Thanks again for the responses! I will take a look for Star San sanitizer and try to be more diligent about cleaning. Yeah, I probably wasn't even using soap & water first, and also hadn't thought about my "clean" tap water as possibly re-introducing contaminants. In regards to the yeast, I have easy access to three types of yeast: Red Star Champagne, Lalvin 71B-1122, and EC1118. I tried the 71B-1122 in my most recent batch, but haven't tasted it yet. All others had Red Star yeast. I will definitely give EC1118 a try.
As for batch ingredients/notes, here ya go! Try not to laugh too hard at the stupid mistakes I made (and actually kept in my notes below). Any feedback would be great. Keep in mind the first 3 batches were decent.
1st Batch Honey Maple Mead May 9th, 2010
4 lbs Clover Honey (from Sams Club)
3 quarts Maple Syrup (from Sams Club)
~1tsp of acid blend
1 packet of champagne yeast
Made 3 Gallons
July 2nd, 2010 (~8 weeks old) Bubbles around 90 seconds apart Transferred to second carboy
2nd Batch Honey Mead July 17th, 2010
17 lbs Basswood Honey (from Noble Bee Honey)
~2tsp of acid blend
5 tsp of yeast nutrient
1 packet of champagne yeast.
Made 5 Gallons
September 18, 2010 (9 weeks old) Bubbles around 115 seconds apart Transferred to second carboy
September 19, 2010 Bottled
3rd Batch Honey Mead September 25th, 2010
30 lbs Clover Honey (from Sams Club)
10 tsp of yeast nutrient
2 packets of champagne yeast.
Made 10 Gallons
<way too many notes to post on this one... but despite the many challenges, this batch was good!>
4th Batch Honey Maple Mead October 1st, 2010
3 ¾ lbs Clover Honey (from Sams Club)
3 quarts Maple Syrup (from Sams Club)
½ tablespoon of acid blend (meant to do ½ teaspoon oops)
1 packet of champagne yeast
Started with 1.5 gallons of water & brought to a boil. Added syrup & honey and boiled for 10 15 minutes. Also boiled another 5 or 6 quarts of water right away to let cool and add to carboy when needed.
Made 3 Gallons
Attempted to transfer to second carboy on December 28th, however had the same problem with too much air in the mead breaking the siphon. Mixed up the mead quite a bit to get a lot the bubbles out and tried again the following day.
December 29th, 2010 (over 12 weeks old) Transferred to second carboy.
July 24th, 2011 Bottled.
5th Batch Honey Mead May 21st, 2011
Ingredients
12 lbs Clover Honey (from Sams Club)
5 tsp yeast nutrient
1 packet of champagne yeast
Started with 4 gallons of water & brought to a boil. Added honey and boiled for 10 15 minutes. Added 5 Tsp (1 per gallon of must) yeast nutrient during the boil. After filling the carboy, I had to boil & add about 2 more quarts of water. This was probably due to some spill over during boil (oops!) and evaporation.
Made 5 Gallons
July 24th, 2011 Bottled.
6th Batch Honey Maple Mead May 28th, 2011
10 lbs Clover Honey (from Sams Club)
2 quarts Maple Syrup (from Sams Club)
½ teaspoon of acid blend
4.5 teaspoons of yeast nutrient (to use up the bottle)
1 packet of champagne yeast
Started with 3 gallons and 2 3/4 quarts of water & brought to a boil (5 gallons of water minus 3 1/3 quarts of honey (10 lbs honey = 3 1/3 quarts), and 2 quarts of maple syrup). Note, I put in 3 gallons & 2 3/4 quarts of water instead of 3 gallons & 2 2/3 quarts of water to make up for evaporation. Added syrup & honey and boiled for about 15 minutes. After cooling and moving to carboy, still came up a quart or 2 short on water Start with more next time.
Other notes:
Made 5 Gallons
Took about 35 minutes to bring the water to a boil
Took another 10 15 minutes to get back to boil after starting to add honey & syrup
Took about 10 minutes to chill the must with new copper chiller
July 24th, 2011 Bottled.
7th Batch Honey Mead August 7th, 2011
12 lbs Wildflower Honey from Noble Bee Honey.
5 teaspoons of yeast nutrient
5 teaspoons of yeast energizer
2 packets of champagne yeast
Started with 4 gallons and 1 quart of water & brought to a boil. Added honey and boiled for about 15 minutes. Stirred in yeast nutrient & energizer & cooled (did I cool or add yeast energy first?). Try to remember to cool first. Moved to carboy.
Made 5 Gallons
Stored this batch upstairs in the bedroom where its much warmer. Had very rapid fermentation for the first week or two. Went on vacation 8/15 8/19, and by the time I got back, it appeared to be done. Moved it downstairs around 9/3. Let it remain in carboy until 9/10, when I transferred to another carboy prior to bottling.
