7200 g of Summer honey, 2014
140 g of Spring honey, 2014
5 Nutrient packs according to SNA scheme
Water to 20 L
3.5 L of currant juice
Starter:
As always I am aiming at a starting gravity of 1.120 which is so high that it could become difficult for the yeast to really get started - So just in case I initiated the fermentation with a starter at a little less than half the gravity.
I dissolved 140 g of "spring honey" in 800 ml warm water, covered the glass and let it cool to room temperature.
I dissolved 140 g of "spring honey" in 800 ml warm water, covered the glass and let it cool to room temperature.
pH: 5.98
SG: 1.058
Just before adding the yeast I whipped the solution with with a kitchen mixer to get as much air into the solution as possible. Then I added the yeast which again was White labs, Sweet Mead, WLP715, covered the opening of the glass and placed it on my home made magnetic stirrer. The solution was stirred once in a while to ensure good mixing.
The starter was up and running Saturtday the 25th of October at noon
Mead fermentation:
In the evening of the 25th of I prepared the must.
All the honey (7.2 kg) was poured into a fermentor. I just left the honey container up-side down for a while to get as much honey out as possible. Then I heated 10 L of water to 70oC and poured in into the fermenter too. Some of the water was used to rinse the honey container to ensure that I got it all out. I started to stirr to dissolve the honey. When no more honey was sticking to the bottom of the fermentor I added about 5 L of cold tap water so that the total volume was just below 20 L and stirred the solution well again. Then I left it overnight to cool down. Following this procedure the solution was 40 C when I finished.
Sunday the 26th of October:
During the day I was checking the starter. It was quite clear that the fermentation was running. When not stirring I could see plenty of small bubbles making the surface almost vibrate.
In the evening I added Nutrition pack 1 to the mead:
Fermaid K: 3.0 g
MAP: 3.0 g
MAC: 1.0 g
K2CO3: 1.0g
Total: 47 ppm N and 28 ppm K+
In the evening of the 25th of I prepared the must.
All the honey (7.2 kg) was poured into a fermentor. I just left the honey container up-side down for a while to get as much honey out as possible. Then I heated 10 L of water to 70oC and poured in into the fermenter too. Some of the water was used to rinse the honey container to ensure that I got it all out. I started to stirr to dissolve the honey. When no more honey was sticking to the bottom of the fermentor I added about 5 L of cold tap water so that the total volume was just below 20 L and stirred the solution well again. Then I left it overnight to cool down. Following this procedure the solution was 40 C when I finished.
Sunday the 26th of October:
During the day I was checking the starter. It was quite clear that the fermentation was running. When not stirring I could see plenty of small bubbles making the surface almost vibrate.
In the evening I added Nutrition pack 1 to the mead:
Fermaid K: 3.0 g
MAP: 3.0 g
MAC: 1.0 g
K2CO3: 1.0g
Total: 47 ppm N and 28 ppm K+
I left the solution for a couple of hours and measured
pH: 4.66
OG 1.120
Temp: 23.0 C
Notice that just honey and water gives pH around 6 whereas pH is 4.7 when nutrients are added. This means that the buffer capacity of the honey is almost non-existent. OG was on the target :o)
The starter was added and the beaker was rinsed with about 2 dl of water. So the total volume was just above 20 L. Finally the lid was closed and the airlock was filled with water and placed securely in the lid. Time to wait for the first bubbles from the airlock
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