Small Batch Meads

In the last year, I have been experimenting around a bit with small batches of mead.  I have mentioned this in a few of my posts, but haven’t really gone into it in very much detail.  A lot of people get into mead from homebrewing (if you have the equipment to brew beer, you have most of the equipment you need to make mead).  As such, I figured I would share some of my experiences, recipes, and techniques here, in case anyone wants to get the feet wet and try making mead.

Let me start off by saying that I am definitely not an expert on making mead.  Everything I know about mead, is based off a few rough recipes and articles online and in magazines.  Much like my tips and techniques for homebrewing, take my mead techniques and tips with a grain of salt.  There a ton of techniques and styles for making both mead and beer.  Use techniques and equipment that best fit your preferences and time/space/financial constraints.  There is no “best” technique – simply use the one that works best for you.  The techniques and tips that I suggest here are geared towards someone from a homebrewing background, looking to experiment with making mead.  These techniques work best for me.  Adjust as needed.

Batch Size

Quality honey (the base fermentable for mead) is not cheap.  Mead takes awhile to finish out fermentation and I don’t have tons of space to dedicate to fermenters filled with mead (beer takes priority over mead for me when it comes to fermenter space).  Since mead was not something I know that much about going into my first few batches, there was a decent chance I could mess up a batch.  These are the three main reasons that I chose to keep my batches at a rather small scale – 1-2 gallons.  This allows me to do a 2-3 week primary fermentation in a carboy or bucket fermenter, then transfer the mead to one gallon jugs for secondary fermentation.  After I get more experience with mead and more space (i.e. a house), I plan to up the batch sizes to normal 5 gallon batches.

Finished product of my first mead, made with Clover honey.

Finished product of my second mead, made with South Jersey Pine Barren honey.

My third mead, a melomel, in the carboy on the day of pitching the yeast.

A sample of my melomel on the day of transferring it to 1-gallon jugs for a secondary fermentation.

Start Simple

My recipes have been based roughly on other recipes that I have seen online.  My first two meads, were made with all honey.  This allowed me to get a better feel for the character of different yeasts and honey varieties.  Like most people, there really aren’t many commercially available meads available to me (after all, this isn’t medieval Europe).  As a result, I really didn’t have a baseline of what kinds of meads and honey varieties I liked.  As a result, my first few recipes have been specifically designed to be simple and straightforward. 

Source Quality Honey

“Garbage in” equates pretty well to “garbage out”.  This one is fairly common sense (especially if you brew), but it is worth reinforcing.  Just like brewing, don’t skimp on the quality of ingredients that you use in mead making.  If you make mead with shitty honey, you’re probably going to get shitty mead.  The last couple times I have gotten my honey from local honey makers.  Most farmers markets tend to have a couple vendors that sell honey.  Lacking that, you can usually find decent honey in other grocery stores.  When it comes to adding fruit it to make melomels, source quality fruit, however you can get it.  Fresh is great, but if you can’t get what you need fresh, quality frozen fruit works great too. 

Nutrient Additions

This tip came to me compliments of an episode of Brewing TV on mead.   When making mead, it’s a good idea to add nutrients in multiple stages, rather than just on the day you make it.  I tend to do an addition at the time of pitching the yeast, about 24 hours after pitching the yeast, and another one about 72 hours after pitching the yeast.  This gives the yeast nutrients at multiple stages of its growth and fermentation process, leading to a healthier fermentation.  In theory, this also lets the mead clean up a bit quicker, making the mead drinkable quicker (i.e. instead of having to age for years to get a drinkable product). 

Pasteurizing vs. No-Heat vs. Boiling

There are a few different schools of thought when it comes to whether to heat the mead or not.  One school of thought is to boil the honey mixture to kill off any wild yeast and bacteria.  This method also causes some proteins and solids to break from solution, which allows you to skim them off, theoretically, resulting in clearer, cleaner mead.  Another school of thought is to pasteurize the honey.  This achieves the goal of killing off any wild bacteria or yeast, while preserving more of the delicate aromatics and flavors of the honey in the finished product.  The final school of thought, is the no-heat technique.  The idea on this one is preserve as much of the flavor and aroma of the honey in the finished mead.  There is a slight risk of infection while using this method, but a lot of mead makers believe that this not much of a risk since the cultured yeast that you pitch into the mead will out-compete and clean up any wild bacteria or yeast that may be present.  Personally, I subscribe to the no-heat method, and have had good results so far, with no infections.  I chose this option because it preserves the most of the honey character.  Whichever method you use, you should also factor in any treatments that have occurred to the honey prior to packaging (i.e. pasteurization, filtration, etc.), and adjust to your methods.

