Simple dumb beginner questions...

[CeeKay]

So, I've only brewed a few batches of mead before, mostly following the JAO recipe (minus the orange for reasons that still escape me, but it still turned out pretty decent).... This year, I got a ton and a half of apples and a 6-gallon carboy! So, the plan is to make an apple cider tea kinda flavored mead (cyser, I guess it's called?).

First, I would like to primary ferment in a carboy, since it's clear and will allow me to see exactly where my brewing cakes end up (a friend who did a few batches of beer played hell with keeping the gunk out), and avoid them with the transfer hose when it goes into the secondary fermenter... Also, I did my very first modified JAO in the plastic water jug, but the second batch I did in an empty glass gallon wine jug and found that it had a "cleaner" (for lack of a better term) taste..... Is there any particular reason brewers tend to use plastic buckets for their primary and then a carboy for secondary, besides the cost of 6-gallon glass containers (and of course the clean-up)?

Second, I've got a very makeshift recipe in my head, but always welcome other input! I plan to use about 10-20 apples (they're small apples) depending on how "full" it looks, some (I think I got 6 or 8 tea bags' worth) apple cider tea, 5lbs raw honey, maybe a bit of white sugar, depending on the flavor of the precursor... Any other fruits I should be looking into? Was thinking maybe a few cherries or white grapes for a bit of a palate tickle?

Finally, computing bottles for the end product is a bit confusing... I plan to bottle into 12oz beer bottles, but exactly how many oz does a 12oz bottle hold, if one leaves an inch, give or take, in the neck? Is it 12oz to "full", or 12oz to the cap? Further, from 6gal, approximately how much is waste? By the raw numbers, in a perfect world, I'm looking at 64 bottles per 6gal, but thanks to the laws of physics, it's going to compute differently.... I guess what I really need is, is the waste from 6gal going to equal the inch in the neck of 64x 12oz bottles, give or take?

Thanks!

 

[RPh_Guy]

Is there any particular reason brewers tend to use plastic buckets for their primary and then a carboy for secondary, besides the cost of 6-gallon glass containers (and of course the clean-up)?

When fermenting a mead, good processes often involve degassing the mead one or more times daily and adding staggered nutrient additions.

The extra space in a bucket prevents the mead from overflowing while you're degassing.
When the yeast settle down toward the end of fermentation, we transfer to a secondary with less headspace in order to avoid oxygen.

Second, I've got a very makeshift recipe in my head, but always welcome other input! I plan to use about 10-20 apples (they're small apples) depending on how "full" it looks, some (I think I got 6 or 8 tea bags' worth) apple cider tea, 5lbs raw honey, maybe a bit of white sugar, depending on the flavor of the precursor... Any other fruits I should be looking into? Was thinking maybe a few cherries or white grapes for a bit of a palate tickle?

There's no limit to what you can put in there. I would not use table sugar though, since it doesn't add desirable flavor.
That said, your own recipe creation may be hit or miss since you don't have much experience.

Finally, computing bottles for the end product is a bit confusing... I plan to bottle into 12oz beer bottles, but exactly how many oz does a 12oz bottle hold, if one leaves an inch, give or take, in the neck? Is it 12oz to "full", or 12oz to the cap?

1 gallon in the fermenter will yield about 10 12oz bottles, using standard bottling processes (fill to top with a bottling wand and then remove the bottling wand).

Further, from 6gal, approximately how much is waste?

That depends on your recipe and process. More racking creates more waste. Some ingredients also create more waste than others, especially whole fruit.

Hope this answers all your questions.
Cheers!

 

[CeeKay]

When fermenting a mead, good processes often involve degassing the mead one or more times daily and adding staggered nutrient additions.

The extra space in a bucket prevents the mead from overflowing while you're degassing.
When the yeast settle down toward the end of fermentation, we transfer to a secondary with less headspace in order to avoid oxygen.

Will most definitely look into the degassing and supplemental nutrient thing. Thanks!

I would not use table sugar though, since it doesn't add desirable flavor.

The sugar thing is mostly just a little extra sweetness (a sort of "if absolutely necessary, but otherwise and most likely probably not" type of thing), though with 6lbs of raw, unfiltered, North Dakota prairie honey going into the soup, I don't think I'll really need to add much, if at all...

Also, I read somewhere years ago that one can add a bit of table sugar as yeast food to potentially bump up the abv by like a half of a percent, though I don't much care about the alcohol content so much as the flavor; I'd rather have a nice drink than a strong one...

That said, your own recipe creation may be hit or miss since you don't have much experience.

Not too worried. It's a pretty simple science; people have been brewing for thousands of years, and only in the past few hundred have we started writing down and measuring out exact recipes... The worst that could happen is it develops a strong flavor of one of the components, though with 6lbs of honey, I've got a ways to go before I start overpowering other additional flavors...

1 gallon in the fermenter will yield about 10 12oz bottles, using standard bottling processes (fill to top with a bottling wand and then remove the bottling wand).

That depends on your recipe and process. More racking creates more waste. Some ingredients also create more waste than others, especially whole fruit.

Hope this answers all your questions.
Cheers!

Yeah I kinda figured it would largely come down to how much fruit chunk I put in... Though, I've found that 2x24-packs of 12oz's and 1x12-pack of 16oz flip-tops equals my 768oz planned batch, so I'll probably end up with a few unused 12's. And, I'll be able to use the cool 16oz flip-tops for that little bit of extra awesomeness.

Thanks!

 

[RPh_Guy]

I agree "it's a pretty simple science", but you don't yet understand how to make a sweet mead.

JAOM finishes sweet because the alcohol potential of 3.5lbs/gal of honey exceeds the alcohol tolerance of the yeast.

A mead with 1lb/gal honey will finish bone dry and you may be surprised how little honey flavor remains at that point.

There are also other ways to make a sweet mead like fermenting dry, stabilizing, and then backsweetening.

Hope this makes sense.

 

[Saunassa]

From what I learned making mead the addition of white sugar will not make it sweet. It will just be a fermentable since you are using such a minimal amount of honey per gallon. As stated above bone dry.
I make mine using 6# of honey and 2 gallons of water. Comes out like a semi-dry white wine. Just enough sweetness to balance the alcohol and also have honey flavor. I don't back sweeten and I used priming drops for the gallon I added hops to for a slight fizz.

 

[RPh_Guy]

If there's residual sweetness when fermentation completes, you can't carbonate by adding sugar.

... You lower the ABV with dilution, so the yeast can eat the priming sugar and whatever sugar is left over? That's a very risky approach.

 

[Saunassa]

Yeah, used one drop in the 16oz flip top. No fizz at all.

By dilution do you mean that I only used 3# of honey for 2 gal of water with Lalvin 71b yeast? Looked back in notes and fg was 1.002 even though it tastes much sweeter.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Oh, nevermind. I misread your post, sorry.
I blame the alcohol.