owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca
Started making mead a couple months ago, and I’ve done a few small batches now (pictured are batches 5, 6, and 7). A couple of beginner questions:
- Adding Fermaid O – for those that use it, do you dissolve it in something before adding it? It clumps like hell if I add it directly. The package just says to add it, doesn’t give a method. Today I tried dissolving it in a small pull from each batch, but it felt like a lot of work. I was going to just dissolve it in some (unchlorinated) water when I add it tomorrow. What do y’all do for that?
2: With my very first batch, the first time I added the nutrients I got with my kit, I earned my carboy-overfloweth badge (a gentle shake resulted in a delightful fountain display). I bought Fermaid O for subsequent batches, and I’ve gotten no significant reaction when adding it, even after a shake. Should I be getting more of a reaction?
- Sanitizing–once something is sanitized, like a spoon for instance, do you think it’s okay to rinse it with tap water and set it on a paper towel, then use it again? Or in a more general sense, are a few drops of tap water going to affect a gallon of mead significantly?
Thanks!
BlueEther@no.lastname.nz 4 hours ago
Hi and welcome to the rich world of mead brewing.
As I type this I have a dry hopped manuka sparkling mead in my hand.
I use Fermaid AT and just dump it in
anything that has a lot of CO~2~ in it will degas if you give it lots of nucleation points (ie dump a pile of powder in it) degassing first will help with that
I sanatise too much (mostly just the brewing vessel, airlocks etc) Most other stuff (stainless steel) is rinsed under tap water. Honey is already full of yeasts* and stuff, so unless you are doing metabisulfite 24h before pitching yeast there will always be stuff in there already
Thanks for the feedback!
Yeah I’ve been thoroughly degassing and oxygenating before adding nutrients, I probably didn’t that first time (I don’t remember if it erupted on pitch day or the next day, might have been the latter).
Haven’t been brave enough for a wild ferment yet, but I’ll probably try before too long.
micgerne@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 hour ago
pretty much all my ferments are done with wild yeast, it’s really not that much different from doing it normally. It can sometimes take longer though, I’ve currently got a quince cider that’s been going for 6 months now and the airlock is still bubbling.