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Beginner Questions (lemmy.ca)
submitted 2 weeks ago by to c/homebrewing@sopuli.xyz
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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:

  1. 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?

  3. 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!

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[–] 5 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Hello and welcome to the club, buddy!

  1. I'm all for slow-release nutrients, not mixing it in thoroughly might actually be a good thing; I dump whole almonds as nutrient source, those have no chance of dissolving at all and they work perfectly. Yeast with too easy access to nutrients misbehaves - like any fertilizer, it's too easy to overdo.
  2. Same here; yeast metabolism has nothing on the timescale of overflow event. What often happens, dissolved gas un-dissolves on nutrient addition because of salinity change. Nutrients are fertilizers essentially, common nutrients are something like pretty much inorganic salts that dissolve instantly, smarter products like Fermaid are supposed to be proper large organic molecules or even chunks of dead cells that metabolize slowly and almost do not dissolve, thus no salinity change and no gas evolution. That's good, rapid salinity changes are harmful for cells too.
  3. That really depends on quality of water. In Texas, I used only bottled water; here in Finland I don't even boil tapwater that goes into mead, room temperature all the way. Besides, sanitationrequirement is connected to yeast health and vigor - it isn't easy to infect fresh angry starter, yeast population running at full speed would devour all life in its wake given enough energy supply. Especially if it's good strain (seeing Fermaid I suppose you are Lallemand fan, their yeast is especially good at killing competition). Those fruits in fermentation are not really sterile either, right?
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  • [–] [S] 1 point 2 weeks ago (1 child)

    Thanks for the input! I actually froze the fruit before adding it (both to kill as much bacteria as possible as well as breaking down the cell walls for better infusion). I don't know that it counts as "sanitizing" to freeze it, but I read somewhere that it helps. I'm using Lalvin D47 currently, seems easy enough to get going aggressively.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 weeks ago

    Freezing does not help much with life that has any chance of surviving the yeast onslaught; the only thing it probably does - it slows cell development down to about same amount of time it takes dry yeast to wake up, thus with a starter you get more of head start for the good guys, and that's all that you really need. Freezing also often results in better sugar availability, as some plants (well I suppose berries mostly) trigger sugar conversion on overwintering naturally. D47 is good for fruits, I maintain its descendant in a pure culture and it's one of my favorites for mead.

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