12 replies to this topic

[SchwanzBrewer]

I'm making an orange blossom honey mead. I'm gonna secondary it on some florida oranges for some tartness and citrus flavor. I used the no boil method. I should have planned better because the LHBS didn't have the yeast I wanted. I ended up using alotec Turbo 48. I'm not sure how good it will turn out, but it will probably get me there.What are your favorite mead yeasts?I am going to do staggered nutrient addition. Gotta go to the other LHBS tomorrow and get some of the right stuff. Next time I need to prepare more. Also this is good practice for making the rumbullion. Made the same way as mead, except it uses molasses. Cheers,Rich

[MtnBrewer]

I made a recipe called Orange Blossom Special that uses OB honey and then some sort of citrus in secondary. I used clementines and tangelos - I think around 12-15 lbs. I also recommend a few vanilla beans. That recipe is either from Schramm or one of Oskaar's at gotmead.com. In any case, it's very good. The thing you want is to balance the sweetness with the tartness from the fruit. Not familiar with that yeast. My favorites are 71B - hard to beat, finishes quick and clean, good for berry mels and D47 - good general purpose yeast that produces a good mouthfeel if aged on the lees. Aside from the flavor, the most important thing to know about a yeast is its alcohol tolerance. Attenuation has no meaning since the must is fully fermentable. Honey up to that point will ferment dry. Beyond that point some residual sugar will remain depending on how much more you use.

[realbeerguy]

Second on the 71b-1122. You need to check your brewer's hat at the door and get into a winemakers mindset. Don't fear degassing adding O2 to the must. You need to get the CO2 out so you have happy yeasties.Welcome to the club.

[SchwanzBrewer]

So far I think it's too cold for the yeast and the lag is setting in. I think I'm gonna need a heat pad to get this thing going. It's at 66 right now and its supposed to be somewhere between 68 and 90.

[SchwanzBrewer]

I haven't see any activity so I swirled it up and the blow off went insane. So I guess it's working.Cheers,Rich

[MtnBrewer]

Remember that you won't see a big krausen on meads like you will for beer.

[pods8]

I just put my mead hat back on a month or so ago. Swirling them often to drive out the co2 seemed to really help things along.

[SchwanzBrewer]

Remember that you won't see a big krausen on meads like you will for beer.

That's for sure.

I just put my mead hat back on a month or so ago. Swirling them often to drive out the co2 seemed to really help things along.

Yes. I made a nutrient addition today and degassed it. This is certainly a different process.

[SchwanzBrewer]

Added 3 more pounds of honey and some more nutrients tonight and degassed. I'll let this go another week and check the gravity. If it's low enough, I'll rack it onto some oranges and secondary it for a while.

[armagh]

You don't state OG and current SG, but recall that originally the last nutrient addition was made prior to 50% sugar depletion, subsequently revised to prior to 30% sugar depletion.

[SchwanzBrewer]

httpss://lh3.googleusercontent.com/--m7YwhlFhmo/UUvMIeoVeBI/AAAAAAAAA74/mbM-gFbuWBg/s1112/2013-03-21+23.08.48.jpgThis is tonight. There are approximately 15 lb of peeled navel oranges in each fermentor. I did not use sorbate on either of them because I forgot. I expect I will get some refermentation of the sugar in the oranges, they were really sweet. I tasted a sample and it's some potent stuff, but still sweeter than I'd like. I hope it dries out some more on the oranges.How long should I leave this on the oranges? Should I cover it from light? Should I transfer both into a single carboy after a while to eliminate head space?

[armagh]

If oranges are like other fruit, they'll float tot he top and form a cap, which you need to punch down regularly. After a while the fruit gets to looking funky and you sample from under the cap until you get the taste you want or the fruit is spent. I always protect from light. Once the fuit is done, I would move to one carboy to eliminate headspace and add 1/4 tsp. ascorbic acid as an antioxident.

[SchwanzBrewer]

OK, I'll cover it tonight and evacuate the bottles with CO2. Thanks for the advice!