13 replies to this topic

[cavman]

I walked by some cider the other day and thought "just buy some and ferment it." So came on here and did some reading and decided if I'm going through the amount of time it's going to take might as well step it up. I guess it's a version of the Falls Bounty:3 gallons Cider5# Golden Blossom Honey1# Dark Brown sugar10 oz currants10 oz dates1/4 tsp cinnamonL71SNA I figure to do this either tomorrow or the next day, wish me luck.

[cavman]

Looks good - but you will have only about 3.5 to 3.75 gallons there.

Yes I know I have another day to up the quantity, seeing as the time involved I think I will. Probably just increase the cider and honey, one more gallon of cider and 2# of honey would put me close to 5 gallons. I will do that unless any better ideas.

[cavman]

That sounds reasonable. Your proportions are about right, I was just wondering if you knew you would have an awkward volume.

I knew the volume was going to be akward, I just happened to grab 3 gallons of cider so built around that. Now I'm thinking I might as well just make close to 5 gallons, I'd hate to bev drinking this next year thinking I should have made more.

[EWW]

Looks nice...have you thought about using sticks instead of powdered spice?ETA- love all the cyser projects people have going on this year. We should plan a blue board swap in a year or so.

Edited by EWW, 13 October 2010 - 05:48 PM.

[cavman]

Made this today with the following recipe:4 gallons Cider8# Golden Blossom Honey1# Dark Brown sugar10 oz currants10 oz datesL71SNAJust realized I forgot the cinnamon I was going to add. The must smelled and tasted great, OG was 1.112.

[MtnBrewer]

L71? Do you mean 71-B? In any case, that looks pretty tasty. After it ferments and ages for a while, you can decide whether you want to add spices to it or not. Some prefer them spiced; other prefer without spices.

[cavman]

L71? Do you mean 71-B? In any case, that looks pretty tasty. After it ferments and ages for a while, you can decide whether you want to add spices to it or not. Some prefer them spiced; other prefer without spices.

Yes I meant 71-B

[Brian72]

I am actually going to make this same recipe either tomorrow or early next week. I have a pouch of D47 wine yeast but I'm unfamiliar with NSA. I've read through High Tests FAQ and there is some good advice there. Anyone else here who has done it mayeb can dumb it down for me a little? I'm a first timer with mead making so any advice I can get would be awesome!Sorry for the hijack!

[MtnBrewer]

The basic idea is that you're adding nutrients in more gradual increments instead of a big monolithic addition at the beginning of the fermentation. There are a lot of different profiles and I've tried most of them. They all seem to work well. Some people go so far as to tailor the addition schedule according to the type of mead and yeast variety. As far as I can tell, all the different ones work about as well as all the others. SNA tends to push the yeast past the published alcohol tolerance. For example, 71-B will hit 14.5-15% with SNA. That might not necessarily be a good thing. Although I always get very robust fermentations with SNA, I'm not convinced that it actually makes better mead. I do it anyway.

[Brian72]

The basic idea is that you're adding nutrients in more gradual increments instead of a big monolithic addition at the beginning of the fermentation. There are a lot of different profiles and I've tried most of them. They all seem to work well. Some people go so far as to tailor the addition schedule according to the type of mead and yeast variety. As far as I can tell, all the different ones work about as well as all the others. SNA tends to push the yeast past the published alcohol tolerance. For example, 71-B will hit 14.5-15% with SNA. That might not necessarily be a good thing. Although I always get very robust fermentations with SNA, I'm not convinced that it actually makes better mead. I do it anyway.

Wow, this is all very confusing. I should maybe stick to beer. Too bad I already bought all this cider and honey.....

[EWW]

Wow, this is all very confusing. I should maybe stick to beer. Too bad I already bought all this cider and honey.....

The simplist schedule for staggered nutrient additions is to add 1g DAP & 1g Fermaid K to the fermenter the first 5 days of fermentation. It's what I recommend to some of the local brewers when they ask me about mead making because you don't have to worry about taking gravity readings. I personally use hightest's sna schedule, but the one listed above is the simplist that works well.

[MtnBrewer]

Wow, this is all very confusing. I should maybe stick to beer. Too bad I already bought all this cider and honey.....

Can you explain what you find confusing? Cuz I thought I was actually simplifying it for you.

[cavman]

I kind of lost track of this in the back of the closet, so finally racked to secondary today. Everything smelled and tasted fine so not worried. FG was 0.998 down from 1.112 so right at 15%, I could definitely taste the alchohol in this. I am figuring to bottle it still, maybe try and carb up a couple to try it out.

[cavman]

Just pulled a sample of this tonight for the hell of it. Wow this is pretty amazing stuff, I can't wait to see how this ages.