Doug's first mead part 3

(see Part 1 and Part 2)

Yesterday 

Yesterday at about 8pm, I started working a little on the mead.

Here was the status when I started:

• honey and water mixture (about 2 gallons) was in the fermenter - it had been heated to 160F yesterday, and is now at room temperature 
• strawberry and water mixture (about 2 gallons)was in a second container - campden was added yesterday, and has had more than 24 hours to off-gas. It's also at room temperature.

I mixed a batch of Yeast Nutrient and Yeast Energizer in a 2-to-1 ratio. I used 3 tsp of Nutrient, and 1 & 1/2 tsp of Energizer. I mixed all 4 & 1/2 tsp in a little sterilized jar for use over the fermentation process.

I sterilized my thief, spoon, and hydrometer. 

I mixed 2 & 1/2 tsp of pectic enzyme into the strawberry mixture, and let it sit for an hour. The directions said 1/2 tsp per gallon of must, added one hour before pitching the yeast. I figured I'd add it to just the strawberries and let it get going before I combined the honey and strawberries.

While the strawberries were resting, I took two whole dry vanilla beans, sliced them lengthwise, scraped out the seeds, and added them to about a cup of water in a small pot. I brought the water to just a simmer then let cool.

After the hour, I stirred up the strawberries and poured them into the fermenter with the honey. The strawberries still smell very fresh. I also noticed that a lot of the little seeds stayed in the bottom of the  container, and didn't get added to the honey. I'm thinking that was a good thing, so maybe pre-processing the strawberries in a separate container was a good idea.

I had about 4 gallons of must at this point. I added some spring water to my vanilla pan to cool it more, then poured it into the must. I rinsed out the vanilla pan a little with some more water. Then I added water to bring it up to 5 gallons.

I'm using Harris-Teeter (our local grocery) brand Spring Water in gallon jugs. I did not sterilize or heat this water. I'm assuming it is sufficiently sterile out of the jug.

I stirred everything up real good, and took a hydrometer reading: 1.10. 

I then added 1 packet of dry Red Star Wine Yeast, and 1 tsp of my yeast nutrient/energizer mixture directly to the must, and stirred well. Then I snapped on the fermenter bucket lid, added the air lock, and set in my dining room. The dining room is in the middle of the house, and probably has the most stable temperature in the house. We keep the house about 72F.

Today

Today at about noon, I added another dose (1 tsp) of the Yeast Nutrient/Energizer mixture and stirred vigorously. 

I didn't see any bubbling through the air lock, but I definitely noticed fizzing as I mixed in the nutrient/energizer. Also, I noticed a difference in the odor when I opened the lid. Yesterday it was just strawberry and honey scent, today it smells more like sourdough. 

Here's what it looks like now:

My friend did not give an initial gravity reading, but he did say he was shooting for 1.01 at the end. If I can get down to 1.01, then the final alcohol should be about 11% (13.0% - 2.0%).

Doug's first mead, part 2

(see part 1)

Today

I put the honey in the fermenter and prepped the strawberries today. 

Trying to keep better notes on my processes and ingredients, so here's all the details.

The picture below shows 4 quarts of honey (1 gallon or about 12 pounds), along with a 6 pound bag of frozen strawberries from Costco. 

Ingredients

I prepped the strawberries by blending them with water. They were still partially frozen, so they didn't blend easily. I filled up the blender, and then added water to about the level of the top of the strawberries, the whizzed them up. It took maybe 5 blender fulls to do all the strawberries.

Strawberries in blender

I was shooting for 2 gallons of strawberry puree. In the last, smaller batch, I added two campden tablets to the blender, i.e., 1 tablet per gallon. The puree and campden all went into a large food prep container I got from the kitchen supply store. Then I added spring water to bring it up to two gallons, and stirred it all up. Tin foil over the top, and need to let it sit for 24 hours.

Puree with campden

Got to talk quite a bit with John at Wilmington Homebrew Supply today about the mead. He suggested the campden for the fruit, rather than heating to retain the aroma.

After the puree was done, I put the 4 quarts of honey into a pot on the stove, and used some hot water to rinse out each quart jar. I added enough water to maybe double the volume - about 2 gallons. I stirred it very thoroughly, and heated the honey/water mixture to 160 degrees fahrenheit. The consistency was more like a thick beer wort rather than a thin syrup. I let the mixture sit at this temp for about 25 minutes.

The honey mixture went into my sterilized fermenting bucket. Snapped the lid on with the air lock. That will sit until the puree is ready.

Tomorrow

I plan to use pectic enzymes, so I did some research and found this interesting article (scroll down for English). Based on this article, I'm going to wait 24 hours for the campden to off-gas, then add the enzymes to the puree and let them work for 24 hours. Then I'll add them to the honey, top off to 5 gallons with spring water, then add the first yeast nutrient and pitch the yeast.

Also going to do a "staggered nutrient addition". Based on this article, I'm going to:

• one dose with the yeast
• one dose 24 hours after fermentation begins
• one dose 48 hours after fermentation begins
• one dose 7 days after fermentation begins ( or about 30% of fermentation left, based on gravity)

Doug's first Mead, part 1

Getting ready to make mean for the first time.

I'll be using a recipe from my friend Andrew Keener:

Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 gallon (12 lbs) of honey. 
• 6lbs of fresh strawberries. 
• Red star wine yeast. 
• Pectic Enzyme to treat 5 gallons. 
• Yeast nutrient if you want to... not required.

Steps:

Bring about 3 gallons of water up to 160 degrees Fahrenheit in a 6+ gallon pot. Dump all the honey in and cover. Let it hang out for 20 minutes or so. While waiting, puree the strawberries or chop them finely. Put them in a pot and bring it up to 156 degree Fahrenheit stirring occasionally. Cover and let sit for 20 minutes.

Dump honey and strawberries into a 5 gallon fermenter and top off with water to 5 gallons. Pitch yeast when it comes down to an appropriate temperature (for wine yeasts this is usually 80 degress fahrenheit).

Let it ferment for roughly 2 weeks or until it bubbles once every 90 seconds. Then transfer to secondary. The strawberries will have mostly disintegrated so I try to suck up as few of them as possible when transferring.

Then let it sit for another month. If you take gravity reading throughout I usually finish when the gravity gets down to 1.010.

When I bottle I add 3/4 cup of corn sugar. Alternatively you can add 1 cup of honey but I would steep the honey at 156 degrees fahrenheit for 20 minutes in a little hot water before adding it.

My Changes to the Recipe

I'm excited that i have some good Wilmington suburban honey from a friend. I has hoping to make this during strawberry season and use hand picked local strawberries, but I've missed the season.

I have a couple of changes I'm going to make to the process/recipe:

• I'm going to use Campden on the strawberries, rather than heat them. This is on the recommendation from John at Wilmington Homebrew Supply. The idea is that the fruit is more sensitive to heat, and it will change the flavor. 
• I'm going to try "Staggered Nutrient Additions" as described in this BrewingTV Recipe by Curt Stock. The idea here is to make sure the yeast is very healthy and vigorous.
• I may also try some additional yeast pitchings. Can't remember where I saw this, but it seems that the yeast can fall to the bottom, or become inactive. Re-pitching makes sure that the desired yeast remains dominant.
• I'm going to add two vanilla beans to the honey at the very beginning when I'm heating the honey. I love a little vanilla sugar on strawberries. I'll split the beans, scrape the seeds in, and add the whole beans. I've used vanilla beans in other recipes - they tolerate heat well, and their flavor is alcohol-soluble. 

Going to do most of this today, and will try to keep detailed notes as I go.

(see part 2)