In part 1 and part 2 of this series, we looked at the honey and the process of mead making, respectively. Here we cover fermentation, aging, bottling, and potential problems you could encounter in your early mead-making adventures. Unlike with most beers, during mead fermentation, you still have work to do. The best way to stir is with a stir-stick, such as The Stainless Steel Mix-Stir, that you can attach to a drill for more effective stirring.
Stir slowly for the first couple of seconds, let the mead foam, and then gradually stir a little harder. Stop when the mead has pretty much finished foaming usually within 30—90 seconds. Stirring twice a day is generally sufficient if you have a fast fermentation, you might want to stir three or four times a day. Stirring does a couple of things: It blows off carbon dioxide, which lowers potential yeast stress, and it adds oxygen to your mead when the yeast can use it best.
It also gives you a chance to smell for hydrogen sulfide and check the fermentation progress. Fruit on top can dry out and get quite hot from the heat of fermentation moving upward. This can cause nasty hot-fermentation flavors and even molds in your mead.
You want to slow down the fermentation a little bit to let the honey shine and reduce fusels and other high-temperature brewing issues. After that you can let the temperature rise a little bit to help the yeast finish out. Interested in brewing other gluten-free beverages? It is not unpleasant, however, and is very faint. Sometimes, however, the suspended particles in your mead will not be effected by bentonite, and you will have to try another fining agent.
Sparkalloid , is a seaweed extract mixed with diatomaceous earth again, more dirt in your mead? No, it is actually the fossil remains of diatoms. It has a strong positive electrical charge that neutralizes the charge on haze particles and makes them repel one another so the settle into your lees deposit. Isinglass is a form of gelatin, made from the swim bladders of sturgeons is this better than mud?
It is particularly suited to white wines, which makes it a good option for show meads or metheglins that do not have a deep color. You might want to add tannins after fining. Pectinase is a form of pectic enzyme designed to be used after fermentation, and after bentonite, Sparkalloid, and isinglass have failed to produce the desired results.
That reminds me: I add a tablespoon of powdered pectic enzyme to all my meads while I am pitching the must. It helps break down the suspended pectin in honey and fruit. This might help the mead clarify faster during fermentation and reduce the need of follow up fining.
At first, I did not filter my wine. However, after having to move a couple of times with wine that was not completely clear, I was forced to filter it to get it clear enough to bottle. The results were a stunningly clear mead that stayed clear in the bottle. I did not notice any appreciable effects on color or aroma as it was a very light pyment anyway. There are many types of filters on the market, and what you want depends on how much wine you are filtering at a time.
Since I make mostly gallon and no more than 3 gallons at a time, I chose a gravity filter. It works pretty much the same as racking, only you siphon it through a filter pad. I will let you research filters if you are interested. However, one word of warning, even the best filter is not going to remove some of the suspended particles that make a cloudy wine.
In fact, it will just clog up the filter and leave you with a mess. Make sure the wine has been clarified as much as possible — the filter will just give it a bit of boost in terms of clarifying. Filtering also reduces the likelihood of any refermentation happening after bottling. Also, vanilla beans are incredibly tiny, strawberries tend to have floaties, and other additives just will not get out of your mead with racking alone. Filtering fixes that. Again, sanitize all the equipment before and after filtering!
Hi i accidentally shook my mead during the first racking. What should I do? The primary fermentation should be complete when you move the mead to your carboy, but the fermentation timeline is never exact. Rack your mead to the carboy for secondary fermentation when activity in the airlock has slowed to one bubble every five minutes or less.
Primary fermentation for your mead may take anywhere from three to six weeks before it is complete enough to move the mead into secondary. The most precise way to know when to move mead to secondary fermentation is to use a hydrometer.
Mead should be racked out of the fermentation bucket once primary fermentation is almost complete, and activity in the airlock is not a foolproof way to measure fermentation. Honey can ferment slowly, especially at the end of the process, and create a deceptive stillness in the airlock.
This is not a perfect rule, as every recipe is different. You can also check the gravity over the course of several days. If you see little to no change over three days, fermentation is complete. If you do not have a hydrometer, there are a few other ways you can determine when it is time to rack your mead to secondary. Just because fermentation has slowed down does not mean that it is complete. The must may continue to ferment for days or even weeks after being moved to the secondary carboy.
The activity or change in the environment may reinvigorate the yeast. Elevate your mead bucket by setting it on a table or counter at least 24 hours before you rack to secondary.
You do this ahead of time so that the lees has time to settle back to the bottom of the bucket before you start siphoning. Leave as much sediment behind as possible when the mead moves to the secondary carboy. Leaving the grit and dead yeast behind is how you create a clear final product.
The yeast still suspended in the must will be enough for any remaining fermentation. Clean and sanitize your carboy and siphoning equipment the day before you rack to secondary.
Whether you added fresh fruit to your melomel in primary or secondary fermentation, you can rack it off the fruit after one to two weeks. On average, one week is long enough to infuse the flavors and aromas of the fruit but it is unlikely to hurt if you wait two weeks. Exactly how long you leave the must on the fruit depends on how much fruit you used and what kind.
The general rule is one pound of fresh fruit per one gallon of mead. If you add more, you may find that five days is plenty of time to yield the flavor you want.
If you add less, you may prefer to leave the fruit in for two weeks. Do not leave your mead on fruit for more than a month. If your bucket or carboy is stored somewhere it is likely to get hot, remove the fruit from the must sooner rather than later. Additionally, fruits such as grapes and blueberries have tannins in the skin that may infuse in the mead if they soak for too long.
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