I had been thinking of making a mead for quite a long time. I had acquired an extra five gallon carboy to use a secondary about 6 months ago and it has been sitting there empty waiting to contain and clarify the sweet and ancient substance.
I was on my way up to Northern Brewer with a friend to get some brew supplies for a day of brewing and I had still not decided what it was that I was going to brew. I was thinking of something summery and light, I had been considering a mellow flavored wheat beer or something similar as I'd had several commercial beers that had been inspiring. In the back of my mind though there was the looming thought of the empty carboy along with the fact that I had just bottled two batches of spring/summer type beers (my own APA recipe and a White House Honey Ale). I guess ten gallons of beer might take a while to drink so I suppose I could diverge from my normal brewing habits to do something a little different. So we're just getting into the warm season now and viscous sweet concoctions should be the the furthest from my mind but there is a catch with mead making, you have to make your mead at least 6 months before you want to drink any of it. So thinking ahead to later this year when the cold winds blow again (which is kinda depressing quite honestly as it hasn't even really warmed up yet this year), I know that this is the time to make my mead to have it ready in time for the holidays and cold Wisconsin winter nights.
My brewing experience to this point has only been all about beer. I had done some limited research on mead making and it seemed pretty easy so I could clearly handle this on my own with no help from anyone right? Wrong. The best thing you can do when trying something new is talk to someone that has some experience but I tend to ignore that advice and learn stuff the hard way. Fortunately for me I didn't need to learn things the hard way despite my wholehearted attempt to do so.
My friend and I arrived at Northern Brewer and after a mandatory browse around the store I quickly found myself checking out the different kinds of honey and mead making kits. This is where the confusion started. I had a pretty good idea of what kit I was looking for but only one of them had a price on it. Along with that there were four or five types of honey to choose from and I really had no idea what one to use. I reluctantly made my way up towards the counter to get some help but the only available NB staff member was one that I'm pretty sure I had offended slightly during a previous visit which probably worth talking about because it's kinda awkward and funny, at least to me.
I was up at Northern Brewer on a previous occasion to get ingredients for an imperial IPA that I was making and had some questions about specialty grains and yeast. So I asked the only available NB staff member available which was an attractive young woman at her the checkout counter standing by herself. I think most male brewing nerds avoid her either because they feel that a woman might not be as experienced at brewing (which is totally wrong) or because of their nerd-like social ineptitude, they simply aren't able to talk to women, particularly one that might be the least bit attractive. That being said, I had no problem talking to the young lady about my beer, in fact I'd rather talk with a woman about it as women rarely display the same arrogance and my way is clearly the best way attitude that seems to be prevalent among male brewers. So in describing the IPA that I was about to brew to the young woman I regretfully said something like "have you ever brewed an IPA before?". Now in my brain the question was innocent enough as most women I know don't like IPA's. In retrospect however the young woman may have taken offense to the question and probably figured I was just another sexist ass. Now I know that is the furthest thing from the truth but she doesn't. Now this would normally not be a big problem but the brewing community is not that big in my area and I'm positive that if I offended her she is going to remember me. Fuck.
So the only available NB staff member is one who probably thinks I'm a wank. Well this is uncomfortable, perhaps I'll just go look around a bit until another staff member is available. After browsing the glassware and bottling equipment areas for a few minutes I went back towards the counter and of course the attractive young NB staff member is standing by herself as the other staff are busy with lines of people waiting to be helped. I swear the brew-nerds maintain a 10 to 20 foot unoccupied safe zone around her. So I hesitantly go to talk with her about my mead project.
She was super helpful and offered some great advice for my mead and it was clear that she had made many batches herself. She recommended not using the premade kits but just getting the honey and other elements needed. So I ended up getting:
15 pounds of wildflower honey
2 packets of Lalvin EC 1118 yeast (I think it's champagne yeast)
Wyeast brewers yeast nutrients
LD Carlson Diammonnium Phosphate
Most of the kits say to use only 12 pounds of honey but the NB salesperson recommended a little more since I was trying to make a sweet mead, She said I might even have to back sweeten before bottling to get the sweetness that I'm looking for after adding a yeast neutralizer of course to prevent further fermentation. She also recommended a slightly different nutrient schedule than is suggested in the NB meadmaking pdf instructions. She said to use 1/2 tsp of the Wyeast nutrient at the beginning before pitching and then use 1/2 tsp pf the diammonnium phosphate when pitching and then every 12 hours for five days (10 times). And then for the yeast she said the EC 1118 would give a nice clarity and have a minimal affect on the flavor of the honey.
The brewing process for mead is simple and kind of weird compared to beer brewing. The sanitizing is the same but there is no boiling. So I sanitized and filled my 6.5 gallon carboy with 3 gallons of room temp tap water, about 73 degrees F. I then added 1/2 tsp of the yeast nutrient and 1/2 tsp of the diammonnium phosphate. Then I warmed the honey jugs in my sanitizer bucket that had warm/hot sanitizer in it and then poured the honey in to the carboy. I used hot tap water to rinse the remaining honey out of the jugs right in to the carboy. Then I had to mix the honey and water together by swirling the solution in the carboy which I'm pretty sure will necessitate a visit to the chiropractor. I've gotta find a better way to do that. I saw a collapsable drill powered paddle that will fit through a carboy neck that might be nice. Then I prepared the dry yeast which is another thing that is weird. The packet says to hydrate in 104 degree F water. Dude! That temp will kill yeast right? Wrong. It seems to have worked anyway. So I boiled water, poured it into my erlenmeyer flask, and cooled it in a bowl of warm water until the flask and the water in the bowl stabilized to just under 100 degrees F (close enough). I added the EC 1118, covered it with a paper towel, and swirled it for the specified 15 minutes. I added the yeast to the carboy, and swirled the whole thing to mix the yeast in. Then I installed the air lock and thats it.
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