im am wanting to do 1 gal blueberry mead, i have 1.5 lbs of blueberries and 2 lbs of honey. Im thinking of boiling the blueberries and pressing and add the juice to the honey in the primary and trashing the remaining blueberry.
cool! seems to me like option A is more complicated due to the need to press the fruit, as opposed to just adding it as-is, but whatever works for youthank for the input, im leaning towards option 'A' for simplicity this time around.
so this gets a bit muddled, since folks can talk about two different but related things when they say "secondary": secondary fermentation vs. secondary fermentor.other question, regarding secondary. what exactly is it? still fermenting? do i add more sugar (fruits, honey)?
nutrients: you need them. honey and a little fruit juice will not contain enough nutrients for the yeast to complete the job (at least not well). as a starting point, look up "TOSNA" (tailored organic staggered nutrient addition). adding nutrients is the difference between having something drinkable in weeks, vs. months or a year+.any other things you think a beginner needs to know.
not until all fermentation is done. once your air lock produces no more bubbles, wait another 2-3 days, then you can cold-crash your mead: by putting in the fridge, or anywhere colder than it was for fermentation, the yeast will flocculate and other gunk (collectively known as lees) will drop to the bottom of your fermentor. the colder the mead and/or the longer you wait = the clearer the mead. when you're ready to package, carefully rack the mead off the top and leave the lees behind.when should i refridgerate my mead?
Using dead yeast as a nutrient is pretty easy, add it to some water (a cup or so) and then bring to a boil for a minute or so. Let it cool completelyQuestion on nutrients, can i use the lees or yeast tcake as an added nutrient, is it helpful? if so how would i do it?
how much sugar you have left in your brew. we measure sugar as gravity, so think of it as how many points you have left. for example, if your OG 1.090, your one-third sugar break would be at 1.030.what is sugar breaks?
depends on the recipe and your personal preferenceswhat is the desired end gravity?
1. fermenting too hot and lack of nutrients can both lead to hot alcohol flavor. aging helps. before the adoption of nutrients and temp control by homebrewers, it was common to ferment a mead then wait a year or more for it to "age out", i.e. lose all the off-flavors caused by those poor fermentation practices... but thanks to temp control and nutes, we're now ready to drink it in weeksMore beginner questions.
1. First mead had a hot alcohol taste. Is that from lack of aging (i racked and refridgerated, and drank) or nutrients or something else?
2. I have bentonite for clearing if needed. Read somewhere that you can add bentonite at the same time as pitching the yeast. True?
1. Hot alcohol taste is normal in a young mead. Age will cure this. What you are looking for is the absence of bad or off flavors.More beginner questions.
1. First mead had a hot alcohol taste. Is that from lack of aging (i racked and refridgerated, and drank) or nutrients or something else?
2. I have bentonite for clearing if needed. Read somewhere that you can add bentonite at the same time as pitching the yeast. True?
Probably take a bit to age. You might add some additional Blueberry concentrate to bump the flavor- update -
i added the bentonite and cold crashed and rack it today. looks great, nice and clear but not very tasty.
going to try to let it rest for a couple months if i can.
My other 2 gal starter i did 1 gal cinnamon apple in secondary and 1 gal traditional.
that is a downside of pressing and only using the juice, vs. soaking the whole fruit: you're essentially throwing away a lot of the berry flavor by only using the juice. and on the whole, blueberries aren't the strongest flavored berry to start with... but definitely give it some time, some other flavors might subside creating more space for the berries to shine through.but not very tasty.
i have a little over 5 lbs of frozen blueberries i was thinking about a wine or something. any ideas or anyone have a recipe they would like to share?that is a downside of pressing and only using the juice, vs. soaking the whole fruit: you're essentially throwing away a lot of the berry flavor by only using the juice. and on the whole, blueberries aren't the strongest flavored berry to start with... but definitely give it some time, some other flavors might subside creating more space for the berries to shine through.
thanks for the update!
I used about 8 lbs per gallon in mine that came put with a very nice wine character.i have a little over 5 lbs of frozen blueberries i was thinking about a wine or something. any ideas or anyone have a recipe they would like to share?
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