Patience, Young Grasshopper

Making mead, even when using staggered nutrient additions, takes longer to get a solid finished product than most beers.  Honey contains sugars that take longer for yeast to break down, requiring it to be fermented longer.  The fermentation regiment for my first few meads was a 2 – 3 week primary fermentation, a 2 – 3 month secondary fermentation, and finally at least a few months of bottle conditioning.  The conditioning time is flexible but I would recommend giving it at least a couple months to let the flavors clean up and come together, before you pop your first bottle.  Your patience will be rewarded.  Don’t expect your mead to be ready in a few weeks like your favorite homebrewed session ale. 

Clarity

There are also a several clarifying agents and methods that can be used to give you’re mead a crystal clear appearance.  These agents will knock out any residual proteins in the mead to clear up the appearance in the glass. I haven’t used any clarifying agents in my meads as of yet, mainly out of simplicity.  My first mead, a hydromel made with clover honey, came out very clear on its own through the normal fermentation bottle conditioning process.  On the other hand, my second mead, made with local South Jersey Pine Barren honey, probably could have used a clarifying agent, but I was still happy with the end result.  You can make great mead either way – use whichever method works best for your preferences.

Recipes

Clover Honey Mead:

-Batch Size: 1 Gallon

-Ingredients:

·         36oz Clover Honey

·         1 Packet Red Star Champagne Yeast

-Observed OG( 6/18/2011): 1.072

-Observed FG (7/2/2011): 0.996

South Jersey Pine Barren Honey Mead:

-Batch Size: 1 Gallon

-Ingredients:

·         3LB South Jersey Pine Barren Honey

·         1 Packet Lalvin EC-1118 Yeast

-Observed OG( 9/3/2011): 1.108

-Observed FG (12/11/2011): 1.000

Mixed Berry Melomel:

-Batch Size: 2 Gallon

-Ingredients:

·         8LB Wildflower Honey

·         5LB Frozen Berry Mix (Blackberries, Blueberries, Raspberries)  

·         1LB Fresh Organic Strawberries (added to half of the batch at secondary)

·         1 Packet Lalvin D-47 Yeast

-Observed OG (3/3/2012): ??? (forgot to get a reading, Probably around 1.200)

-Observed SG1 (3/3/2012): 1.004 (Note: this was taken at the time of transferring to the secondary, not at the time of bottling)

Hope this helps anyone who is in the same position as I am in that is looking to experiment with meads.  I’ll continue to post on mead in the future as I do more.  Until next time, cheers!

Song of the Day: “Paint it Black” by The Rolling Stones

Beer of the Day: Maine Beer Company’s Zoe

Happiness is a Beautiful Fiancee, a Warm Puppy, and a Cold Beer

Been way behind on posting here, so here’s a big post to entertain your eyeballs:

Life in General

Life has been pretty solid the last month or so.  My new job is going pretty awesome and I am settling into it nicely.  I am becoming more confident and am working more independently each day as I get more familiar with my new environment.  It is definitely a nice change of pace from the consulting gig that I was doing prior to this new job.  The best part of this job is the fact that I get to come home at night rather than getting on a plane every Monday and Thursday.  This is allowing me to spend a whole lot more time with my incredible fiancée Theresa!! :-)

Now that the weather is getting nicer, I have also been able to spend a little more time hiking with Theresa and Abby at the local parks.  The park we have been going to the most is Smedley Park (just the other side of 476 from us off of Baltimore Pike).  This park has a lot of good trails including several solid hills and a creek that makes for some very scenic spots.  It is not a massive park but seems to be pretty jam-packed with a lot of fun trails that are a good work out and a lot of fun.

A small waterfall on the creek at Smedley.

As mentioned earlier, I have been able to spend a lot more quality time with Theresa now that I am home a lot more - which I very happy about!  Just this past weekend, we went to see Super 8 and were both very impressed with it.  The kids that acted in this movie did an awesome job of convincingly portraying a tight-knit group of friends growing up together.  The movie basically is about this group of kids that are filming a film in the late ‘70s for a film festival.  In the middle of this, increasingly bizarre events start happening, starting with an extremely destructive train crash in the beginning of the movie.  Not going to say much more about the plot because I don’t want to give anything else away, but it is definitely worth seeing.  The special effects in the movie are awesome; but by no means is this movie about the special effects – it has a much heavier emphasis on the characterization of the kids and plot of a military cover-up.  It is very nice to see a movie use special effects and CG for right purpose – a tool to fool the viewer into thinking that something is real and believable.  Too many movies, especially big blockbusters, get lost in the special effects and forget that they still have to tell a great story.  Go see Super 8!

Wedding Plans

Wedding plans/activities have also been coming along very nicely the last few weeks.  Earlier this month, Theresa and I attended Pre Cana (a requirement for getting married in the Catholic Church).  I was pleasantly surprised at the fact that it was actually fun to go to.  It really was not as much of a lecture, as it was an informal discussion around practical aspects of marriage.  All of the couples came from different backgrounds and were all very nice.  It was nice to hear different couples’ perspectives that have been married for various lengths and situations.  All in all, it was a fun night.

