All equipment was first washed thoroughly and then sterilized with an iodine solution.
I started by adding 7 L of water to my 15 L pot and began bringing it to a boil.
The original recipe use 6.8 kg (15 lps) of honey to about 19 L (5 gallons). Since I will end up in 20 L then the mass of honey need to be scaled up to 7.2 kg. The honey was weighed out in two bowls.
My yeast, Bioferm killer, goes up to 16% ABV whereas the original recipe used Lalvin 71b-1122 which goes to 14%, so I would expect my mead to be a bit more dry even though I also expect my honey to be quite low on water. I still need to get this measured, but so far I estimate 15% water.
I placed the pot on a stool and the fermentor on the floor and just poured the solution into the fermenter with as much splashing as possible to oxygenate the solution – and yes, the floor and cupboards need a wet cloth for a quick clean-up afterwards. The volume of the must added up to almost 12 L and I topped up the fermenter to 20 L with cold tap water.
Next morning the temperature was only 23oC so it was time to spike yeast and nutrients. 4.2g of Wyeast “yeast nutrition” was mixed with about 0.5 dl of 32oC warm water. Afterwards the 7g of yeast was hydrated also in about 0.5 dl of 32oC water. Both solutions were added to the must after 15 min.
While the solutions were left to hydrate, the density was measured to 1.120 with hydrometer (this was the max of the scale of the one I have). pH was also measured with strips to about 6. The optimal pH for wine yeasts should be around 4 so 35 g of citric acid was added which lowered the pH to somewhere between 3 and 4.
Actually I initially added 25 g and measured pH to around 5 after stirring. So I added another 10 g. Then it dawned upon me that it takes some time for the citric acid crystals to dissolve so I stopped any further additions. After the yeast and nutrition was added I waited about one hour and measured pH again and got the result above. I was aiming at pH 4 which I think would have been just perfect with addition of the initial 25 g – shit happens and yet another lesson learned.
Now all was ready and the lid was sealed. The airlock was filled with a bit of water and the entire fermenter covered in a black plastic bag. Now it is time to wait for the happy bubbling to begin – again :o)