Apple & Lime

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Delaney

Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2011
Messages
77
Reaction score
1
Hi there,

I just started my first two batches of mead using goldenrod honey, which should be ~9% ABV.

I added 1 campden tablet / gallon of must, and pectic enzyme.
I used SNA.
After 24 hours in campden, I added 2 packs of rehydrated Lavalin EC-1118 per 12 gallon batch, as well as the first dose of nutrients.
Nutrients being added: DAP and Fermaid-K.
Batch 1 - Apple & Lime (12 gallons):
~16 cups of apples, frozen + diced into 1 cm^2 cubes.
~16 Limes, rind removed and diced into 1 cm^2 cubes.
~16 lbs of raw wildflower honey (mostly goldenrod)

Batch 2 - Traditional mead(12 gallons):
I did not use any campden for this, just raw unpasteurized honey
-Goldenrod Honey
-Water
-Yeast
-Fermaid-K + DAP

I used hard tap water, no boiling or anything like that...(didn't have the equipment)



  • I did not add any calcium carbonate. I am worried that I may have pH issues (I have not tested for this yet). When should I be checking my pH and when should I be ammending it, if necessary?
  • I am wondering about adding raw ginger to either of these recipes...I don't want to over-complicate things and ruin an otherwise fine batch. Any input on this thought would be appreciated.

I tasted the traditional mead at 10 days and it has a really nice flavor at this stage. Any input is welcome!

Cheers!

Delaney
 
Last edited:
In reverse order, the honey for the traditional will be fine. You don't need to do anything to the honey, as it's already anti-bacterial and anti-fungal enough. The primary fermentation sorts out any problems like that usually.

You may need both sulphite (campden tablets or powder) and potassium sorbate to stabilise once it's finished.

You didn't mention the yeast type used, but most would be likely to take it dry, presuming that you used the same amount of honey as with the apple/lime batch (and the batch size).

Just remember that it might taste good now, when it hasn't finished it's ferment, but it's likely to taste hideous once it's finished. Young meads often do, but once it's aged, it's a different matter......

As for the lime/apple batch, much of the above applies as well. Just that limes are quite potent flavours, and it's often recommended that they're "zested" of the green outer part of the skin, leaving the white pith, and then the rest is "segmented" away from the inner skin so you only actually use the zest and the flesh. I'd suggest that when sorting out this one, once it's finished it's ferment, that it's topped up with apple juice or apple concentrate if you can find some (after it's stabilised of course).

There's much debate as to whether you can get away with less ageing, with lower strength batches, but you'd just have to run with it in the usual way. I'd have thought you'd need to stabilise it in any case, because of the ferment restarting if you added fermentable sugars to back sweeten, but the sulphites should also help it with shelf life, as lower strength batches have to be treated with caution, as they need something over 10 to 12 % ABV to have enough alcohol to act as a preserving agent.

As for pH testing, the sweet spot for ferments is about the mid-3's pH. If a batch slowed without any obvious reason, it's worth checking, because when a batch drops below about 3.0pH, it can cause a stuck ferment. You can, if still in the upper 1/3rd of the ferment, aerate by stirring/whisking, which gets air/O2 into the batch, and helps with yeast development, but also has the side effect of bringing any settled sediment back into solution, which causes the "nucleation points" that the dissolved CO2 (carbonic acid) attaches too and passes out of the brew as bubbles - which can help reduce the pH swings that are often found with meads. Either way, a "pen pH meter" is often quite cheap and certainly more accurate than litmus/test paper strips. You can test whenever you want, but you can always just test if there seems to be problems with the ferment.....

As for the raw ginger idea, the apple/lime batch would probably benefit. I'm thinking that it's likely to be more lime flavoured than any apple (probably won't be able to taste the apple, but only time will tell). As ginger goes well with lime.

Whichever (if at all) batch gets the ginger treatment, I'd add it to secondary. Have a look around for suggested amounts.....
 
Lavalin EC-1118 yeast used.

For the lime, I literally just cut off the white pith and zest, I basically just added the juicy flesh. I'll add ginger to this one...


~Thanks for the advice.
 
One of my meads has formed a pellicle...Will sulphite and sorbate stabilize this infection as well at bottling?
 
There can be a number of reasons/causes for "skinning" (presumably what you were alluding too). Its most likely to be a yeast thing, which if so, a normal dose of sulphites should sort out (1 campden tablet crushed per gallon).

If its something else causing it, I'd have thought there would be other signs too i.e. off smells or tastes....
 
There can be a number of reasons/causes for "skinning" (presumably what you were alluding too). Its most likely to be a yeast thing, which if so, a normal dose of sulphites should sort out (1 campden tablet crushed per gallon).

If its something else causing it, I'd have thought there would be other signs too i.e. off smells or tastes....

hmmm, well I took a sample after one week and it tasted normal...but if it was an infection from brett/lacto or something it wouldn't have turned sour yet, would it?

~50% of the surface of the mead is covered in a layer of golden brown film, which was not transparent...There are bubbles similar to what you'd see in a pellicle. I did use raw, unpasturized and unfiltered honey, so perhaps this was simply beeswax with CO2 bubbles trapped underneath?


Either way I'm not too concerned whether it's infected or not...a bit of funk might work well, who knows? I'm mostly concerned about whether sorbate and sulphite would halt fermentation for such organisms?
 

Latest posts

Back
Top