Each month we seem to be knocking off more and more things off of our list for wedding planning.  In the last few weeks, we picked out the tuxedo style for the guys, Theresa picked out her flowers, most of the bridesmaids got fitted for their dresses, and most of the groomsman got fitted for their tuxes.  Things are moving along nicely!  The big day is coming up quick and I can’t wait to be married to my incredible Theresa! :-)

Brewing Competitions

BUZZ Off Homebrew Competition – A few weeks ago, I entered in my first homebrew competition.  The BUZZ Off Homebrew Competition is an annual BJCP-sanctioned event hosted at Iron Hill West Chester by BUZZ Homebrew Club.  As posted earlier, I entered three beers into this competition – English Pale Ale (which started out as a Bass Clone and got tweaked and turned into an EPA of its own), Batch X (a barley wine with Special B malt), and Banana Bread Ale (basically an old ale with bananas in the steep and spiced with cinnamon and vanilla).  I had a great time hanging out at the competition with Theresa’s cousin Stacy and her husband Jeremy (who also is another homebrewer that entered this competition).  Stacy’s brothers and parents also came out for the competition.  I always have a great time hanging out with Theresa’s family!  When the dust settled on the competition, I ended up taking home the blue ribbon on the English Pale Ales category!  I was really excited to take first in the category for the EPA that I brewed with my buddy Keith, and got to take home a Party Pig (a small keg alternative that uses a pressure pouch to maintain pressure in a 2.25 gallon bottle with a nozzle for dispensing) for the win.  My other two beers did not place but I was able to get my score sheets from the judges after the competition, which provided me with some great feedback on all of the beers that I entered.  All in all, my first brewing competition was a big success.  Here are the full competition results of the BUZZ Off Competition.

Preston and Steve Homebrew Competition - About a week and a half ago, I entered my Angry Rhino Ale (Black IPA) into the first annual Preston and Steve Homebrew Competition with Triumph Brewery.  This competition was a much different format than the BUZZ Off competition – instead of having certified judges score each beer against its respective category, this competition was open to pretty much all ale styles (excluding wood-aged, lambics, and sours) and would only crown one winner for the whole field.  Basically, it just skipped the whole placements-by-category concept and went straight for the best-in-show.  The other very different part about this competition was the first round of judging was done by a peer-review of other homebrewers.  Basically, about eight homebrewers were assigned to each table and moved to another table to judge another groups.  The first and second place from each table moved on to the final panel of judges, which consisted of Preston Elliot from the Preston and Steve Show, one of the Eagles, a beer journalist, and a few guys from the crew at Triumph Brewery.  Of the twenty or so beers that made it to the final panel, they crowned one winner and one runner-up.  My brew did not place but it was voted as the best beer at my table, and went to the final panel (along with beers from around 20 or so other brewers), and was met was some very positive remarks.  On top of the good performance from my beer, I was also able to do a little networking (we had about 2 – 3 hours of downtime between the first round and the final panel) with a few other homebrewers and came away with some new ideas and a few brewers that I hope to run into and/or brew with in the future.  Second competition = great success! 

New Brews

As always, I have been keeping my free time pretty well occupied with brewing up some new beers.  My supply of everyday session ales was actually getting a little low so I churned out a quick hefeweizen.  I also have been enjoying the occasional bottle of my black IPA now that is ready, and even tried my hand at a small batch of mead.

•  Theresa’s Ale (Hefeweizen) – This Spring, Theresa and I have been drinking a lot of Sierra Nevada’s Kellerweis (a traditionally brewed hefeweizen).  This beer really pulled me back into hefeweizens and is probably my favorite of the style.  Inspired by this beer, I decided to take my own crack at something similar.  I started with some pale and wheat malts and malt extracts, added one bittering hop addition of Tettanger, and fermented it with a traditional hefe yeast strain (Wyeast 3068).  To try to keep with tradition, I partially open-fermented (fermenting the beer without a lid/airlock for part of the time) this brew during the primary and racked it to the secondary just before the krausen fell, and closed it with an airlock for the remaining week and a half.  I also put the zest of four oranges in the secondary fermenter.  I popped open one of these this past weekend (a week after bottle day).  It was already carbonated and tasted delicious.  The final product came out a bit lower in alcohol than I was shooting for (probably a result of either my first attempt at partial-mashing, or me topping it off with too much water, or a combination of the two), but it definitely came out full-flavored and very close to the flavor profile I was going for.  The yeast definitely adds a nice velvetiness and flavor to the beer, so don’t be bashful – pour it all in!  I have a feeling this one will go quick in the summer months.  For those that are interested in the techniques or ingredients that I used in creating this, or any of the rest of my beers, I will be posting recipes up to this site soon – stay tuned!

