First mead questions.

[RAWhiteFSU]

I am a beer brewer who would like to make some mead. I have made some fruit wine in the past (Apfelwein, Skeeter Pee, Vinter's Harvest Cabernet). (Aside: I pitched the yeast for my first batch of Dragon's Blood last night---apparently I ought not to have gotten the bucket that full.)

I would like to make a 5 gallon batch. I have 10 lbs. of Clover honey on hand. I would the finished product to be dry.

Does the following recipe look like it will be satisfactory?

10 lbs. Clover Honey
96 oz. Can of Elderberry Vinter's Harvest Fruit Wine Base
6 tsp. Yeast Nutrient
3 tsp. Yeast Energizer
Water to 5 gallons

Dissolve honey in warm water and add to fermenter. Add Fruit Wine Base. Add Yeast Nutrient and shake fermenter to mix. Add Yeast Energizer and shake fermenter to mix. Add water to 5 gallons. Pitch 1 re-hydrated pack of EC1118. Rack at 1.015 and degas thoroughly.

Please let me know any comments or suggestions. I'm going to try to make this tomorrow (Wednesday) evening. Thanks, R. A. White.

 

[Dend78]

that would work may wanna try a different yeast though maybe like a D-47 or something similar, the EC-1118 would probably strip a ton of flavor but i could be wrong.

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

10 pounds of honey is a little light. What is it with you beer guys and shaking carboys? Just stir it up really good. If your honey is at room temp you really dont need hot water to dissolve it, a simple drill mounted stirrer is your best friend, no more shaking carboys. Are you fermenting this directly in a carboy or a bucket? WVMJ

 

[RAWhiteFSU]

How much should I increase the honey? To 14 lbs.? I want to end up with a dry finished product. The guys at HBT suggested I use K1V-1116 instead of EC-1118.

I don't know why beer guys shake carboys, I would never dream of shaking a huge piece of glass like that. I was planning on fermenting in a Better Bottle (I do occasionally shake Better Bottles). I have a drill mounted degasser, could that be used to stir without degassing?

 

[saramc]

I would consider bumping to 3#/gallon on honey, add one can elderberries up front, and the other when closer to dry. K1V-1116 is nice, a better choice than EC-1118 for mead, and both have an alcohol tolerance of 18% +/-.
Any plans to oak a part of this?

 

[RAWhiteFSU]

I think I'll add the Elderberry in secondary. They are $40 a can so two cans is a no go. I don't want to split the can for sanitation reasons.

I hadn't planned on putting it on oak. How difficult is that to do?

 

[CBell]

buy 3 oz oak cubes and throw them in secondary or while aging. If you're interested, ask, and you'll be told what type of oak would be best for your purposes.

 

[saramc]

My bad, read that as two cans. Do not forget you can also used dried elderberries if you desire more fruit.

 

[seth8530]

First, what is your desires abv?

 

[Arne]

So Raw, what is your location. If you are close enough, I have a couple of bags of frozen elderberries that would probably go good in that. Think I'll wait til this fall for elderberry and that way these can leave the freezer. Arne.

 

[RAWhiteFSU]

buy 3 oz oak cubes and throw them in secondary or while aging. If you're interested, ask, and you'll be told what type of oak would be best for your purposes.

I think I'll hold off on the oak for first mead. I will look into it for future meads.

First, what is your desires abv?

I'm not very particular. 12ish% I suppose.

So Raw, what is your location. If you are close enough, I have a couple of bags of frozen elderberries that would probably go good in that. Think I'll wait til this fall for elderberry and that way these can leave the freezer. Arne.

I'm in Tallahassee, FL, a bit too far. Thanks for the offer.

 

[Arne]

Ya, thought maybe somewhere down there with the FSU. Kinda a fer piece for a few pounds of fruit. Do elderberries grow around there? If they do, now mite be the time to go looking for them. They are easy to find when they are blooming, later they are harder to spot. Course, they mite be done blooming as far south as you are. Ours havn't started yet. If you don't know what they look like when they are blooming, WVMountaineer Jack has some great pics on his website. There is a link to it on his post above. Arne.

 

[RAWhiteFSU]

Life got in the way, I'm actually going to get around to doing this Saturday morning. I will have an extra 2 lbs. of corn sugar laying around (the other half of a 4 lb. bag after making apfelwein) that I am thinking I will throw into this mead. Any reason not to?

Revised plan for 5 gallon batch:

10 lbs. Clover Honey
2 lbs. Corn sugar
6 tsp. Yeast Nutrient
3 tsp. Yeast Energizer
96 oz. Can of Elderberry Vinter's Harvest Fruit Wine Base

Mix honey and sugar with 4 gallons of water in fermenter. Add Yeast Nutrient and mix. Add Yeast Energizer and mix. Pitch 1 pack of K1V-1116. At 1.025 add Fruit Wine Base and water to 5 gallons. Rack at 1.015 and degas thoroughly.

Any comments before I pull the proverbial trigger?

 

[seth8530]

I would skip the corn sugar. Honestly, if it was me I would take the hit in ABV that 2 lbs of sugar would add to 5 gallons of wine and just stick to pure juice and honey.. .Also, I would recommend oak for this fella.

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

If you havent mixed this up yet it would be a MUCH better mead if you only diluted it up to 3 gallons and just stick to the honey which you should have enough to get started. Diluting one of those cans into 5 gallons gives a weaker flavored wine. When we use them we usually use 2 cans of different flavors in 5 gallons for a much better wine. You can also add some dried elderberries to give it a nice flavor boost along with a little bit of oak goes well. WVMJ

 

[RAWhiteFSU]

If you havent mixed this up yet it would be a MUCH better mead if you only diluted it up to 3 gallons and just stick to the honey which you should have enough to get started. Diluting one of those cans into 5 gallons gives a weaker flavored wine. When we use them we usually use 2 cans of different flavors in 5 gallons for a much better wine. You can also add some dried elderberries to give it a nice flavor boost along with a little bit of oak goes well. WVMJ

I'll defer to your experience. Two cans of fruit base, some dried elderberries, and some oak it is.

Which second can of fruit base do you recommend? I see some of your recipes include black raspberries. My local homebrew shop has elderberry, raspberry, black currant, blackberry, blueberry, rhubarb, and some others.

Will dried elderberries like these I found on amazon work? And how much should I use?
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000UVUHXY/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

My local homebrew shop also has oak chips. What type do you recommend (chips/cubes/shavings and Hungarian/American/French) and how much?

 

[seth8530]

I woud go cubes, and around 3 ozs.. Oak type depends on what you are after.