September 11th, 2011 Bottled.
8th Batch Orange Clove Mead August 7th, 2011
This one was terrible - I blame it on not having sanitized the oranges. Nothing more needs to be said about this batch.
9th Batch Blackberry Mead March 24th, 2012
3.5 Gallons boiled water
~17.5 lbs Clover Honey (from Sams Club)
3 lbs blackberries
3 teaspoons of yeast nutrient
3 teaspoons of acid blend
1 packet of champagne yeast
Started with 3.5 gallons of water & brought to a boil. I actually put 2 gallons in the brew pot and 1.5 gallons in the chili pot to get the water boiling quicker. I added water from chili pot into brew pot once it started boiling. Once all the water had boiled in the brew pot for a bit, I removed it from the heat and added in the honey, stirring to dissolve it. I then brought the heat back up (without boiling it) and let it cook stirring occasionally for 15 20 minutes. Next added blackberries and cooked for an additional 5 minutes (not boiling).
The Blackberries were prepped by rinsing them in hot water. Half the blackberries were put in the blender and pureed then moved to a bowl. Then the remaining blackberries were pureed. The blender & bowl were both sterilized with hot water prior to use.
Turned off heat, and then added the yeast nutrient and acid blend, stirring it in. Then I cooled the must to 80 degrees. Transferred must to 6 gallon carboy, adding prepped yeast to carboy, part-way through filling.
Prepped yeast by warming ¼ cup water in the microwave (~10-15 seconds), getting it to ~105 degrees. Then added yeast packet and stirred.
Added stopper to carboy and moved it to the bedroom, then put on airlock. Appears to be about 5 gal.
15 April 2012: Racked into different carboy, removing most of the seeds & chunks of fruit. Fermentation still going slowly bubble every 65 seconds.
23 April 2012: Left the carboy in the basement after racking, where its cooler than the bedroom (where it began its fermenting). Currently, bubbles are about 53 seconds apart (oddly faster than they were a week ago, though it is warmer this week than it was last week).
27 April 2012: Bubbles are about 90 seconds apart. Racked to a new carboy in the morning, in preparation for bottling. Bubbles about 2 minutes apart in the evening - bottled. Note that the mead was not at all clear, and there was a fair amount of carbonation. Moved bottles to basement shower in case they are bombs.
10th Batch Raspberry Mead March 26th, 2012
3 Gallons boiled water
~13.5 lbs Clover Honey (from Sams Club)
4.5 lbs frozen raspberries (from Walmart)
3 teaspoons of yeast nutrient
Juice from 3 oranges
Juice from 3 lemons
9 tablespoons of a strong brewed English Tea
1 packet of champagne yeast
Started with 3 gallons of water & brought to a boil. Once all the water had boiled in the brew pot for a bit, I added in the honey, stirring to dissolve it. I then brought it back close to a boil (adding the honey lowers the temp) and kept it there for 30 minutes. I turned off the heat and added the raspberries, orange & lemon juice, Tea, and nutrient. I left the cover on for a while to let the heat sanitize the fruit.
The raspberries were prepped by rinsing them in hot water. Half the raspberries were put in the blender and pureed then moved to a bowl. Then the remaining raspberries were pureed. The blender & bowl were both sterilized with hot water prior to use.
Then I cooled the must to 90 degrees (would have taken it down to 75-80, but my chilling coil was ruined from leaving it in bleach water had to put ice in another pot and hold it in the wort to chill). Transferred must to 5 gallon carboy, adding prepped yeast to carboy, part-way through filling.
Prepped yeast by warming ¼ cup water in the microwave (~10-15 seconds), getting it to ~105 degrees. Then added yeast packet and stirred.
Added stopper to carboy and moved it to the bedroom, then put on airlock. Appears to be about 4.5 gallons.
07 April 2012: Returned from SAC travel to find the fermentation had stalled (completed???). Note that the blackberry mead brewed 2 days earlier is still fermenting (bubble every 10 seconds or so). Raspberry pieces had all settled to the bottom, and no movement. Racked to new carboy (minus 95% of the sediment), added new yeast, and then left for Wisconsin for Easter. Returned the next evening and found it still inactive.
23 April 2012: Mead remained inactive (airlock never moved up at all!). Opted to bottle the mead. While bottling, there was a decent amount of bubbles in the line (not too many to break the syphon, but enough to give me hope that the mead will not be dead in the bottle). Used 29 of the 15.2 Oz Grolsch bottles (made approximately 3.5 gallons).
Batches 11 - 14 were for Cherry, Strawberry, Blueberry, and Pineapple - all of which also contain the rotten, or sour taste. If there's any desire, I can post my notes for those too, but those are even more lengthy and I figure I've probably bored any readers by this point!
On a different note, if anyone with a good tongue for diagnosing mead issues finds themselves in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, ping me for a taste test (I do have good stuff to share too!).