6 replies to this topic

[Timmy]

I am going to make a starter today and make the mead tomorrow. I have been brewing beer for a few years and I've also have made a few wines. I've wanted to make mead for a while just never got around to doing so. Regarding the starter I read on this forum that some use preservative free apple juice. I plan on doing this unless you would advice me not to. I can make the starter out of DME and use my flask if i need to. I usually use a stir plate for my yeast starters for beer. Is it ok to use a stir plate with a mead starter? Also I have read that some people like to split the mead up into a few gallons jugs and add different fruit. I would like to try this. Would you recommend doing this on my first mead or should i wait till I have a few under my belt? Also what are some of your favorite fruits to add to the mead?

[Timmy]

What kind of mead are you making?You really don't need a starter, especially if you are using dry wine yeast. Two packets (10 grams) of dry wine yeast is more than enough without a starter. I would not use DME (unless making a braggot) nor use apple juice (unless making a cyser) - but in those two cases, I still never used a starter.On your first mead, I suggest keeping it simple. Make a honey only, dry mead.

Thanks for the reply. I Think your right on just keeping it a simple honey mead. The only reason I asked about the starter is because I am using white labs liquid yeast. I am becoming more fond of dry yeast though. I use dry yeast quite a bit for my beer making. I'll use dry yeast on my next mead.I was ordering some stuff from Morebeer and just picked up one of their sweet mead kits. I think its 12lbs of orange blossom honey.

[realbeerguy]

+1 on Guest's instructions. Once your dry mead has fermented, you can take some of it say 1 -2 gal in a gallon container, and add some fruit , rasberry is good, and some spice to the other, Cinnamon & vanilla bean are good to start. You want to keep some of the base mead, age it 1 or more years and enjoy in the years to come. Mead making is a journey, not a sprint race.

[Timmy]

What does MoreBeer say to do? Looking at the kit, it looks like they gave you liquid yeast with Go-Ferm. I only use Go-Ferm when re-hydrating dry yeast. I would not be against just pitching the yeast from the tube into the must and then following the Staggered Nutrient Addition protocol.If you are set on doing the starter, you will want to make it using honey. Yeast need to be raised in the same environment that they will end up in.Mix 12.5 grams Go-Ferm with 167 ml of water at 110*F, let temp drop to 100*F and add the yeast. Let sit for no more than 30 minutes.Prepare 6 cups of boiling water for 5 minutes, remove from heat and add 1/4 teaspoon of both Fermaid-K and DAP. Then add 1/3 cup honey and cool to 80*F and mix in the yeast. Add an airlock and pitch the next day.That is an abbreviated version of HighTest's acclimated starter preparation used to restart stuck fermentations. White Labs starter page indicates only using a must of SG ~1.040 for 1-2 days.I have never made a starter for mead, but this looks like it will work for you if you are set on starters.

Well the morebeer instructions were kind of basic. The last thing you want to do is tell a beginning brewer/mead maker is to make a starter. There are many steps and chances for error or infection. I always make starters with liquid yeast and I use a stir plate for a few reasons. I ordered the yeast online so it made the trip from California to the great state of Texas and who knows what kind of temperature fluctuations it had. The yeast is already stressed from the trip. Also the cell count is quite a bit lower in liquid yeast compared to dry yeast. Over the last 4 years I have found that yeast health and proper fermentation produces the best beer. The best way to promote a good fermentation is to pitch healthy yeast and the proper quantity of yeast. Jamil Zainasheff has done quite a bit of work with cell counts and starters. Most of this work went into his pitching rate calculator found on his website mrmalty.com. This is why I use a stir plate you would not believe how much more yeast is produced with a stir plate.The lag time is almost non-existent with a good starter. After pitching my starter last night into my must I had active fermentation in less than 2 hours. This is because you are pitching active healthy yeast.The great thing about brewing is that everyone has their own personal style and techniques. Thanks for your input. I look forward to making much more mead in the future! I'm going to have to try some raspberry in some of the mead, that sounds great!

[zymot]

I have made 1 straight mead and 1 cyser. My opinion comes from lessons learned from homebrewing, but I think this applies.It is your first batch, keep it simple and easy to execute.Use dry wine yeast. Follow the hightest links. Rehydrate the yeast per hightest's instructions and do the SNA regime per hightest's instructions.

[strangebrewer]

Your spot on about a healthy yeast population making for a good ferment. This is particularly the case in mead as honey musts alone lack many of the nutrients required for a healthy fermentation. This is why you can pitch a healthy yeast population in a beer and let-er-rip but in a mead you have to pitch a healthy population AND supplement it with nutrients such as Fermaid K and DAP (diammonium phopshate). The DAP is important as honey musts are nitrogen deficient and many wine yeasts have a high nitrogen demand.When Guest says he doesn't bother with starters I'm pretty sure he means he uses dry yeast and purchaes multiple packets as dry yeast is cheap. When using dry yeast you get the same end result by pitching multiple packets without the work of making a starter.I'd also agree with a strait mead, ferment it dry, and then if you so choose add fruit to secondary. Raspberry and cranberry are 2 of my favorite fruits to add to meads though both are quite acidic and can make for a tart mead if you don't have much residual sugar. For spices the Vanilla Cinnamon mead I just finished up myself is quite possibly one of my new all time favorites.Good luck and welcome aboard!

[Timmy]

Your spot on about a healthy yeast population making for a good ferment. This is particularly the case in mead as honey musts alone lack many of the nutrients required for a healthy fermentation. This is why you can pitch a healthy yeast population in a beer and let-er-rip but in a mead you have to pitch a healthy population AND supplement it with nutrients such as Fermaid K and DAP (diammonium phopshate). The DAP is important as honey musts are nitrogen deficient and many wine yeasts have a high nitrogen demand.When Guest says he doesn't bother with starters I'm pretty sure he means he uses dry yeast and purchaes multiple packets as dry yeast is cheap. When using dry yeast you get the same end result by pitching multiple packets without the work of making a starter.I'd also agree with a strait mead, ferment it dry, and then if you so choose add fruit to secondary. Raspberry and cranberry are 2 of my favorite fruits to add to meads though both are quite acidic and can make for a tart mead if you don't have much residual sugar. For spices the Vanilla Cinnamon mead I just finished up myself is quite possibly one of my new all time favorites.Good luck and welcome aboard!

Over the last few months I have become a big fan of dry yeast for my beers. In fact the last 30-40 gallons of beer I've made has been solely with dry yeast. My next mead I will defiantly take everyones advice and use dry yeast. The starters are more work and you have to plan to brew ahead of time. Also thanks for recommending your favorite fruits. I will probably keep 3 gallons straight mead and secondary 2 gallons with two different types of fruit. I am going try and find some local honey before I try another mead. BTW thanks for everyones responses. I was a lurker over at the other boards but I felt more at home posting on this board. Glad to be a part of this community.