I'm preparing to make my first mead from "The Joy of Homebrewing's" antipodal mead recipe. When I googled it I found a very old post that said the following sentence:
"I made all the beginner mistakes including pre-fermentation acid, stuck fermentation, gypsum, boiling the honey, etc"
But I don't understand what the mistakes were? Papazian's recipe calls for the mead to be heated to 160 but not boiled. SHOULD it be boiled? What target pH should I be trying to obtain by adding gypsum? (the recipe simply calls for an addition without knowing what my pH was beforehand.) The recipe also calls for addition of an acid blend, but never asks you to check total acidity. What value to you want?
The guy is saying that he made mistakes, but doesn't say in which direction he erred. Could someone who's brewed mead before warn me off about what the original poster was trying to say?
Thanks in advance. Here's the recipe if it helps:
15 lbs Honey (Grade A clover)
1 tsp Yeast nutrient
1 Tbs Acid Blend
1 tsp Irish Moss
0.5 tsp Gypsum
Water to 5 Gallons
Packet Pasteur Champagne Yeast
Heated tap water to 160ºF for 20 minutes; removed from heat. Added all ingredients and stirred well to mix honey.
Cleaned 5 g carboy using water and 0.5 cup bleach. Let sit for 15 minutes, rinsed well with hot water and poured in must. Shook for less than a minute.
When cooled to 80 F, rehydrated yeast according to instructions and pitc
"I made all the beginner mistakes including pre-fermentation acid, stuck fermentation, gypsum, boiling the honey, etc"
But I don't understand what the mistakes were? Papazian's recipe calls for the mead to be heated to 160 but not boiled. SHOULD it be boiled? What target pH should I be trying to obtain by adding gypsum? (the recipe simply calls for an addition without knowing what my pH was beforehand.) The recipe also calls for addition of an acid blend, but never asks you to check total acidity. What value to you want?
The guy is saying that he made mistakes, but doesn't say in which direction he erred. Could someone who's brewed mead before warn me off about what the original poster was trying to say?
Thanks in advance. Here's the recipe if it helps:
15 lbs Honey (Grade A clover)
1 tsp Yeast nutrient
1 Tbs Acid Blend
1 tsp Irish Moss
0.5 tsp Gypsum
Water to 5 Gallons
Packet Pasteur Champagne Yeast
Heated tap water to 160ºF for 20 minutes; removed from heat. Added all ingredients and stirred well to mix honey.
Cleaned 5 g carboy using water and 0.5 cup bleach. Let sit for 15 minutes, rinsed well with hot water and poured in must. Shook for less than a minute.
When cooled to 80 F, rehydrated yeast according to instructions and pitc