From Must to Mead: Dual of the Fates

This article is a continuation of my journey in creating my cyser- Applenoon Delight. This is part 2; you can read part 1 here. This article touches on yeast, contamination, and the start of fermentation. You can see my recipe for this mead at the bottom.

The title of the article has several implications. The first is to ensure that everyone knows I'm a huge geek, although I was a big Star Wars nerd growing up, I am not as much of a fanboy as I use to be, but I really enjoy that composition. Also, come on, that lightsaber fight was (insert high pitch nerd voice) epic. The other implication is the somewhat frailty of must before it becomes mead. So really just two The yeast has not created ethanol, which kills most harmful bacteria and fungi. I will try to cover this a bit more later. Brewer's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is part of the Fungi kingdom, but it is "good" fungi because it converts sugars into ethanol (alcohol). Fungi and bacteria that are outside the normal use in fermenting sugars to alcohol are considered harmful because they will ruin a batch of mead. They can create off flavors and odors. I have had this happen to me before, when I became a bit lackadaisical about my sanitation methods. It is one of the most depressing moments to taste all of your hard work and spit it out, thus throwing away 5 gallons of homebrew. However, there are preparations and precautions that can occur to prevent any type of contamination. Cleaning and sanitizing your equipment is imperative, but having your cleaning solution linger in your homebrew will contaminate it. There is a boundary between sanitation and sanitation-contamination. However, sanitation is key if you do a no heat must. The other way of creating must is through a boil. I use a no heat method for personal beliefs, but there is nothing wrong with the boil method. I will cover no heat versus heating methods later (I'm building up a lot of topics for "later").

So, I have created the must with 9 pounds of honey and 5 1/2 gallons of apple juice. My yeast culture had a day to grow in size and become active, they are warmed up for the big time. This is where I forgot to take my original gravity reading with the hydrometer. Remember the hydrometer lets you know the dissolved sugars in a solution, in our case must. I'm still kicking myself for this misstep. The original gravity and the terminal gravity (using the hydrometer) with a little formula can give you the mead's alcohol by volume (ABV) percent. Also, the original gravity tells you if yeast will be able to handle the level of alcohol. I am rarely concerned about this as I generally use yeast with a high alcohol tolerance. Plus, I used a relatively low amount of honey. Overall, it is good record keeping, and if there is a problem with the mead it can provide some useful diagnostic clues.

Some quick information about the yeast I use. I have been using White Labs since I first started brewing. I have used Wyeast brand yeast once will good results and a dry yeast once with poor results. This is not to say that these other brand/types are poor, I just do not use them. As my lunchlady in high school would say after asking what I wanted to eat, "Go with what you know, baby. Go with what you know." I still live by these words. The yeast for this batch is WLP775 English Cider Yeast, which has medium to high alcohol tolerance, and optimal fermentation temperatures is between 68-75 degrees F. This is really good in a hot state like Louisiana. I do not have a refrigerator anymore to control the temperature, and keep the must cool.

Before I put my yeast in the must, I added 1 teaspoon of yeast nutrient and 2 teaspoons of yeast energizer. I poured out some of the solution of the yeast starter, ensuring that yeast does not accidentally fall out into the sink. Then I poured the yeast into the must. Oxidation is critical for the yeast. Some people purchase oxygen injection kits, but I use the tried and true method of shaking the bucket or carboy around with the top open to get as much oxygen going through the must as possible- plus it is fun as long as none of it spills out. I capped the carboy and stored it in my room. The temperature gauge on the carboy is broken; therefore, I have no idea the temperature, but my apartment has been between 7o-75 degrees F. I do not like it getting close to the high end of the optimal temperatures, but I do not want my electric bill to be astronomical.

The cap on the carboy has a hole for the an airlock. The airlock allows for the release of carbon dioxide, and protecting the mead from containment agents. The airlock is filled with water or vodka. I usually use vodka, but I didn't have any lying around. The second or tertiary fermentation periods I use water for two reasons. The second and tertiary periods are aging periods, thus longer time between periods when I need to do anything. Vodka evaporates at a higher rate than water, and after primary fermentation the must is a mead with a high amount of alcohol. It can take care of itself.

The airlock (which indicates that the process has started) started bubbling within 12 hours. I believe this to be good signs. It is still going strong.

Quick review of mistakes/things I normally do but didn't:
1. Did not mix must well, and majority of honey is sitting at the bottom.
2. Forgot to take OG reading.
3. Didn't use vodka in the airlock.
4. A trick to keeping the homebrew cooled, is to place bucket/carboy in a pan, filled it with cool water, and drape a towel over the container, while touching the water. This allows for the cooled towel to draw out some of the heat off the fermenter. You don't want cold/icy water, as it may freeze the yeast and becoming dormant. Also, change towels because you don't want mold to start growing on them.

