My mead.

[Tea]

I was out a little with my guess, the SG this morning was 1.034.

[Cartierusm]

Yes that is low. It's fermenting fast.

[Tea]

20-1-09   SG 1.018

[wharris]

Wow, that is fast.  must be bubbling away.

[Cartierusm]

Tea, do you ever use nutrients in your mead?

[wharris]

I use DAP for my wine,  but not until my wine is about 2/3 done fermenting. 

I find if i give it the "candy" too soon, i get a sweeter wine.

[Cartierusm]

You use this?

Me, I prefer Diammonium Phosphate.

In all seriousness, mead because it is void of any and all nutrients it requires a special blend of nutrients to fement without stress. In the 60's a professor did an actual reseach study and came up with the perfect blend of nutrients that honey needs to produce mead. I've been using it for 20 years as the first home brew store I visited and still use make the formula up and it's, you guessed it, The Beverage People.

[Tea]

I certainly do feed my meads.  Fermaid K is the only nutrient here that I can find so I have been sufficing with that.  Must look again at the Beverage people, just got an order from them for other things so I could have ordered some at the same time.  Drat

Anyway I usual feed it at end of lag, then at the 1/3 sugar break and at any other time that I feel that it needs it.  This one however has chewed through nutrient, and I have been feeding it nearly every 36 hours, and usually in 2tsp increments.  It started getting that "underfed" smell again last night, but I only gave it 1tsp as I am concerned that it will be salty if I add too much.

Yes Wayne it is really bubbling along.  Was blipping @ 1-2 per second, but it now down to 1 blip per 1-2 seconds.

[beeman]

If I can back up the bus a little and give out some information, regarding boiling honey?
I am a bee keeper of some 60+ years, and cut my hind teeth on honey/mead and keeping bees. Boiling honey has raised a few eye brows over the years, but about 2 years ago I tried it with a slight twist.
Boil the honey with the majority of water used for the final mix, it takes quite a while and scoop off the foam as it forms, using a rolling boil. The amount of foam seems to be indicative of the total sugar count, lighter honey will produce more scum.
When getting close to the final scum add 1 heaped tablespoon of 'Irish Moss' finings, in the last 10 mins.
After allowing the wort to cool down after straining, you'll find in the bottom of the pot a slimy, lumpy mixture with the Irish Moss mixed in with it, which should be discarded
When the mead has been finally fermented it will clear very much quicker and give crystal clear mead with no extra work or wait.   
I believe it removes excess pollen and protein.
Just an idea for clearing the final product.

[wharris]

I have often thought about using Irish Moss as a fining agent in my strawberry wine.  Sounds like now i have to give it a try

[Tea]

Hi Beeman and thanks for your imput.  I have never used irish moss, but I remember reading a thread about it on the Gotmead forum, and there were mixed feelings in regards to it's use.  Apparently those "in the know" felt that it added other "properties" that were, in the end, not that desirable, even though it may have cleared well.  I just remember that the over all tone of the thread was negative towards it's use.

In regards to boiling honey, that pretty much is rarely done now too.  It is felt that the high heat ruins the properties and flavours of the raw honey.  It is usually just disolved with hot water first before anything else is added.  Personally I have made only one mead using the boiling method and after two years it is still only just drinkable.  So I don't boil any more.

In regards to my mango mead the SG yesterday was 1.008.  The flavour is full of fresh fruit, with an interesting twist in there, and dry.  Still blipping away happily.

[Cartierusm]

Tea, glad to hear the mead's going good. When did you start that batch becuase you had a super fast fermentation? Tea, you probably already know this as a member of Gotmead and you said you like sweeter wines you can add different compounds, such as potasium sorbate to help stop fermentation and come out with a sweeter wine. Or are you going just let it bee?

[Tea]

Yes I know that I can add other things, but that I why I like making things myself, is to that they are not full of chemicals etc.  For now I am going to just let it bee, and see what happens.  Even though it is dry, the flavours are really out there and full, and strangly not a bitter/tart dry, it is still all fruit.  Well at the moment anyway.  Still got a way to go yet before it is finished.

[Cartierusm]

I hear ya, I just thought I'd mentioned it and knew you knew, and I too don't like to add extra stuff. I never use sulfites to sterilize even though every one in the industry uses it, I prefer to have the natural effect too.

[wharris]

I'm not a mead person,  but without a sulfite like Potassium Metabisulfite,  how do you do you make your mead biologically stable?