat and waited til the water was a little bit warm, added three and a bit of the pots of honey to two parts water and stirred it a bit.
Whilst stirring I removed the surface stuff which apparently can have impurities and beeswax. I continued to heat for 10-15mins.



I left the whole thing to cool down a bit before adding to the demi-john. I didn't spill a single drop when transferring it



Added water to top it up, followed by letting it cool down a little. Then adding a teaspoonish of tanin, 2 teaspoonishes of citric acid. gave it a shoogle and left it to cool down a bit more.

The final step was to pitch the yeast into the must. I am not sure if it was too warm when I added the yeast, it was still warm to touch, but a nice cool warm. So I hope I haven't messed it up.

When I did this a dark band seemed to have formed in the centre of the demi-john. Is that normal.





Finally bunged it up with an airlock and put away in a dark cupboard in the utility room. I will have a look over the next day or so and see if bubbles start to come out the air lock.



Lessons leanred....
- Honey can be very very sticky and tasty
- not to be exact on measurements. If any of you knew me I am pretty pedeantic when it comes to measuring everything exactly, this was really "hmmm that looks like enough" kind of thing and hope it works.

Again big thanks to BR and this site.....
http://www.makemead.net/default.aspx

 

[Pandabean]

I have to report that since writting all this up I went back and had a peek and its bubbling. At least on every 30secs or so. Guess it has worked.

 

[British Red]

Nice one, it can take a day or so to get going but activating the yeast speeds it up a bit

Be patient now - fermenting mead takes longer than wine and much longer than beer.

Red

 

[tommy the cat]

brilliant write up! Hope it turns out good.
Dave
Ps sadly I have never tried mead I guess its sweet?!

 

[British Red]

Not the way Imake it - very dry . The sweetness ferments out leaving honey taste but dry.

BTW panda, you ought to leave more headspace (air) in the demijohn. If that was a fruit wine it would froth through the airlock. should be okay with mead, but generally let thefirst violent ferment go on then top up later

Red

 

[TeeDee]

Great Tutorial Pandabean ,well done.

 

[FreddyFish]

really interesting, thanks for sharing

 

[Loenja]

interesting

 

[Pandabean]

i thiught it was a bit full looking Is it too late to pour some out?
How long should I leave it before racking?

Not the way Imake it - very dry . The sweetness ferments out leaving honey taste but dry.

BTW panda, you ought to leave more headspace (air) in the demijohn. If that was a fruit wine it would froth through the airlock. should be okay with mead, but generally let thefirst violent ferment go on then top up later

Red

 

[British Red]

Leave er be unless the foam goes up the airlock

Fermenting? Can be months!

 

[Nagual]

BR, was your dry mead the way you showed in your turtorial? Yes turtles. All the way down.

 

[British Red]

Can't recall tbh. You can make it dry or sweet by altering the amount of honey. Yeast dies at a certain alcohol concentration - so more honey than the yeast can consume makes it sweeter.

Red

 

[Lurch]

Really must get around to bottling up the mead I have in the kitchen.

 

[Pandabean]

Still bubbling a few times every 30secs now and the dark layers have started to drop to the bottom. When you say violent, you mean theres more to come :O

Some sites have said rack it after a week, other suggest 30 days and others suggest to wait until you get 1 bubble every 30secs.

BR, whats classed as dry mead and sweet mead in terms of making up 1 gallon. I used just over three of those jars (approx 1.1kg) and left some honey for myself. That was mixed almost 2:1 with water.

How long does honey last on its own by the way? Mine was a local honey and had a sticker on it saying March 11. So how good is it best its best by date, will it just crystallise?

One other question is, the fermentation process produces CO2, is this a problem if kept in a cupboard in a room with a hamster (don't want to be blamed for its death by the girlfriend you see )

 

[Nova & Pinky]

Why do I have a horrible feeling that I'm going to end up buying brewing kit this year..?!
Looks fun and let us know how it finally tastes!

 

[British Red]

Rack as often as you feel, patience is the key. You will lose a little mead (plus all the sludge). No point in racking until you have an appreciable layer of sediment - I'd say at least 30 days, then leave to ferment some more.

Honey does not go off. Ever. Honey from the pyramids is still good - warming removes crystalisation which is natural. Never, ever, throw honey out

Red

 

[Bushwhacker]

What's the %ABV when it's done?

 

[Pandabean]

Hope I havent killed. Had to pour a little out so hope it doesnt cause an issue. No bubbles now.

I didnt measure the sg of the must si have no idea what the alc vol % will be

 

[British Red]

Don't forget that the gas now needs to build pressure in a larger headspace - you haven't killed it

 

[Pandabean]

Ahh thats ok then. Thought I may introduce something when bringing air back into it.....not really had the best of days today so thought more bad luck.

Can you explain what is happening to the mixture BR? Currently there is a dark band a third of the way down, next bit looks clearer and at the bottom is a darker almost solid like zone which kind of looks like something is growing.