Help me i have beer yeast But...

[Miti]

hi . please help .. i have some beer yeast but i dont have access to barley malt so i want to make something before the yeast expire date come . can i make any mead or something like that ? help me please

 

[fatbloke]

hi . please help .. i have some beer yeast but i dont have access to barley malt so i want to make something before the yeast expire date come . can i make any mead or something like that ? help me please

Do you have access to the other pieces of kit ? Like a fermenter, a hydrometer etc ?

If you don't, then you can just make a recipe like "Joes ancient orange mead".

1 gallon batch
3 1/2 lbs Clover or your choice honey or blend (will finish sweet)
1 Large orange (later cut in eights or smaller, rind and all)
1 small handful of raisins (25 if you count but more or less ok)
1 stick of cinnamon
1 whole clove ( or 2 if you like - these are potent critters)
optional - a pinch of nutmeg and allspice (very small )
1 teaspoon of Fleishmann’s bread yeast ( now don't get holy on me--- after all this is an ancient mead and that's all we had back then)
Balance water to one gallon
Process:
Use a clean 1 gallon carboy
Dissolve honey in some warm water and put in carboy
Wash orange well to remove any pesticides and slice in eights --add orange (you can push em through opening big boy -- rinds included -- its ok for this mead -- take my word for it -- ignore the experts)
Put in raisins, clove, cinnamon stick, any optional ingredients and fill to 3 inches from the top with cold water. ( need room for some foam -- you can top off with more water after the first few days frenzy)
Shake the heck out of the jug with top on, of course. This is your sophisticated aeration process.
When at room temperature in your kitchen, put in 1 teaspoon of bread yeast. ( No you don't have to rehydrate it first-- the ancients didn't even have that word in their vocabulary-- just put it in and give it a gentle swirl or not)(The yeast can fight for their own territory)
Install water airlock. Put in dark place. It will start working immediately or in an hour. (Don't use grandma's bread yeast she bought years before she passed away in the 90's - wait 3 hours before you panic or call me) After major foaming stops in a few days add some water and then keep your hands off of it. (Don't shake it! Don't mess with them yeastees! Let them alone except its okay to open your cabinet to smell every once in a while.
Racking --- Don't you dare
additional feeding --- NO NO
More stirring or shaking -- Your not listening, don't touch
After 2 months and maybe a few days it will slow down to a stop and clear all by itself. (How about that, you are not so important after all) Then you can put a hose in with a small cloth filter on the end into the clear part and siphon off the golden nectar. If you wait long enough even the oranges will sink to the bottom but I never waited that long. If it is clear it is ready. You don't need a cold basement. It does better in a kitchen in the dark. (Like in a cabinet), likes a little heat (70-80). If it didn't work out... you screwed up and didn't read my instructions (or used grandma's bread yeast she bought years before she passed away) . If it didn't work out then take up another hobby. Mead is not for you. It is too complicated.
If you were successful, which I am 99% certain you will be, then enjoy your mead. When you get ready to make different mead you will probably have to unlearn some of these practices I have taught you, but hey--- This recipe and procedure works with these ingredients so don't knock it. It was your first mead. It was my tenth. Sometimes, even the experts can forget all they know and make good ancient mead.
And there you have it. You have made your first Mead. Now come the steps that must be followed to make a good, and eventually a great Mead.

As you can see, it's straight forward. The honey would be about 1.6kg and while it's a recipe developed in the US (using US measurements) I just make mine up to the UK measurement i.e. 4.55 litres/1 UK gallon, instead of 3.78 litres/1 US gallon.

You will have to be aware, that the recipe uses bread yeast as that dies off quicker than wine or beer yeasts. So making it with beer yeast will probably ferment it dry or pretty close to dry. Joes ancient orange isn't a good dry recipe so you'd just use stabilising chems i.e. sodium/potassium sulphite, then potassium sorbate. Then add small amounts of honey until it's back sweetened to your preferred taste.

Not knowing what kind of kit that you can get hold of in Tehran, it might just be necessary to make the recipe as it is, but using the beer yeast, then just keep adding small amounts of honey, say 250 gms at a time to the fermenting batch, until it stops bubbling.

Unless you can tell us what kind of beer yeast it is, and maybe we can work out a better compromise.....

Don't know if that's of any help ?

 

[Deezil]

Mmadmike i believe, mentioned a recipe for a vanilla mead that he used a beer yeast with & said it turned out like a alcoholic cream soda..

If you can get a hydrometer, it helps..
And a beer yeast can go above 5-8% ABV, but its not always healthy for the yeast

I think (guesstimating here) that he ferments honey & water with yeast + nutrients.. And adds vanilla beans oce its aging & racks off the beans when the flavor is right

Just a thought

 

[Miti]

thanks that's good for me i will go for it and i will post here the result .... thanks again.