Wild Mead

[Funky Frank]

Hey all you Funkin’ Funky Funkers! I did a spring check of my apiary this weekend and had a case of vanishing bees from 1 hive. No dead bees, no live bees, and tons of honey. My best guess is that unbeknownst to me they tried to swarm very late in the year after I tucked them in for winter. The majority of the honey stores were in very dark, clean, but gnarly looking brood combs.

I took 18 lbs of comb in 5 gal of room temp water and macerated the comb. I then transferred through a screen, added a year old pack of Nordic Ale yeast, 2 tabs of probiotic, a half ounce each of sarsaparilla, coriander, and mixed peppercorns, a tsp of tartaric acid, a splash of lemon juice, and a small handful of medium toast oak chips. Starting gravity 1.083

I intend to keep this completely dry and bottle carb it and then dump a simple blonde base on part of the cake if the mead has a nice funk.

Any critiques on what I’ve already done or suggestions for next steps?

 

[RPh_Guy]

I took 18 lbs of comb

Jealous! I love making mead.

2 tabs of probiotic

That's fine but don't expect it to be sour. The pH during mead fermentation is too low for the LAB to do anything; there's no buffering.

Starting gravity 1.083

I intend to keep this completely dry and bottle carb it

I'm not so sure the yeast you pitched will dry it out. The alcohol potential is over 10% and White Labs lists the blend as tolerant to somewhere between 5-10% ABV.

Will there be wild yeast that can finish it? Maybe, but I doubt it, especially with no added nutrients.

then dump a simple blonde base on part of the cake if the mead has a nice funk.

I would advise against pitching wort on a mead cake, especially with a questionable blend like this. It likely won't ferment particularly well. Simple sugar access has been repeatedly shown to alter the yeast metabolism so that they don't ferment wort very well afterwards. This is why we use wort starters for beer and not just sugar or juice.

Hope this helps.

 

[Funky Frank]

Since this was comb it had pollen stores that should act as nutrient and a low level buffer. I also did not add enough Tartaric Acid or lemon juice to get this acidity anywhere near normal mead fermentation levels. So do you think the LAB will still have trouble souring?

I am really taking a gamble on what, if any wild yeast was viable in that comb so I guess the final gravity and taste will be my tell?

I forget that yeast likes to get lazy when you feed it simple sugar. If this even turns into something fun, I’ll have to try babying it through a few starters with increasing malt and decreasing simple sugar.

If fermentation has problems along the way, I’ll add store-bought nutrient. If it finishes sweet, I’ll either just finish with Sorbate and Metabisulfite and bottle or I might try adding champagne yeast late in the game.

I hope it sours and funks or this post is very much in the wrong place!

Thanks for your input RPh!

 

[Miraculix]

If you are after wild mead,I don't understand why you didn't just water the honey down and left it alone. There is enough yeast in the honey/pollen/combs to get it going and it would have been unique.

You could have also created a starter by watering down a bit of the honey to a lower og and then adding it to the higher og must. Did that once, worked well.

Now you are in between a wild and a modern mead but won't get the best sides of either or.

 

[RPh_Guy]

I hope it sours and funks or this post is very much in the wrong place!

I'll be surprised if it does either, but anything could happen I guess.

 

[Funky Frank]

Here’s an update.

You could have also created a starter by watering down a bit of the honey to a lower og and then adding it to the higher og must. Did that once, worked well.

Now you are in between a wild and a modern mead but won't get the best sides of either or.

I really should have made a starter for the wild yeast and just used that if it turned out alright. But I had already pulled the comb and just wanted to move it. I am certainly in between modern and wild and may not get the best of either world but I might not get the worst of either world too. Modern meads can be very boring and we all know straight wild fermentations can easily go the route of vomit.

On to the update. A few days into fermentation things seemed to slow down earlier than what I expected (don’t remember the gravity) and it seemed sour. I added nutrient/energizer and fermentation kicked back up for a few days. Day 8 and fermentation had mostly stopped, pH was 3.1, and gravity was 1.025.

I bottled it yesterday. Gravity was 1.000, pH was 3.1, alcohol bite was mild but a little harsh. It was pleasantly tart. The major flavor was citrus which is probably the combo of the small amount of lemon juice, the coriander, the LAB, and maybe the wild yeast. There were undertones of floral, clove, pepper, and....horse blanket? I had my expert lambic taster (wifey) try it and she also got a touch of horse blanket. I left a small amount of mead exposed to oxygen and an impressive pellicle formed. I saved some lees in the fridge for now.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Awesome, sounds like a success.