In which Ricky the Meadmaker answers questions about acid blend, yeasty tasting mead, a cheaper honey source, fusel alcohol, and more!
Honey Primer
In the classic Sidney Poitier film In the Heat of the Night, it was so unseasonably cold during the shooting that they had to chew on ice chips between takes so that the fogging of their breath wouldn't distract from the veracity of the film. This is a fact I learned from my father who was a classic film expert, and I thought it was a little fact that I can just store in the back of my brain and bring out at parties. I never thought it would be germane. It's very cold in Vermont right now.
Welcome to Ask the Meadmaker, where I, Ricky the Meadmaker answer your questions about mead making, mead drinking, mead brewing, and really any question you're willing to send to me.
Our first question this week comes from Laughing Dragon Meadery, who wants to know what acid blend is and how is it used in mead. Acid blend is exactly what you think it is, unless you were part of the drug scene, late 60s to early 70s, in which case, it's very much not what you're thinking. But acid blend in winemaking, meadmaking, and on rare occasion beer making, is a combination of chemicals that, when added to water, release their hydrogen ions, creating an acid, and bringing the pH down. The difference between something like pure citric acid and acid blend is acid blend tends to give a more complex and balanced acidity. Whereas citric acid is really just used for adjusting the pH. So, if you have a mead that lacks that very difficult to define term, “brightness,” a little bit of acid blend can go a long way.
Our next question comes from Mark in Poland, and he's having a problem which is that he lives in Poland, which is not generally speaking a problem. It is a problem for Mark, who likes American craft mead, so he keeps flying over here, buying a bunch, taking it back, and then drinking it all. So, he has decided what he is going to do is he is going to make it himself, which is arguably vastly less expensive than his current system. The problem he's running into is it's too yeasty. He's tried different yeast; he's tried different nutrients. Should he rack it off the yeast, siphon it off, then put it back into a vessel then carbonate it? The answer is, chances are very good that that yeasty flavor is actually coming from too little yeast. The healthier the fermentation, which means more yeast, the less yeasty flavor you usually get. This has to do with the way that yeast uptakes things out of solution and puts them back in when it's under stress.
Our next question comes from Cody, and I am 95% certain I know what he's asking but there is a 5% chance that I absolutely, positively don't. I think he has a fermentation-chamber-ready chest freezer. Basically, he has a chest freezer. He wants to add a heating element of some sort and a temperature controller to maintain this temperature up and down. The reason I'm confused is he says he has a half chest freezer. So, I don't know if this was like some terrible white elephant gift you got. If you cut a chest freezer in half, the coils wrap around it, it just wouldn't work. So, if that is what you have, throw it away. If it's not what you have, go for it.
Ian is having trouble making mead only because it's getting too expensive. He wants to use raw honey, but raw honey is costly, and he wants to know how to get cheaper raw honey that's still very good. As he says garbage, in garbage out. So, the answer is make friends with a beekeeper.
Our last question comes from Colin, and Colin, I'm confused about your question. You said, "I used 76 ounces of mead in a gallon-and-a-half batch." And I don't know what that means. But there is a part of your question that does make sense and that is that you used D47 and it's off to the races. But your hydrometer said that you're expecting 22% alcohol, which is extremely high. And you want to know is there any way to prevent fusels. Fusels are alcohols that are unpleasant to humans. Fusel alcohol is actually redundant. It's German for bad-tasting alcohol. But probably not. A lot of fusel production happens early on. And as the alcohol content gets higher, so it's possible just pouring more yeast in there will help. But once fusels are produced, there's not much you can do to get them back out, short of distilling it, which is unfortunately illegal in the United States. So, the good news is if you live somewhere else, or have no respect for the law of the land, there is an option for getting fusels out of your mead. Otherwise, cross your fingers and give it to your most intoxicated friends.
That was our last question this week. Keep sending them and I'll get to them as soon as possible. Cheers.
