How to Make Mead - Demo Day - SATURDAY MARCH, 20 Time: 10:00 AM

Matt Talbot

South Jersey FC Member
How to Make Mead - Demo Day - SATURDAY MARCH, 20 Time: 10:00 AM
Team Hiller will be Zooming a demonstration of how they make their award winning mead.
Watch and soak in the wisdom, or follow along and make your own batch!

Sign up sheet is here:

ZOOM INFO:

Meeting ID: 857 7266 2220
Passcode: 683607
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Meeting ID: 857 7266 2220
Passcode: 683607
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@jimfish at Philly Homebrew was very helpful with this for me. I got a couple 2 gallon buckets a de-gasser for the drill, Fermaid - O nutrient, GoFerm and D-47 yeast. Here is the calculator he pointed me to https://georgiamead.com/tools/mead-nutrient-addition-calculator which seems to be very similar. He suggested Fermaid O as well as does this calculator. I used Beersmith 3.0 to figure out how much honey to add and figure out my og to end up where I wanted it. Made two small batches one an Arnold Palmer with all fresh brewed Iced tea instead of water and Lemon Zest and juice with 1.5 pounds of honey. Shooting for an avb of ~6. The other batch is going to be Blueberry Lemon added 2.5# honey and 27 oz Blueberries and lemon zest. OG around 1.075 shooting for 8 -10% on that one. Looking to do a 3 gallon batch during the Hillers presentation on Saturday.
 
Planning a 5 gallon batch of still dry wildflower mead about 14% ABV, following a Fermaid K/DAP nutrient schedule. That calls for about 15 pounds of honey. With the remaining 5 pounds, I'm going to make either a session mead, braggot or honey wheat. Shoulda bought more honey!
 
Haha I was just thinking the same thing so I'm curious the replies from experienced meaders (?). From googling a lot of people say this question mainly comes from beer brewers, but isn't a question that comes up in Mead communities. I'm planning on tap water + campden to remove chlorine. Based on the below PDF seems like soft water is the most important thing:

 
I've been using Spring waters. Poland Spring, Deer Park etc... The reason is there are supposedly some helpful minerals in spring waters. As for yeasts, that depends a lot on what you want to make. I like ICV-254, D47, and BA-11 for traditionals and 71B, Red Star Premier Rogue, and D-21 for Melomel's. This is by far the best reference to have when choosing a wine yeast.

 
Haha I was just thinking the same thing so I'm curious the replies from experienced meaders (?). From googling a lot of people say this question mainly comes from beer brewers, but isn't a question that comes up in Mead communities. I'm planning on tap water + campden to remove chlorine. Based on the below PDF seems like soft water is the most important thing:

Matt, I haven't tried, it, but I'd stay away from the tap water. Not so sure the campen will take out the chlorination. Spring waters are cheap and a safe bet! :)
 
Thanks @Frank Hiller Sr , @Frank Hiller Jr. and @Ron Sheetz for letting us use your mead brains today!

A recording of the session is here (things start up around the 18:25 mark, or you can watch the Franks preparing for 18 minutes...):

Passcode: j*.N=G7f
 
So I jumped in and made 5 gallons of session mead. 1.058 used 7.9# of honey and topped up to 5 gallons. I didn't add anything I figured I will split it up and add fruit and stuff later. I used Beersmith 3 to build the recipe. It was pretty easy and on the yeast starter tab you can Choose Tonsa Fermaid ) option and click a button that adds the steps to your recipe. The meadmaker website gave me 3G and Beersmith said 2.8g. tonsa.PNG
 

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So excited for my first mead! Today I did my second nutrient addition and it smells amazing. I used an aeration stone to degas today and it was much easier than the hand blender I used yesterday.

I do have a question for the group: my starting brix was 26 (1.1103) which was higher than I planned for a dry still mead. Based on batchbuildr, I estimate this will be about 15%. Should I be concerned with the high ABV tasting harsh in a dry mead? Or should I try to switch it to semi-sweet etc? I have zero experience with Mead, so I appreciate any feedback.
 
Hi Matt, glad you off to a good start and enjoying mead making! You'll be fine at that abv. Looks like 14.5 or so. Don't change what your doing now and run with your original fermentation plan. It'll be a bit dry when done, but I'll guide you through back sweetening to get you to your semi-sweet goal. :cool:
 
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