2015 batch 1: Cyser - Oaking again

The mead have just been standing in our living room and slowly clearing. I have tasted it quite a few times and the taste of oak is not really there anymore, so I decided to oak it again. But first I removed the precipitate from the bottom.

Now the only dis-advantage I have encountered with the fermenter is that you do not know the level of precipitate. So this time I collected the precipitate in a bottle to see how fast the liquid separates from the cell mass and what the ratio is between the two. I found that with a quick flush I collect a bit more than 1/4 of a liter, which I just poured into properly sized glass flask. I will leave the flask  for tomorrow and then I will see what it looks like.

Now, time for oaking. I figured I would use about half of what I used before, as I just want a little bit more oak taste. So 20 g was weighed into a "hop-sock" and the sock with oak was wetted for a few minutes. Then the water was removed and the wet sock was put in the microwave for 1 min. The I just added the sock to the fermenter

Now it is just time to wait - again

2015 batch 1: Cyser - Removing oak and back sweetening

It has now been almost 4 weeks since I added the oak to my mead, and after tasing it, I was very satisfied. The taste was actually so pleasent that I had to taste twice ..... :o)... but still the mead is quite dry.  Then I measured the SG of the mead and it was now just 6 Oe - I earlier measured it to 8 Oe, so perhaps a slow fermentation or lots of precipitation has lowered the SG even more

Before disturbing the mead I also removed the sediment from the bottom. Again, a garbage bag over the outlet, and then I just let it run at full flow for less than a second. Emptying the garbage bag into a measuring beaker, I had removed about 0.5L (including spill.....)

Then it was time to remove the "hop bag" with oak. This was quite easy to do because of the string I had attached to the bag.  Now I could just pull it out instead of digging after it with a brewing spoon.

Finally, it was time for back sweetening. I had saved a container with 1500 g honey for this purpose. I as it turned out this is pretty much exactly what I need, so I did not have to supply with extra.

First a little calculation. The volume of the mead is about 39L. So using the formula of HoneyOeshcle equations in knowledge tools of this blog (HERE) under addition of honey you get:
Oe(new) = (Oe(must) * V(must) + m(honey)/3) / (V(must) + m(honey)/density(honey)*1000)

So,
Oe(new) = [6 * 39L + 1500g/3] / [39L + 1500g/1400g/L] = 18.3

Just below 20 is OK with me since the mead I have made earlier do end up on the sweet side after some storage time

Honey is not easily stirred into solution at 22C so instead of just pouring it into the conical fermenter I just poured as much as I could into a 5L flask and filled it up to with mead after. I weighed the container before and after addition to get the best measure of how much honey I added: 1647g-137g = 1510g honey added. The flask was than shaken and rolled for quite a while and finally left overnight on the kitchen table.

The follwing day the honey was dissolved and there was no sticky "strings" on the in-side of the glass flask. So the flask was then emptied into the fermenter and the entire mead was stirred well, Then the lid was put back on. After half an hour I took the lid off again and measured SG. I measured about 18 Oeshcle so it matched very well my calculations.

Since I had added a well shaken portion of mead, I wanted to remove as much of the oxygen as possible. So I used my CO2 generator to just add a layer of CO2 over the mead to ensure that it will be saturated with CO2. I did not lock the lid during the addition of CO2, so that any over pressure would be equalized.

Then I sealed up the fermenter and now it is just time to wait. Wait to see if the fermention restarts, and wait to see if cloudyness of the honey cleares up by precipitation. Otherwise I am ready with Kieselsol and Chitosan - and a filtration if neccessary :o)

Shopping for a scale

I have an old laboratory scale which has a range of 0-600g with 2 decimals precision. Unfortunately it is 6% off, so all results have to be corrected. I cannot calibrate it either without some special equipment that I of cause do not have. So I have been looking for a 2 decimal scale for a while, but they are just really really expensive.

Going out for dinner with my wife in the city (without kids) we just happened to pass one of these stores selling all kinds of pipes for various illegal substances - and there it was - in the window - a small 0-100 g scale with 2 decimals precision for 300 Kr/about 43USD/38Euro. Compared to the prices I have been looking at, this is dirt cheap.

I bought one and took it home for testing. I have several discarded reference weights from work, which are discarded every 5 years since it is cheaper to by new weights rather than recalibrating the old ones (!?!). For my purpose they will do till the day I die :o)

My 10 g reference weight measured 10.02g which I find surprisingly accurate for the price of the scale. And then it is small and can easily be put away in a drawer. I can highly recommend this type of scales.

And the dinner? It was great. We went to a restaurant called Cofoco and had a wine menu for 5 terrific dishes, but that is a different story...........

2015 batch 1: Cyser - Tasting

Just a short up-date. It has now been almost 3 weeks since I added the oak. I tasted it after one week and already the taste was quite different from the sample I took before oaking.

