Simple Mead in a Hot Climate

[DonMoleon]

Try a web search to find a local winery.
http://travel.cnn.com/bangkok/play/week ... urs-470613
Maybe they would share some yeast nutrient with you or tell you where you could get it.
From the books I skimmed looking for a home remedy for yeast nutrient most said honey
had the least (compared to grapes and barley) and needed it the most for a good fermentation.
Good luck and let us know what you find.

That' a great suggestion. Unfortunately the nearest winery is 2-3 hours away and I don't have the time to make such a long trip for such a meager effort in mead making. Maybe I can have my wife call them and ask if there's anything I can buy here in Bangkok (my Thai is good, but not at the level where I can discuss complex subjects like wine/mead making). I was actually up in that area last month. I wish I had thought about it while I was there! Next time I'm there I'll be sure to see if I can get some good nutrients (and more importantly, good yeast!)

BTW, I added approx. 0.5g of dead baker's yeast to each batch last night. When I checked this morning it looked like the yeast picked up in activity a little in the clementine batch, but not as much in the mangosteen batch. Why do you think one is thriving more than the other, considering I have treated them both exactly the same this whole time, the only difference being the fruit added (perhaps I should mention that there is slightly more fruit in the clementine batch as well)?

[DonMoleon]

I checked on the meads last night and was happy to see that the clementine batch is now at 9.9% and the mangosteen is up to 8.5%...

It looks like the dead yeast nutrients have kicked it back into gear!

Thanks again for everyone's help.

[DonMoleon]

I'm going to rack the mead to a secondary tomorrow, and I would like to know if I should just add more fruit and leave it alone for the next year, or if I need to monitor the gravity and kill the yeast at some point?

The clemetine mead is at 11% now and the mangosteen is slightly below 10%. I would like them to be sweet, so I don't want them to get too much stronger...

[Ozwald]

If you add more sugars in the form of fruit, you're going to get more yeast activity & more alcohol. It won't necessarily affect the perceived sweetness, however, since you're bumping up the original gravity & likely the finishing gravity as well. I would just let it age & forget about it for a while. Don't follow the %ABV, follow the gravity numbers. For example an OG of 1.060 finishing at 1.007 is going to give you 7%. An OG of 1.067 finishing at 1.014 will also give you 7%. Those 2 beers are going to be so far apart on sweetness, mouthfeel, etc. that the 7% really isn't telling you, or us, anything at all.

[DonMoleon]

So then I should hold off on racking to a secondary and adding fruit, and rather just keep it in the primary and continue adding nutrients periodically? I don't know how much more my crappy baker's yeast can handle before quitting on me...

At what point should I put it in the secondary?

FYI my OGs were 1.129 and they are currently around 1.044 and 1.054

[Colville]

Hi. resurrecting an old thread for my first post - sorry...
But:

@ DonMoleon. I am also in Thailand - Hua Hin - and looking to start mead in the near future. Perhaps also cider. Can you comment on solutions you have found to the environmental heat problem over the time? How effective they are, and things you have learned *not* to do. By all means start a new thread (mods?), but any lessons you have learned that you are willing to pass on will save me time and probably expense.

Thanks is advance.

[DonMoleon]

Hi. resurrecting an old thread for my first post - sorry...
But:

@ DonMoleon. I am also in Thailand - Hua Hin - and looking to start mead in the near future. Perhaps also cider. Can you comment on solutions you have found to the environmental heat problem over the time? How effective they are, and things you have learned *not* to do. By all means start a new thread (mods?), but any lessons you have learned that you are willing to pass on will save me time and probably expense.

Thanks is advance.

Thanks for reminding me to update this thread. It's been almost two years since my mead experiment using bread yeast.

In sum, I let the mead sit in a dark, warm area (temp fluctuations of 78-90F each day) in my bedroom for about 16 months then bottled it a few months ago (the mangosteen was much better than the orange, so I blended them together). The result was a very sweet, 15% ABV, concoction that I would not consider a success, but it was drinkable nonetheless. I personally noticed a bit of a bready character from the yeast, but the sweetness of the honey overwhelmed all other flavors. I found that women tended to like it because of the strong honey flavor, and most people could handle a glass or two late in the evening, after their taste buds were a bit less picky. My suggestion for you would be to try this recipe out if you aren't too fussy about what you consume, but like anything, the better conditions and ingredients you can provide your mead the better it will turn out. There's a lot more sources for brewing ingredients in Thailand now then there were even just 2 years ago, so that should help.

During this experiment I actually got my hands on some Llavelin (sp) wine yeast during a US trip, and I picked up 9kg of lychee honey on a trip to Chiang Mai soon after. I made a 5 gallon batch (no boil) and gave this batch a lot more TLC, fermenting at ideal temps (around 67F) for about 4 weeks in primary (feeding it yeast nutrient for the first few days), then transferring to a secondary carboy where it received a couple more weeks of proper treatment before moving it into the warm bedroom where I plan to keep it for at least 8 months. Hopefully the warm temp swings won't have too much of a negative impact on the end product, but I am certain that it will turn out much better than the "bread mead."

I should also note that I recently converted a small commercial fridge into a ferm chamber, so all of my brewing efforts (mainly beer) are done in that now. Gone are the days of using air conditioned bedrooms. I suggest you do the same. The money you save on your electric bills alone will make it a great investment, not to mention the overall quality of your mead / cider / beer.

[Colville]

Hi DonMoleon

Many thanks for the speedy reply( - and to the mods for clearing me to contribute!)

16 months sounds a terribly long time to have the fermenter going. I have read up on nutrients for yeast in Mead, and the Blue Flame suggests Calgon (Calcium, potassium etc.). I have also seen grapes / raisins, citrus peel and charred toast suggested as nutrient sources. What have you tried that made a difference?

The small fridge idea sounds good. Do you vent it to the outside somehow? What happens if you are away for a long period. Do you have some way of keeping the temperature stable? I assume the fermenter gives off some heat in the first place, but a refrigerator on normal speed would probably shut fermentation down to a crawl.

I have a 'light desert wine' yeast which I brought with me precisely for the purpose of doing mead - it should be more tolerant to the sugar than the bread yeast would be and ought to ferment out more fully. I am hoping to create / start and split a culture from it using 50% the first time and chilling the rest for the future.

best regards,

Colville. HH.