Recipe for Applenoon Delight:
9 lbs of Orange Blossom Honey
5 gallons of apple juice
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
2 teaspoons yeast energizer
White Labs English Cider yeast

Next post: Don't Concentrate Too Much

Applenoon Delight: The Journey Begins

In my previous post, I have mentioned that I have not brewed anything in about 3 years. However, of everything that I have brewed, I am the most proud of this mead, which I named Applenoon Delight. It is a Cyser mead. By the way, I was watching Arrested Development, where a particular episode inspired the name of this mead. Anyway, let's start off with the ingredients, and my beginning processes.

Ingredients:
Red Delicious Apples
Golden Apples
Fuji Apples
I only had enough apples to make 1 1/2 gallons of juice.
4 gallons of fresh pressed apple juice (store bought, but not made from concentrate)
9 pounds of Orange Blossom Honey
WLP 775 English Cider Yeast
Yeast Nutrients
Yeast Energizer
Light Dry Malt Extract (DME)

About 2 days before the main event, I create a starter yeast. I follow Ken Schramm's directions on this. Boil 6 cups of water with 1/4 teaspoon yeast energizer and yeast nutrient, and 1 tablespoon of DME for 5 minutes. Afterward, I add about 1/2 cup of honey. I always use the same style of honey so the yeast can acclimate better to the process. Quick chemistry lesson: yeast converts glucose (a sugar) into carbon dixoide and ethanol (alcohol). Honey, unlike beer does not have enough nutrients for yeast to florish as well, so nutrients are a big part of meadcrafting.

The yeast nutrient that I use contains food grade urea and ammonium phosphate. The yeast energizer contains diammonium phosphate (DAP), yeast hulls (Biotin), magnesium sulphate, and vitamin B comlex. I will discuss a little more on the nutrients later when I talk about the fermentation.

Before I began my process, everything is cleaned and sanitized. My girlfriend told me that she wished I cleaned everything as well as I do my brewing equipment. I responded that if everything provided such a delectable drink I would clean better. I think she won that argument. I clean with 5 Star PBW powder, and finish with iodine to sanitize. I'm pretty anal about this because I create a no heat must. A new word, cheers. Must is the concoction of honey and water before pitching the yeast and fermentation starts. In beer brewing this is referred to as the wort (pronounced wert).The yeast essentially eats the must to create mead. Who knew you would learn so much in one sitting? I'm sure you are retaining every piece of morsel-knowledge that I am providing.

I did not weigh the amount of apples I picked up. I knew I would not have enough to create the whole batch, but wanted some fresh pressed apples. You can see the number of apples I cut up at the top because I do not have an apple presser; rather, I used a juicer, which failed in the ability to "juice" a large number of apples. I tend to stay away from concentrate juice not because you can't use them, but it is a preference on my part. The fresher the better. One day, I hope to have an apple presser and create 5 gallons of all fresh apple juice.

I did create 5 1/2 gallons of juice before I added the honey. I have 60 lbs of Orange Blossom Honey, which you can see next to the carboy. I went all glass when I was a strictly brewing beer.

The main reason is that my buckets were ruined during one of the hurricanes of 2005. However, I wish that I had a bucket on this day because I made a "whoops." First, I used 9 lbs of honey, and poured it in through a cleaned/sanitized funnel. I do not create a hot must, which is where you heat water and add the honey to ensure to mix it together because I believe you cook away some of the honey flavor and aroma. Others believe that helping to rid of foreign or bad bacteria supersedes full integrity of the honey. I have never had a contaminated mead, so I'm sticking with anal retentive cleaning and no-heat must. Also, you have to cool down the mead, which has the possibility of becoming contaminated. Did I mention that the creation of the must and the first few days of fermentation are the most vulnerable? Well, now you know. Why is it the most vulnerable? The yeast has not created the alcohol yet to fight off bad bacteria.

Anyway, the reason that I wish I had a bucket is because of the picture below.
I forgot that the reason buckets are good for no-heat must is because I can use a cleaned/sanitized spoon to stir the water (or in this case apple juice) together with the honey. I tried as best I could to mix it but found it too difficult. You can clearly see the majority of the honey sitting at the bottom. Another mistake was that I forgot to take a reading on the OG before adding the yeast with my hydrometer. OG stands for original gravity before yeast is added to the must. The hydrometer tells me how much sugar is dissolved in the solution. Needless to say, but I have a need to say it, my reading wouldn't have been as accurate because of that bottom feeding of honey. This seems like a good place to stop for now. So we have our must ready for the roaring colony of yeast ready to take that sugar and make alcohol out of it.