Now after the 3 weeks the taste of oak is not that different but the mead has been much more rounded and the bitterness significantly reduced compared to the reference sample. The smell has also improved dramatically - actually so much that it is now quite pleasant.

OAK IS A DIVINE INGREDIENT :o)

Furthermore I did a check on the pH just to verify that it had not changed due to the oaking. pH of the mead was measured to 3.97 and the reference sample before oaking to exactly the same value. Great!

Pic: The mead to the left and the reference sample to the right. Calibration solution above. Note that the mead is a but more cloudy than the reference sample. Glas with demineralized water is used for rinsing the electrode of the pH meter.

The appearance of the mead is just a bit cloudy and I will leave it to precipitate for one more week before removing the sediment - then it be time for back-sweetening.

2015 batch 1: Cyser - Oaking

Today I added toasted oak to the mead. From last year (see HERE) I have the American oak, medium toast, which I will use again.

I opened the fermenter to check the volume - just below 40 L. So last year I used 25 g for about 20 L, so 50 grams were weighed out in a "hop sock"

The sock was then closed with a knot. I tied about 50cm of sewing string to the sock, which I will attach outside of the fermenter. Initially the sock will float but sink once the wood gets saturated with mead.

To sterilize, I let the oak and sock soak for a few minutes in COLD water, lifted the sock and let it drip before I put it in a microwave container. Heating for 1 min at full power was enough for the steam to develop.

Then I just carried the bag to the fermenter and dropped it in. The strings was attaced to the handle on the outside. It is so thin that it should not leave marks in the silicone seal in the lid.

As last time to took a sample of the mead prior to adding the oak just to have a taste reference of the mead before oaking. That just makes it easier to evaluate the effect.

Now it is just time for waiting and tasting till I think it is OK. I assume 2-3 weeks will do it, but I will rather stop a bit prematurely and eventually add more oak than get to the point where I realize that too much oak has been added - better safe than sorry...

2015 batch 1: Cyser - Improved racking procedure

Just got a GoPro Hero 4 Silver camera, so this is my first movie clip :o) It took forever to put together but I just have to get familiar with the software. Bare with me - it is not a "Tarantino like" stroke of genius.

Well, I found a way to remove the sediment without splashing all over the kitchen, and this clip shows how it was done (if it works...).

Comments to the clip: 1) When sampling the mead I discard the first tap since this is the stale part in the tube inside. The second tapping should be representative of the batch. Keep in min that as the particulates settles, the mead will be much clearer at the surface 2) The used Star San HB was diluted 2 ml to 1L of deminiralized water. This leaves a clear solution. If I use tap water, the high level of calsium carbonate will react with something in the Star San solution which then becomes opaque.

And of cause the test sample was also used for tasting :o)

2015 batch 1: Cyser - Precipitation of yeast and racking

The following weeks I just waited for the yeast to settle. Then it was time to enjoy the pleasure of my new fermenter. Take of  the airlock, open the bottom valve fully for a short time, close again, and the mead has now been "racked" without being disturbed.

Well, there is always something one forget to consider. The water level in the fermenter is 65-70cm, and the pressure at the bottom valve is quite high. So when the valve is opened fully it was kind of naive to expect the I could catch it in a bowl. Instead it sprayed out, hit the side of the bowl and splashed in all directions. If you look close at the first pic you can see the splashes all over the legs of the fermenter and the refrigerator next to it......and by the way, the precipitated yeast does not smell nice.

All in all I tapped about 1 L. First a plug of yeast came out followed by a quick splash, so I guess this compares well to racking a large plastic fermenter, but loosing a smaller volume of mead.

Time to clean the kitchen....

2015 batch 1: Cyser - Fermentation progress

The following days i monitored the fermentation progress by measuring SG, pH and temperature. 

Whenever the temperature increased to just above 24.0C I added ice-cubes to a cooler and let the cooling system of the fermenter bring the temperature down - usually to around 18C within half an hour. The ice was then melted and I just stopped the flow.

pH was measured to ensure that it would drop due to the generation of CO2 by the yeast, and that pH would not drop so low that the yeast was knocked out. When the fermentation was over pH was measured and I will than later have to adjust pH to just below 4 to stabilize the mead. 

SG was measured to follow the conversion of sugars and this time I used staggered nutrition addition SNA to ensure that the yeast had the best conditions untill the alcohol limit of the yeast had been reached. The initial gravity, OG, was 1.116. The yeast can tolerate 15% so from experience, I should get about 14% alcohol for a drop in gravity of 0.100 or 100 Oe, so 15% would be about 107 Oe. So for a 100% conversion my gravity should drop from 1.116 (100%) to 1.009 (0%). The results are plotted below. 

