My mead.

[Tea]

Wayne not sure what you are meaning by "biologically stable"?

SG this morning .998 which means that it is around 13%ABV at the moment.
My Rosh Hashana melomel (apple, dates and honey) is just over the 15% using the same yeast (and it's not finished yet), so I expect the mango to go a bit lower yet.

[Cartierusm]

Cloning, we're coming for you Wayne....HAAA HAA. Oh, sorry, evil scientist at work.

For one you're adding a perfectly healthy yeast in large quantities to a solution made just for them, so they'll be the dominate yeast. Plus when I filter I use a plate wine filter so it comes out sterile, I go down to something below .5 micron, I think. I've never had a mead go bad yet, lucky me.

P.S. In my early days I used to boil which killed anything is the solution before fermentation. Wayne, mead is not the same as wine, such as you don't need to blanket the wine as your transfering it from container to container. It also doesn't oxidize as easily as wine. I tell people when I give them my mead that just keep it in the frige and bring it up to room temp to drink. After opening just store it in the frige and it should last 3 weeks or more. I tell them to just drink it until it starts to taste off as it won't hurt you.

[wharris]

Biologically stable.

What i mean is that there are critters (microorganisms) that really really want to live in your mead (i am projecting my wine to your mead)

Sulfites decompose into free and molecular sulfur dioxide. The molecular SO2 creates an environment that prohibits the growth of those bad organisms that really really want to ruin your mead.

[Tea]

Well I may be wrong here, and Carter can correct me, but the reason we feed the mead is to reduce the production of the sulfur dioxide which is a sign of the yeast stressing, as they produce off flavours in the mead.  The mead is aerated a number of time daily in the initial stages to release any build up of these gasses, and to introduce oxygen back into the must to keep the yeast healthy.

Sanitation is most important, which I don't think I need to tell you.  I have a mead (sweet) that is 2 1/2 year old, and it has never been effected by mould etc, and the only time I have ever heard on one being efected was due to poor sanitation.

Well fermentation in the mango mead came to an abrupt halt late yesterday afternoon.  Even though this yeast can go to 18%, I think that it has chewed through all the available sugars and pooped it's self out.

[Tea]

Well the SG is sitting on .997, and even though it is dry, the flavour is all fruit and a hint of some spice in there too.  Very different, but it definately has promise.  Hopefully the honey flavour will pick up more as it ages.
Thinking I might let this sit for a couple of days then do the first, of what I am told will be many rackings, to get the mango fibre out of the must.  Thinking that I might add another couple of vanilla beans in the secondary too.
Anyway all in all I am happy with this one.

[wharris]

You are right,
I was referring to the time after yeast fermentation (and any other) was complete.

But i am just projecting my wine into your mead. 
I know nothing of mead.  (Although Carter is trying hard to bring me up to speed!)

[Cartierusm]

Tea as long as your a purist at heart you can add a little honey to the final product as long as you use potassium sorbate or something to stop further fermentation. I personally have never added honey to sweeten the final mix, but I am going to do so on the blackberry mead I made 2 years ago. It's still in the carboy after a few rackings, I would leave it but the blackberry bush on my property is gone and I don't want a mead that is that dry, it's in the same range as yours.

[Tea]

Yes I have been thinking about backsweetening, it's just that my last attempt to do that was a complete disaster.  No matter what I did, including cold crashing for a month, worked.  Every time I added honey it started fermenting again.
So I am going to let this one sit and age for a while and see if it grows on me, before I make any further decisions.

Have you made a final decision to back sweeten your's, or is that still in the though process too?

[Cartierusm]

Tea, if you add any sugar at all even honey it will referment unless you treat it first with Potassium Sorbate or Sulphite it. No matter how much clearing you will do the yeast is still in there, you basically have to sterilize the solution.

I will sweeten my blackberry as it's got a ton of flavor, lots of blacberry notes, but is very dry. But I'll probably let it set another year, when I get around to it.

[Tea]

I sorbated three times, to no avail.  It was very frustrating.

[Cartierusm]

P.Sorbate only makes the yeast sterile for further reproduction, but doesn't stop current fermentation from yeast that are still active.

[wharris]

Excellent distiction Carter.

To make it biologically stablile, you will need both sulfites and potasium sorbate!

[Tea]

Yes I have read that somewhere since then.

Onto another topic.  In the thread "For the Ladies" I posted a pic of one of the bees that I add to my things.  Not a great photo, but you should get the idea.

[LadyLiberty]

Ok, so when do you ever think I have bought any kit???  Actually I don't even know if you can buy a mead kit.
This is supposed to be a recipe that even a fool couldn't mess up.  So sounded just what I needed.  After having my original mead on the go for the last two years, I needed something quick to bolster my failing spirits.
That one is in a 5 gallon demijohn in a basket so nothing to show.
This one is still fermenting, thus the airlock and yes that is a 1 gallon, or I should say, 5 ltr demijohn.  It is honey, orange, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, raisins, water and yeast.  The fruit should all eventually drop and the must (honey water) clear around the 8-10 week period.  ABV should be around 14% if I have done everything right.
Started another one using tangerines, and I must say that even at this early stage, they taste wonderful.
The next one I want to try is a mocha mead, but still collating all the ingredients that I am wanting for that one.

This actually sounds even more like methaglin than mead, (methaglin is a spiced mead).  This looks terrific, can you share your exact recipe?

very pretty!  We've made 2 meads thus far.

[Tea]

Hi LadyLiberty, technically you are right, it is not a mead.  Although I wouldn't call it a methaglin either as the spices are almost not there in the end.  With the predominate flavours being orange and honey I would tend to think that it would come under the melomel catogory.  How ever what ever it is, it is usually just refered to as  JAO or Joe's Ancient Orange, after the gentleman that came up with the recipe.  THe original recipe is about 2 pages long with a lot of banter and humor in between everything, so I will just give you the bare bones.

1 gallon batch  Sterilise absolutely everything as usual.

3 1/2lb Clover honey or your choice honey
1 large orange (cut into 1/8th)  Choose a nice orange and leave out the pith or an orange with almost no pith.  You need the zest though, so if you cut off the pith don't forget to include the zest.
@ 25 raisins approx
1 stick cinnamon
1 whole clove
pinch of nutmeg and allspice (optional)
1 tsp fleishmann bread yeast (not the rapid rise one)
water to 1 gallon

Dissolve honey and put in carboy.

Wash orange well (pesticides??).  Cut into pieces, and push into the carboy along with the raisins, cinnamon, and spices.  Top up with water leaving around a 3inch head room.

Shake very very well to aerate must.

When at room temp put in 1tsp of the yeast (fresh and in date).  Shake again to incorporate.  Put in airlock and store in a dark cupboard that is out of the way.  Leave it do it's thing for around 8 weeks at which time it should have stopped fermenting, and started to clear.  When the fruit has dropped (sometime between then and 3mths) rack into a clean glass carboy for storage.
You can drink it when it starts to clear if you want.  Depending on the yeast this usually ferments out around 11-13%.


This is fool proof recipe and a great one for those that haven't made a mead before.  This is a sweet one.  Hope you enjoy.

I just started a traditional mead this afternoon, with just water and honey and nutrients.  It is just starting to come out of lag, so I am watching this one anxiously.