What is Mead? Part 2

As I have stated before, if you are interested in brewing your own mead, Ken Schramm's The Compleat Meadmaker is your Bible. The styles of Melomel, Pyment, Metheglin, and Braggot are thoroughly discussed in his book, but I want to give a quick run down of some different styles, including the ones previously mentioned. This list is not entirely inclusive of all mead styles, but enough to give you an idea of the myriad of ways people create variations of mead.

Melomel is honey and fruit. There are a wide variety of fruits that people use together or separate. Some people will use concentrate juices, fresh fruit juices, or allow the fruit to ferment, sliced up, in a sack that sits in the mead. This can happen at any stage of the process, and will produce different results.

Cyser is apples and honey. This is probably one of my favorite styles of mead, and I'll be discussing this more in the coming post.

Morat is honey and mulberries.

Pyment is grapes and honey. This style is where the honey is the flavor that shines the most, although, I have never heard of a wine that used honey in the process.

Hippocras is honey, grapes, and spices.

Metheglin is honey and spices. This style can become very interesting at times with the various combination of herbs people put together.

Rhodomel is made with honey and Attar. Attar is just rose oil made from the petals. I have always been intrigued by this style. I have never had a glass of it, but maybe one year a great valentines gift it will make. Sorry, Yoda sometimes, unwittingly, slips in my writing, which does not provide a more sage prose; rather, makes me look like a kindergarten writer.

Braggot, sometimes called bracket, is barley and honey. Hops can be introduced. This is more about the honey, than the barley. This style demands for serious honey flavor and smell. I am currently working on a mead based on this style.

The last two are show and sack mead. Show refers to a traditional mead of water and honey. Sack is a stronger traditional mead. Sack mead is often achieved through the addition of extra honey during the fermentation process.

Within traditional mead, there are dry, semi-sweet, and sweet styles. In a latter post, I'll discuss more about the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP), whose guidelines are used for competition.

There are more styles, but without overloading this post with each one, I have selected some of the more widely created styles. A style that I really want to travel just to experience is Tej.Tej is an Ethiopian mead, fermented with wild yeasts with the addition of gesho. Recipes vary from family to family, with some recipes leaning towards braggot with the inclusion of grains. Gesho is a type of plant that is indigenous to Ethiopia.

I hope these past two post have given you some insight into the exciting world of mead. Next post will begin the log of my Applenoon Delight. If you haven't guessed, it is my Cyser.

What is Mead? Part 1

There is a simple answer to this questions. Mead is mead, as in beer is beer or wine is wine. Although some refer to mead as "honey wine," this would be inaccurate. The definition of wine is fermented grape juices. Mead is fermented honey. Tah dah, distinction. Most times when I mention mead people give me a quizzical look and ask, "Mead?" I interpret this as, "Please tell me of this 'mead' that you speak off, and please inform me in great detail, so as I can learn from you, oh Great Orator of Mead." However, since I am not a linguist/translator/interpreter, my discernment are somewhat inaccurate. The best answer is the simple one that I have provided- mead is fermented honey. If the person asks for more information, this is when the mead soliloquy occurs. And now you, the invigorated reader can read excerpts from my one-man show called "MEAD: A Choosers Choice Drink".

A Quasi Origin of Alcohol

Mead is one of the oldest forms of alcohol. Some say that it is in fact the oldest alocholic beverage. However, these people have less money, than corporations that brew beer and wine, which pay for confirmation that their beverage (i.e. beer, wine) is the oldest. I personally (poor man here) subscribe to the notion that mead is the oldest. I first read this theory in Ken Schramm's "The Compleat Meadmaker," which if you want are interested in Meadcrafting, buy and keep it next to you while you sleep in case osmosis is possible. This theory, for me, has gained more revelance as I read more about honey and beekeeping in Africa. I also refer to this theory as A Quasi Origin of Alcohol.

Imagine a primative, ancient Africa. Tribes are hunter-gatherers. Honey, and there is precendence in this theory, was looked on favorably as a source of food. They did not know at the time, but honey has minerals, like phosphorous, calcium, magnesium, and enzymes. What was probably noticed is that honey gave them energy, quenched thirst, and soothed upset stomachs. Something to note is that honey needs water, yeast, and an airtight container to ferment. Some people are thinking, "Aha, jars, they would have stored honey in jars. There are artifacts from Africa that have pictures of bees on them. You are a genius, Rob." Ok this is not my theory, but thanks for the kudos. Clay jars would not have been ideal for this process. There is a storage device that predates clay jars that would have been ideal for fermenting honey- animal skin water pouches. This next part is pure speculation, and some may be a bit reaching.