As can be seen from the graph I have full conversion - actually a bit more - and the fermentation is almost complete after 10 days. There are also no sudden premature change of fermentation rate which is typically due the lack of nutrients. All in all an almost perfect fermentation :o)

Details from the log are found below

Wednesday 14^th of October

Temperature 23.9C - OK

OG 1.116

Starter added in the morning at 8

Happy bubbling in the evening

Thursday 15^th of October

Evening

SG 1.110

Temperature 23.1C

1^st  nutrition addition

5g of Fermaid K

16g of Ammonium Carbonate (Hjortetaksalt)

4 g of Potassium Carbonate (Pot Ash)

Make slurry of all powder with 100 ml of water.

Add slowly while stirring. Stir well when all is added and bubbling settles.

pH after addition: 3.58 – OK

Taste nice, smell a bit off

Saturday the 17^th of October

Evening

SG 1.086

Temperature 23.1C

pH 3.52 before addition

2^nd nutrition addition

3g Fermaid K

9g Ammonium hydrogen carbonate (Hjortetaksalt)

4g Potassium hydrogen carbonate (Pot Ash)

pH after addition 3.64

Monday the 19^th of October

Evening

SG 1.056

Temperature 23.4C

pH – not measured before addition

3^rd nutrition addition

3g Fermaid K

6g Ammonium hydrogen carbonate (Hjortetaksalt)

4g Potassium hydrogen carbonate (Pot Ash)

pH 3.86 after addition.

Tuesday the 20^th of October

Evening

SG 1.040

Temperature 24.2C

pH 3.79

Cooled with 1 aliquot of ice

Wednesday 21^st of October

Evening

SG 1.028

Temperature 22.5C

pH –

Friday 23^rd of October¨

Evening

SG 1.014

Temperature 22.8C

pH –

Friday the 6^th of November

SG = FG =0.008

Remove bottom yeast – waste 1 L

Temperature: 21.5C

pH: 4.01

2015 batch 1: Cyser - Brewing day

Monday the 12th of October 2015

Day of brewing

12.5 kg summer honey
25L of apple juice - about 22L from Ingrid Marie apples and 3 L from Pigion apples and a few "Ananas" apples.
2 tubes of Sweet Mead Wine Yeast from White Labs (WLP 720) liquid yeast.
Fermaid K
Pot Ash (Potassium Carbonate, K2CO3) - a baking ingredient
Salt of Hartshorn substitute (Ammonium Bicarbonate, NH4HCO3) - a baking ingredient

In the afternoon the liquid yeast was taken out of the refrigerator and left on the kitchen table to warm up to room temperature. This will "wake up" and prepare the yeast for the starter. According to White Labs the yeast should be ready in 3-6 hours.

In the evening it was time to prepare the must. Since I only have a 16L pot I had to split the apple juice in 3 portions. First 10L of apple juice was heated to 70C and was then taken off the heat. This should knock out microorganism growing in the apple juice. After about 10 min a bit more than half of the honey - approximately 7kg - was poured into the pot and stirred well to to dissolve the honey. The entire volume was then poured into the fermenter. I also checked the density of the apple juice before heating it up. It was about 48 Oechsle.

As the starter will be prepared from this first aliquot I need to do a few calculations. The final volume of the aliquot was about 10L+7kg / 1.4kg/L = 15L. So from the honey Oechsle equation I get an Oechsle value of  m/(3*V) = 7000g/(3*15) = 156 Oe due to the honey and from the apple juice I get 48 Oe * 10L / 15 L = 32 Oe so in total about 188 Oe.

For the starter 400 ml was poured into a 2000 ml Erlenmeyer flask and diluted to 1600 ml. Oe of the starter should then be about 188 Oe / 1600ml * 400ml = 47 or somewhere in the range 45-50 which is just perfect. Unfortunately I forgot to measure this but I trust the estimate :o) After the dilution the temperature was almost just right: 28C, so the starter was covered with a paper towel and set to cool a bit more.

A second aliquot of 10 L apple juice was then poured into the pot, heated to 70C and left for 10 min. The rest of the honey was poured into the pot and the must was stirred well before being added to the fermenter

The third and final aliquot of 5 L apple juice was poured into the pot and heated to 70C and left for 10 min. then the apple juice was used to rinse the honey container several times to ensure that all the honey had been dissolved. This was then also added to the fermenter.

Fresh water was then added to 45L. As 25L of apple juice had an Oechsle value of about 48 and diluted to 45L that would contribute to about 48Oe*25L/45L]=26.7 Oechsle.  From the honey-Oechsle equation the honey contributes with about Oe = m/(3*V) = 12500/(3*45) = 92,6 Oechsle. i.e. in total ~119 Oechsle. This will be checked when the must has cooled down.

About 6 hours after the yeast was removed from the refrigerator, it was time to add it to the starter. The temperature was 24C and both cylinders were added.

Now I will wait 2 days before the starter is added to the must and at this time the must should be at room temp.