In which Ricky the Meadmaker answers questions about bottling strains, citric acid, coffeamels, adding hops to mead, unique fruits, and more!
Keep sending your questions. I'll get to them as soon as possible. Cheers. That seems wrong.
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. The first question this week is a great one from David that I haven't answered yet somehow, which is a good way to start off an episode. You wouldn't want me to start off with a terrible question that I have already answered. Anyway, this question is about adding a bottling strain of yeast. He's been using D47 in his meads. I mentioned in the past that it can, under certain circumstances, give you sort of an eggy flavor when you're naturally carbonating, as in using the yeast with a little bit of extra sugar to provide the bubbles in the batch. So, he wanted to know, should he sulfite? Kill that yeast, and then put in a bottling strain that's clean, like champagne or USO5. And the answer is no need. In the case of champagne, for sure, it will be the stronger, faster fermenting of the two strains. So, if you add a little bit of a bottling strain after you've completed fermentation, add your priming sugar, the stuff that gives it the bubbles, I really wouldn't worry about sulfiting.
Our next question is a good question, but the problem is I don't have a good answer. It comes from William and he wants to know about using citric acid in mead. Have I used it? How much have I used? How much per gallon? The problem is using citric acid in mead is highly dependent on a lot of variables. Number one, what kind of honey are you using? How much honey? What profile are you going for? Do you want a tart, bright mead? Are you just trying to make something mellow that isn't flaccid? Is citric acid better because it's a single acid, than an acid blend, which can give you a little more complexity? What about your yeast strain? Are you going to make it so acidic that the yeast doesn't want to function? Or is that yeast going to make its own acids? So yes, citric acid can be used to brighten up a mead, a complicated term that isn't very well defined. It just makes it taste better. But how much? When to add? That's really personal preference. The cool thing about citric acid, unlike most other things you add to mead, is you can brew up the batch, taste it, if you don't like it, you can put it in then.
Our friend Matthew made a coffeemel, which is exactly what it sounds like. It's a mead made with coffee. The problem is he made a cold brew, he added it to the batch, and now the coffee flavor is way too potent. He says it's undrinkable, and he wants to know before carbonating it, will that flavor mellow with time? The good news is yes, very, very slightly. The reason that's good news is find someone who really likes coffee and getting intoxicated at the same time. These people exist. You've made a brilliant product, Matthew.
Jack is making a mead with hops in it and he wants to know what temperature can he use to extract the bitterness which is known as isomerization of alpha acids from the hops without ruining his flavor and aroma from the honey? And the answer is no such temperature exists. Isomerization happens above 190˚F, which is a different temperature centigrade. But honey starts losing its flavors and aromas at like 135˚F, which is also a different temperature centigrade. So, there really is no point at which you can be boiling your hops for that isomerization and maintaining all the honey flavor and aroma. Now, we do have lots of arguments on our website for and against boiling.
But here's what I would recommend doing. Make your mead, mix it up at whatever temperature you normally do, then make a tea with the hops. Go ahead and boil them. Cool it and add that tea. Our last questions this week come from John. The first one is, "Ricky, you've mentioned that you have a very quick brewing process. Could you perhaps give me some advice on how to speed up the pipeline at my own home brewing facility?" And the answer is yes, it's called my entire website. Go to groennfell.com. Watch these episodes. I can give you lots of information and have. The second question is do I have any information on getting cool fruits imported into the United States? There's this place that I went the other day that had all sorts of cool fruits. And it was the grocery store. There were, like, all these things that I had never seen before and I live in rural Vermont. So, if your local grocery store doesn't have cool enough fruits for you, that you think to yourself, I need to be importing special things, go to an Asian market or anywhere. America has a lot to offer.
That's our last question this week. I just need to send it over to Ricky with our Word of the Week. Ricky? Thank you, Ricky. This week's word is rhodomel. A rhodomel is a mead made out of roses or rose hips. It's more popular in Scandinavia where they still drink things like rose hip tea, but I think they drink that in the Midwest. So, maybe it's popular there. I should have looked that up. Rhodomel. This week's word and the end of our show.
Keep sending your questions. I'll get to them as soon as possible. Cheers.
