Month: november 2014

I have been planning this for a while so now it is time to try. The use of Oak is praised on pretty much every page talking about oak and mead so I have to try it out too. I purchased 250 g of American Oak chips which should give taste quickly, though less complex. Other options would be French or Eastern European oak. French should give a more complex Oak taste but should also be able to over power a mead quickly. Eastern European oak should release taste slower and the taste should be much less intense. With absolutely no experience with oaking mead I figured the American oak […]

After finishing up with the cyser I just did a check on the currant mead. Oe: 26 (OK)pH 3.45 (Uh, somewhat lower than I wanted) The color is great – bright red – and not pink that I was initially afraid of since the amount of juice was quite limited. It has also cleared quite well already. I need to lift pH a bit which I will do with potassium carbonate. I just need to test how much to add. Finally I covered the mead with a layer of CO2 (See “CO2 generator” under Knowledge Tools), sealed the lid, and attached the airlock.

When I did the back sweetening I noticed that a layer of solids up to the 5 L mark of the fermenter. When I poured in the currant juice there was plenty of solids in there (cellulose?) which I also observed shortly after juicing the berries. I figure the yeast would break these solids down during the fermentation. This did apparently not happen :o( Also, I did not see a the thick layer of yeast at the bottom even though the top liquid had cleared. I guess that the yeast adhered to the solids to make a fluffy bottom layer that just did not sink below the 5 L mark. […]

It seems like the fermentation is still going but at a very slow rate. I measured the gravity to just 1.002 so this is likely part of the reason. I am surprised that my Sweet Mead Yeast has pretty much used the entire amount of sugar – Sweet Mead my a.. :o). Tasting the mead, it has plenty of acidity and a slight taste of red currant. The smell and flavor of the black currant is gone, but the color of the mead is fantastic – a strong light red color.  This is something to remember – use one third red currant for acidity and two thirds black currant to […]

In the afternoon Saturday the 1st of November I took out the currant juice from the freezer. The juice was prepared this summer as described HERE. It is the steamed juice of red currant and black currant from the  ribes bushes in our garden. The volume is about 3.5 L and consist of approximately 1.25 L of red currant juice, and 2.25 L of black currant juice Sunday the 2nd of November In the morning I checked that the juice had thawed and the temperature was just below room temperature. I emptied the juice into a clean fermenter and then I just racked the batch onto it, stirred a bit, […]

I continued to monitor the gravity, pH and temperature after the last addition. All measurement were done in the evening so that the intervals between measurements were as close to 24 hour as possible Thursday the 30th of OctoberSg: 1.040pH: 3.69Temp: 23.6 C Friday the 31th of OctoberSg: 1.022pH: 3.68Temp: N.A. Saturday the 1st of NovemberSg: 1.010pH: 3.70Temp: 22.7 C So how does this SNA batch compare with the cyser. When plotting the gravity readings you get I called it Sack as the currant juice has not been added yet, so as of now it is produced as a Sack mead. It is very clear what with Staggered Nutrition Addition […]