A group of hunter in ancient Africa go on a hunt for game. They come across a beehive in the middle of their hunt. Having a affinity for honey, the leader decides to empty some of his water out and fill the rest of it with honey for the men and the rest of the tribe. Yeast, bacteria, or both can ferment alcohol, but do not dispair once converted it isn't harmful (I will have a future post on how this creates alcohol). If it was, I would not be sitting here typing all of this out for you to read. Anyway, the leader does not drink out of his pouch, saving the honey for the other tribe members. He might not notice that his pouch is expanding, but every so often takes a quick sip of his honey (this lets out the carbon dixiode being built up in the pouch by the fermentation). At some point he realizes that after drinking his pouch after a couple of months, he feels warm and powerful. Maybe, even back home he provides some to his wife or wives and notices thatshe/they become uninhibited. The pouch is revered as a gift from a god, and they feed it honey (which is contiously fermented because of the yeast strain already developed from the first batch)to keep the god happy, and he/she rewards them with a elated feeling from the sacred pouch. There you go a brief history of the origins of alcohol. There are some stretches and many variables to this theory, but I think it is somewhat plausible. There is an Ethiopian style of mead called tej.
This concludes What is Mead Part 1. Stay tuned for What is Mead Part 2, where I'll be talking about some of the different styles of mead. Please feel free to comment.

Introductions

Hello People,

This is more of journal/experiment into blogging about a topic that is near and dear to my alcohol-induced heart- homebrewing. Specifically, I have come to enjoy the simplicity of meadmaking. Do not misinterpret this statement, meadmaking can be a very complex, rich experience, but to make a traditional mead, all you need is a bucket, honey, water, and yeast, but this in of itself can be complex. The complexity is exploring the myraid of types and styles, and it is in the details of how to create the most delicious, enjoyable drink you can. This first post is to give you some background on my own experiences in homebrewing and some (very soon) upcoming topics.

I received my first homebrewing kit in 2001. Over the years, I have made, contaimnated, enjoyed, sold, shared, and gifted many, many gallons of homebrewed beer. This is where I give credit to the man that showed the joy of homebrewing- Ben Doolittle. He introduced me to this concept of homebrewing. The idea that I could make gallons and gallons of tasty beer, in styles that I choose, and in some instances cheaper than store bought beer, was mind-blowing. I am not a beer (or any other type of alcohol) snob, but a drink with complexity, depth that just tastes really good is preferred over cheap drinks. I will not turn my nose up at a cold (insert American generic beer brand here), and have consumed mass quantities of it. Back to homebrewing, the process is one of the most relaxing and enjoyable processes. There is nothing like offereing a friend one of your homebrewed beverages, and not only enjoy YOUR creation, but becomes a spokesmen for it. The sharing aspect, knowing that I have produced something of quality that people enjoy is rewarding. The added benefit is making barrels and barrels of your brew to enjoy at home. I have pages and pages of notes on almost all of my brewing adventures, and will share it all here in the hope of helping some people.

This brings me to the point of this blog- MEAD!!! I took a 3 year hiatus from homebrewing because of graduate school and life in general. I have started my first batch about 4 days ago. I have pictures and notes chronicling the events. I will be periodically post pictures and bits of information on the process. In between the meadmaking process, I will try giving insights (don''t expect this too often), recommendations, information, stories, and answer any questions you have rumbling in that cranium. I am hoping to provide a, somewhat, useful blog for people interested in mead and meadmaking. Notice in that sentence, "people interested in mead." If you are not interested in meadmaking, but are intrigued by mead as a tasty beverage, there will be information in here for you as well. Some upcoming topics are "What is Mead?," "The Creation of Alcohol," "Mead Tasting," and "The Honey and the Bees" to name a few. If you have suggestions of topics you would like covered, please let me know.

Ground Rules and Expectations:
I am not a professional brewer, nor do I purport unwavering expertise. I am an enthusiast- that is all. I have not entered in any competitions, but plan in the future to attempt this challenge. Questions and comments are always welcomed. However, please make an effort to communicate clearly, do not whine for the sake of whining, and "flaming" without any sort of substance will be considered counter-productive and subsequently disregarded or removed. Also, if I don't know an answer, I will search my books, contacts, and the internet for as accurate answer as I can provide.

Stay tuned for the next post: "What is Mead?"