My hefeweizen in the secondary fermenter before getting transferred to the bottling bucket.

• Angry Rhino Ale (Black IPA) – I have been meaning to do a black IPA for awhile now, and when the Preston and Steve competition came along, I decided to pull it ahead a couple months from when I was originally going to brew this.  Angry Rhino started off using a rough clone recipe of Stone’s Sublimely Self-Righteous (and still has roughly the same ratios in the grain bill).  However, I did not want it to be exactly the same hop profile.  Instead of doing a citrus-hop bomb, I opted to switch it up with using Centennial and Magnum as late kettle additions and dry-hop additions.  The ending beer came out very good, and I am looking forward to sharing and drinking my remaining bottles of this hop batch (I gave up a six pack to competition and ended up with only 13 other 12oz bottles after the whole leaf centennials sucked up some beer in the secondary).  The hop profile is still not quite where I want it, but it is close.  I may tweak the hops a little the next time (and there will be a next time) I brew this. 

Angry Rhino Ale in one of my new glasses from a glass set that Theresa got me for my birthday :-)

• Mead – As I mentioned in my last post, I took my first crack at mead this past weekend!  The process was very easy and really didn’t take that much time.  Since this is my first time (and I really don’t know much at all about mead), I kept the recipe pretty simple – no fruit, no spice, no honey-barley hybrids – just straight-up clover honey, water, yeast nutrient, and Red Star champagne yeast.  Started my mead experience with a small, one gallon batch for a few reasons – 1. It could very easily turn out like crap since I don’t know what I’m doing, 2. I want to try doing a few small batches with different types of honey to get a feel for the different flavors I can get, 3. I really don’t have the space to have a full-sized carboy dedicated to fermenting mead for a couple months at a time (a one gallon jug is a lot easier to stash away as a secondary fermenter than a 5 gallon is).  Aside from adding some more nutrient to the fermenter a couple days after brew day, I will just be transferring it to a one gallon jug in about a week or so to sit and clear out for a couple months before bottle conditioning.  More to come on this batch in a few months. 

Foreground: Barley wine fermenting in one of my glass carboys (more on this beer in the months to come).  Background: Mead fermenting away in my bucket fermenter.

Looking Forward (A.K.A. Other Miscellaneous Stuff)

So it has been a very long time since I’ve talked about video games on this blog, and to be honest, it has been a very long time since I’ve even played video games.  But with the E3 2011 Convention that just wrapped up a week or two ago, came some new trailers announcing some very cool games that are going to be coming up soon.  The ones that I am most excited to get my hands are Gears of War 3 (September 2011 release), Modern Warfare 3 (November 2011 release), Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition (a remake of the original Halo for the tenth anniversary of the game due out November 2011), and last, but certainly not least, Halo 4 (due out late 2012 – damn, I don’t want to wait that long!).  I’m also excited about the upcoming Mass Effect 3 but I’m holding off my excitement on that until I get through the first and second games in the series (I’m about halfway through the first).  I am trying to make more of an effort to get back to playing video games on a casual basis to spend some time hanging out with my friends who I don’t get to see often, and to enjoy another big passion in my life.  With the summer months coming, I will most likely be less tied up with brewing, so I am hoping to get some more gaming time.

Well now that you’ve read a bit over 2,000 words on this post, I suppose I should wrap it up.  I’m really looking forward to the nice weather coming up now that summer is finally here!  I can’t wait to spend some time outside barbequing and having some beers outside!  I’m also looking forward to a few more moments like this one:

Abby resting in the grass after a hard day of playing with her soccer ball - what a hard life she lives!

Until next time (hopefully these updates will be coming a little more frequently), cheers!

Song of the Day: “Folsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash

Beer of the Day: Rogue Ales’ Chipotle Ale

... By the Seat of My Pants

Well, I was going to spend some time today and work on some stuff with this blog (post an update on the last month or so, tweak the design a bit, add in a section for homebrew recipes, etc.), but I had a little change of plans.  Since it was such a beautiful day today, I decided to do a little hiking with Abby.  Afterwards, while on a field trip to check out a local homebrew supply shop that I hadn't been to before, I decided I was going to take my first crack at making mead today.  End result - didn't have much time to update the blog.  Oh well, hopefully tomorrow.  In the mean time, here's a couple pictures from today.

Abby cooling off in the creek at Smedley Park :-)

Hydrometer reading (measures the specific gravity of a liquid to determine how much sugar is in solution to measure the potential alcohol content) of my first mead.  I decided to start small with a one gallon batch made with clover honey.

Song of the Day: "Pardon Me" (Acoustic) by Incubus
Beer of the Day: Sam Adams' Latitude 48 IPA