In which Ricky the Meadmaker answers questions about vinegar smells, pitching lots of yeast, when to add fruit for a melomel, alternatives to yeast nutrient, getting a job in the brewing industry, and more!
I may not have sets. I may not have a soundstage. I am a man who has many different chairs to sit in.
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.
Both John and Dennis had the same problem, or they wanted to know if it was a problem. Their airlock, a bubble lock, smelled like vinegar during the start of their mead fermentation. The first couple days were okay. And then an intense vinegar aroma. They'd heard of sulfur, but is vinegar okay? The answer is No, probably not. You probably have Acetobacter in there. You might make a great mead vinegar. We actually have a caterer who makes a mead vinegar and donates it back to the mead hall for special events and it's fabulous. So, if that's what you're after, you might be on your way to an excellent product.
The next question comes from Todd who wants to know why, if my starting gravity is so low, I pitch so much yeast. And the answer is more yeast is almost always better, regardless of your starting gravity. You can't really over-pitch yeast.
Huda apparently lives in a part of the world where wine shops and beer stores are not forthcoming. So, the question is, if I can't get nutrients and tannins and things like that, is there a hack for it? The answer is probably. That's a really good question. The idea of putting tea in for tannins was a really good one and already presented, but I bet all of you know how to hack those things better than I do because I do not live in a world where I have to forego nutrients. So, if you have something, put it in the doobly doo below, and I hope Huda comes and reads it.
Our next question comes from Michael, who wants to know my quote, beautiful, professional opinion. If you want to get your question answered on Ask the Meadmaker, I guess call it a beautiful, professional opinion. Anyway, the question is about fruit in meads. Michael wants to know whether I would, A, add fruit during primary, B, add during secondary, C, add fruit juice back to sweeten or, four, do all of them because you can't decide like I chose to do initially. The answer is number one, I love that you wrote ABC, four, because I do that all the time when I'm writing articles and have to go back and fix it. I appreciate that you didn't though in this rare typo case. It depends on the fruit. So, some fruits really should go in at the beginning of fermentation because they're going to add so much sugar that you're not going to be able to help back sweetening if you add them later. But there are certain very delicate flavors you want to add at the end. It's really a question of what you're after. If putting all three options together worked for you, then try it again.
Our last question this week comes from Anton, who wants to own his own brewery someday. Don't do it, man. It's terrible, as I say almost every episode. But if you're really committed to it, he has a great question. Before he owns one, he wants to work at one. But he's had this issue that no one wants to hire him because they're all looking for someone with experience, which is like the old joke. But breweries are a particularly bad industry for that. You don't want to hire a brewer who's never brewed anything, no matter how many medals they've won in homebrew competitions. And he wants to know how to convince a brewery, meadery, or cidery to hire him. He also did add that he's not planning on relocating his family to Vermont just so he can work for me, though, I don't know, man.
The answer is there is no easy solution. A lot of our hires are what we call off the bench, regular customers who have been there long enough. We've had a couple people submit job applications, and they've been a really good fit for the company. We have an internship program, and we often hire people out of internships. But I want to tell you about the best hire we ever made. I didn't know this term until it happened. It's called the Minnesota job interview. And we had this chef that was working at the meat hall for another event, he did not work for us. And he wanted me to show up at 7:00 am to let him in, and then go home and come back at 4:30 when I needed to pour drinks for the event. I was like, heck, no, but you can have a key.
So, I gave him a key to the front door [that's the kind of meadmaker I am]. And after about two weeks after the end of the event, he said so, do I work for you now or do you want the key back? And he works for me now. That's a Minnesota job interview and it is one complicated way to get a job at a meadery. That was our last question. Keep sending your questions and I will get to them as soon as possible. Cheers.
